‘Pronoun prof’ gets hero’s welcome at Western U
L ONDON, ONT. • Driven from McMaster University in Hamilton by an angry mob just the day before, an outspoken professor on the front line in the battle against political correctness was welcomed like a rock star over the weekend at Western University.
Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto psychology professor who’s drawn controversy for refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns, saw his hour-long address at Western interrupted only by bursts of applause from the more than 700 people who packed into the school’s natural sciences building to hear him. His speech ended with a standing ovation.
The pronoun issue itself had little focus during the talk, with Peterson making broader references to gender issues, from physical strength to women’s nervous systems and how they’re tilted “hard” to “excessive emotionality” to protect children.
He said women hit men more than women suffer violence at the hands of men, but men’s greater “upper body strength” means only they pose a threat.
He took on Bill C-16, proposed federal legislation to add gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds for discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act, saying it’s full of “false claims.”
The legislation would also amend the Criminal Code to make gender identity or expression a factor to consider in sentencing for hate propaganda.
Peterson didn’t spare universities, either, calling them “playhouses” where students are taught to “bray” in protest and taught “soulless nonsense.”
Afterward, he was mobbed outside for selfies from the adoring crowd, mostly young men, more than a few sporting Donald Trump-style hats declaring Make America Great Again.
Peterson told the crowd portrayals of him as a transphobe are “absurd,” and that he has support among trans people not represented by activists and protesters.
Julien Bondy from McMaster University came to see Peterson in London after Peterson’s Hamilton talk was cut short by protesters.
The speech by Peterson, who’s become the darling of the political right based on his free speech mantra, was surprisingly “centrist,” he said. “You see a lot of Trump hats in there, but it was not really about the right or left, but the centre.”
Tylar Ingles, 23, of Sarnia, attended the event. Transitioning from woman to man, he came to London on Saturday to protest against Peterson, who refers to individuals as he or she — not they.
“I was ready to disapprove of him, but pretty much everything he said I agreed with,” said Ingles. “Everything he said was well thought out. I am female- tomale transgender, I have spoken to people about him and people are really against him.”
He found him more “inclusive” than he expected. “He’s right, it is very much the individual,” he said.