Author and media personality Jordan Peterson got emotional when he commented on Olivia Wilderecent comments about him.
Peterson visited Piers Morgan uncensored on Wednesday, where host Piers Morgan asked if Wilde had told me Interview magazine that Chris Pinethe mean character in her movie don’t worry baby is based on Peterson. In her interview, published online earlier this month, Wilde Peterson called “this insane man” who is a “pseudo-intellectual hero of the incel community,” referring to men who identify as involuntary celibate and who are known to exhibit negativity toward expressing women on platforms including Reddit.
After Morgan asked if it’s fair to describe Peterson as a hero to men who are “despicable in many ways,” the guest replied, “Sure, why not. People have been after me for a long time because I’ve talked to disgruntled young men – what a terrible thing to do, it is.” After a long pause during which his eyes seemed to well up with tears, Peterson said: “I thought that the marginalized were supposed to have a voice.”
He continued: ‘It is very difficult to understand how demoralized people are, and certainly many young men fall into that category. And you get these casual insults: “These incels.” What does that mean? These men don’t know how to make themselves attractive to women, who are very picky. And good for them – women, be picky. That’s your gift, man. Demand high standards from your men. Reasonable. But all these men who are estranged, they are lonely, and they don’t want to do it, and everyone is piling abuse on them.”
During her previous sit-down with Maggie Gyllenhaal for InterviewWilde said that incels are “disenfranchised, mostly white men, who think they have a right to have sex from women.” She added that Peterson is “someone who legitimizes certain aspects of their movement because he’s a former professor, he’s an author, he wears a suit, so they think this is a real philosophy that should be taken seriously. “
Peterson went on to tell Morgan that he wasn’t really bothered by Wilde’s comments. “In terms of criticism, that was a little low,” he said. “When Olivia Wilde made those comments, the first thing I did was watch the preview of her movie, which I thought was pretty good. I thought I was going to see that movie, probably, and maybe I will. It didn’t really bother me.”
As for the inspiration for Pine’s role as Frank in the… much talked about movie which also stars Harry Styles and Florence Pugh, Peterson joked: “He’s a very handsome man, and that seems all right.”