Comments by "Sandy Clarke" (@sandyclarke6685) on "JRE Clips"
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This guy isn't arguing that male/female isn't a biological fact; he's stating that the concept of what it means to be a man is conditioned - it's something we learn from a young age ("Stop crying - you're not a girl!"; "Boys don't wear pink", etc.) It's telling that many of the comments on here don't actually engage with the argument (that we're heavily conditioned through socialisation) but attack the guy personally or comment on his appearance. Children don't know what it means to be a man or a woman - much of these things are learned/conditioned. Does that mean a child doesn't have inherent preferences/orientations/personalities? No. They're not blank slates. But they're not born fully-developed and socialised, either.
An example of how we're socialised is found in sexual orientation. If I were to say (about a child) that they might grow up to marry someone of the same-sex, a ton of people would jump all over that with predictable comments. But young girls are given baby dolls and told they'll "grow up to marry a prince" and we think nothing of it. Why? Because we're socialised to believe and presume certain things about male and female babies from the start that might or might not be true, but so long as it fits the construct, it's fine. No-one blinks at the idea of assuming a young girl will grow up to have babies (presumed heterosexuality = good), but a single mention of the fact that there are LGBTQ children (sexual orientation, like personality, is fixed -and yes, you can behave differently to your orientation; it still doesn't change it) and again the predictable comments will come.
So, yes, most people are born biologically male/female (cue: "Most?! Lol" comments, demonstrating perfectly the point about socialisation), but the concept of what it means to be "a man" or "a woman" is defined and learned according to perspectives of the times. That's what this guy is arguing.
(I should say I'm not a huge fan of postmodernism - it can take things too far. Foucault made some valid points but he was a cult figure who was treated as if his words were infallible. Same can be said of Peterson - his 12 Rules contain some great food for thought, but be careful of the cult mindset - it can lead us to practise exactly what we criticise. Peterson's point about needing to stay away from any extremes is spot on.)
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