Giving his response. Author Jordan Peterson opened up after Olivia Wilde claimed that Chris Pine’s character in Don’t Worry Darling was inspired by him — and that he was a “hero” for the “incel” community.
“We based [Chris Pine’s] character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community. You know the incels?” Wilde, 38, said during an interview with Interview Magazine that was published on September 1. “They’re basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women.”
The Booksmart director went on to further claim that an “incel” is “someone that legitimizes certain aspects of their movement because he’s a former professor, he’s an author, he wears a suit, so they feel like this is a real philosophy that should be taken seriously.”
During a Friday, September 30, episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, host Piers Morgan asked the author, 60, whether he felt the accusations from Wilde were accurate, to which Peterson replied, “Sure, why not?” before labeling it a “low level” insult.
“You know, people have been after me for a long time because I’ve been speaking to disaffected young men. You know, what a terrible thing to do that is?” he told Morgan, 57, while getting emotional. “I thought the marginalized were supposed to have a voice. It’s very difficult to understand how demoralized people are, and certainly many young men are in that category.”
After Morgan questioned why he was holding back tears, however, Peterson said that he was upset over “how many people are dying for lack of an encouraging word” and “how easy it is to provide” that to those who need it.
“If you’re careful, you know, give credit where credit is due, and to say, you’re a net force for good if you wanna be,” the Canada native explained.
Peterson has made headlines over the years for his controversial opinions including openly criticizing the “Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code” — an act that would introduce “gender identity and expression” as a prohibited grounds of discrimination.
“What I said, at the beginning, was that I was not going to cede the linguistic territory to radical leftists regardless of whether or not it was put in law,” he told Cathy Newman during an interview with U.K.’s Channel 4 News in January 2018.
That same month, Peterson once again came under fire when he spoke against the #MeToo movement.
“You don’t want to confuse the action of some of the men with all of the men,” he told the National Post at the time. “It’s really important to get that distinction right, and we’re not getting that distinction right at all.”
On Friday, Peterson gave his own interpretation of the “incel” label, saying, “Well, these men, they don’t know how to make themselves attractive to women, who are very picky.”
He added, “And good for them — women, be picky. That’s your gift, man. Demand high standards from your men. Fair enough. But all these men who are alienated, they’re lonesome, and they don’t want to do, and everyone piles abuse on them.