Conservative Professor Jordan Peterson Is Bringing His Campaign Against Gender Fluidity to Portland

The YouTuber, author and motivational speaker who advocates for upholding traditional gender norms will give a talk at the Keller next month.

A standoff between protesters and counter-protesters at a Hillary Clinton visit to Portland in December 2017. (Joe Michael Riedl)
By Shannon Gormley

Jordan Peterson, one of the most prominent figureheads of the right-wing backlash against gender fluidity, is coming to Portland.

Peterson is a psychology professor turned YouTube phenomenon who has published two books, including this year's 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which has sold over 1 million copies.

(Wiki Commons)

At the basis of the philosophy is Peterson's belief is that gender is in fact binary, and that differences between men and women are due to biology, not social construction. He has often referred to "gender neutral" as a made-up and even harmful term. He was the first person to interview James Damore.

As part of his current book tour, he will give a talk at Keller Auditorium on June 25.

Peterson's visit is unlikely to occur without some rancor. In the past year, heated protests have erupted around similarly divisive figures: former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Damore, an engineer fired from Google for arguing the company's diversity efforts ignored biological differences.

His Portland talk has received little attention—perhaps because it was booked before a New York Times appeared last week highlighting his incendiary views on gender:

The article later quotes Peterson's retort to the belief that hetero-normative marriage can be repressive:

The description for Peterson Portland appearance on the Keller's website, taken from Peterson's website bio, presents a much different picture, choosing words like "revolutionary" over "controversial" and omitting any mention of gender politics:

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