It feels really funny saying this as, like,
a 'Guardian journalist'.
We're just aware of the stereotypes.
Half Muslim, half white,
young and millennial,
gone off here to do
a Jordan Peterson video
and I'm like,
it's not what you think!
Women know what they have to do.
Men have to figure
out what they have to do.
And if they have nothing worth living for,
then they stay Peter Pan
and why the hell not?
Is modern masculinity in crisis?
As a journalist,
I've covered many different stories
from terrorism to football, to knife crime
and in doing so, I often find myself
in male-dominated spaces.
I've seen that there are many issues
affecting men today,
that we're not properly focusing on
and I want to do more to address these.
You've got a lot
of men who have no idea who they are,
none whatsoever.
As soon as you mention men and masculinity online,
the discussion becomes extremely partisan
and really polarised.
Post MeToo, it's even harder to
talk about these things
but more necessary than ever.
I'm not saying we're going to get all of the answers
to the big questions in this series,
I just want to open up the debate
to some new voices.
We did a callout to our readers, asking
them what they thought we should cover
and their answers were very telling.
'I think that normal emotions such as anger and frustration aren't considered normal by many people.'
'Do we all have a right
to express solidarity with our gender?'
'MeToo has blurred the lines
between genuine romantic approach vs harassment.
'Where is the line?'
'Where are the real options
for mental health support?'
'Do not begin the conversation
with a finger-wagging lecture …'
That doesn't sound very Guardian.
'… this will immediately alienate a huge chunk
of the intended audience
'and you're immediately back to square one.'
I do think that's a fair point,
I am laughing …
Just because he told me not to start
with a finger-wagging lecture
and it sounded like a finger-wagging lecture.
So …
I'm starting this series at the sharp
end of the debate,
looking at the people who are following one of the most
popular thinkers and polemicists of our time:
Jordan Peterson.
In what sense is our society male-dominated?
Now, Peterson is an interesting character 
in his own right.
He's written a book, 12 Rules for Life,
which has been a bestseller around the world
and his videos often go viral online,
especially when he's being interviewed
by female journalists.
But that's not what I want to focus on today,
I want to look at why Jordan Peterson is
so popular and what it is about his message
that has resonated with so many people
The west has lost faith in the idea of masculinity.
That's no different
than the death of God.
It's the same thing.
Peterson's outspoken views on things like
gender pronouns
and the role of men and
women in society have sparked huge debate
but there's more to his message.
He does a lot of work around philosophy and religion and the idea of responsibility and purpose for people.
This is interesting because in a way,
it's a form of self-help or life guidance.
And his audience is
predominantly made up of men.
I can't imagine I was the only woman
who was kind of wondering, what's going on?
I've come today because he's very, very provocative
and then I know there's lots of things I won't agree.
He has a question and I like
the way he thinks about the question.
I don't agree with most of his views
but I like the fact that he's got all these opinions.
And he's got an opinion.
His messages are different,
he has talked about the meaning of responsibility
which no one else is talking about.
I think women should have opportunities 
and I don't believe he thinks any differently.
Where would you say are your political leanings?
I'd very happily vote for Jeremy Corbyn.
I'm broadly a socialist.
Culturally, I've been bought as a lefty, marxist.
I'm not expecting to learn new stuff tonight,
I am expecting to say, well thank you,
I appreciate what you've put …
And say, yes big man Jordan, yes!
Well done.
OK.
So, I am in the auditorium now
with Bruno and Noah.
It's pretty full and I'm kind of surprised at just
how many women there are.
So I'm looking to see if any of them
will ask any questions.
Unfortunately, we can't film in
here whilst he's speaking
and it's about to begin.
12 Rules for Life tour.
Peterson only touched on masculinity but
spoke at length about gender and hierarchies.
In many ways, the most interesting moment
was the cheer he got
when he pointed out how he was unwilling
to bow to political correctness.
This is a really big deal for his audience.
I think a lot of people have really ... in society now we're almost too PC.
and the way that we think about things.
He's absolutely challenging what …
particularly Guardian readers,
I should think, a lot of what they think and say.
He expresses his ideas without any
worry about whether he's PC or not
and that's refreshing.
So political correctness is a really
important point for our readers as well.
In the callout that we did,
many of them expressed their concern
at not being able to say what they really 
think around issues like MeToo
because they feel like they're not going
to be listened to.
There is a bit of a witch hunt happening.
As a woman and as a millennial,
and a minority who's written about identity issues,
I think there would be a preconception that I firmly
sit in a camp of political correctness
but that's not strictly true.
I feel like we need to have uncomfortable
conversations if things are going to move forwards
and the most important thing
for me in a conversation is truth.
So truth always trumps political
correctness with me
but you have to couple that with respect 
and listening to people
and these are all things which
go completely out of the window when
we're having conversations on Twitter
for example.
Now, there are other caveats.
For example, you can't incite racial
hatred or violence
but Jordan Peterson
doesn't do that in what he says.
He is provocative
but he creates a space where
there's dialogue, debate, discussion and
that's really why he's popular with his audience.
And do you think we have a crisis
with masculinity?
Yeah, I think there is.
I think that there has been a feminisation of masculinity for a long time now.
at least as long as eight years.
What do you mean by feminisation
of masculinity?
I think what's been seen as traditional masculine traits, so the show of strength, has been discouraged,
So I think there's been an outpouring of the …
to embrace everything so much
that the essential traits of masculinity
just become forgotten.
I think also the crisis of masculinity
isn't just down to …
Well, the feminist movement, which I
think Peterson would say it is largely.
It's also down to the abundance of lad 
culture which has popped up.
to the abandonment of responsibility to that essence
when masculinity is defined mainly by 
how much you can drink,
how many drugs you can take,
how many women you've slept with …
And that has come about because of lad culture.
So I think it's a crisis
just from that respect as well.
How man define themselves.
So this was a really interesting place for
me personally to start the debate
because I've had some of my own
preconceptions challenged
and really interesting conversations with people.
One person in particular
stood out, Neil,
not just because of his face tattoos but
because of what he was saying
about Jordan Peterson's message.
Neil owns a bunch of barber shops
in the north of England,
and I decided to continue the discussion 
with him in one of his barber shops in Leeds.
Like, comment
and subscribe to our channels
so you can catch up
with the next episode
and let us know what you think
we should be covering.
There's always a stigma that men
can't be vulnerable and men can't have emotions
or men can't cry.
Throughout the series,
we're going to hear from lots of different voices,
including some famous faces.
Men tend to make up
their minds pretty quickly
and then act on it.
Women are much more subtle.
When I see my friends,
especially when approaching a woman,
and they turn on this certain amount of bravado,
it's like, that isn't you.
When we are talking
about role models for kids,
be careful that in 40 years time
you're not telling them, 'No that's wrong now',
or 30 years time.
We're giving them role models now
what we think is a good role model
and then suddenly, 'No, no, no,
'we don't believe that any more,
we don't do that.'
I feel like masculinity is
misinterpreted these days
and people just go for stereotypes
as in strength and protection.
Being a man and being masculine
is being able to be caring
and have self-awareness of the people around you
and the world around you as well.
There comes a point
and I think we've gone way past this point now
where your feelings and your emotions become counterproductive to you making progress.
