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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Adam Robertson

Jordan Peterson launches attack on Scottish Greens over National column

RIGHT-WING professor Jordan Peterson has said Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater is “toxically feminine” in response to an article she wrote for The National.

In her column published on Friday, Slater said that the First Minister was targeted “in the very cruel and misogynistic way that women so often are”.

“So many wonderful women have told me that they look in horror at the abuse and the way that women in the public eye are treated and have concluded that it’s not for them”, she wrote.

Peterson, who was previously suspended from Twitter after saying transgender actor Elliot Page “had her breasts removed by a criminal physician”, labelled Slater “toxically feminine”.

The professor re-tweeted the article which was titled “Nicola Sturgeon was a rest from power’s usual toxic masculinity” and said: “Precisely what someone toxically feminine would claim and retweet @lornaslater.”

The Canadian academic and psychologist has a large US following as a conservative media personality and author.

He recently weighed in on the debate surrounding Scotland’s gender legislation when he retweeted a post from JK Rowling.

The Harry Potter author had written: “I don’t know about you but excluding women from women’s prisons just because they’ve got penises, male pattern baldness and have committed a couple of rapes seems awfully TERFy to me.”

Peterson added: “The internal contradictions in the implicit narrative are beginning to produce cracks – not least in the Scottish leader’s psyche (note derisive desperate giggle).”

He also shared an opinion piece which blamed the “trans prisoner fiasco” entirely on Nicola Sturgeon.

The academic also found himself at the centre of controversy following an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time.

The outrage focused on the discussion around the experiences of racism described to MPs by former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq.

When talking about the issue, Peterson twice used “air quotes” around the word “racism” – a choice which was questioned by Stephen Flynn at the time.

Peterson said: “Racism is a global and vague term” before adding that he did not believe discussions around structural or institutional racism were “helpful”.

“That does not mean ‘racism’ doesn’t exist”, again using quotes around the word.

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