This post, which contains solely my views on Jordan Peterson’s “Not beautiful” comment on Yumi Nu in one of his Twitter posts in 2021 rather than my thoughts about “social media training,” is indeed long overdue. However, I did not have a blog then, and no media outlet was willing to accept my pitch. Given that he was recently ordered by a Canadian court to undergo social media training, I reckoned that it’s about time I wrote about him.
Since his Twitter post went viral, countless responses have appeared on various forums most of which are, as one might expect, driven by simplistic perspectives, e.g. it is unkind to call a seemingly overweight woman “not beautiful”; “the woman is not overweight: she is only big and I found her hot!”; “beauty standards are subjective: who is he to judge?”
I do think Twitter/X is not a proper forum for expressing complex ideas or nuanced opinions. They are short as the platform sets a word limit for each post. While one can follow up the initial posts with more posts, most readers may not bother to keep reading. The first post therefore may be taken out of context.
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I do not serve on Peterson’s PR team–I do not know him and I am not even a fan of his. I interpret his tweet to mean that the woman was not healthy-looking and the magazine was wrong in trying to push its excessively PC narrative on its readers, or to cater to the excessively PC crowd, or both–a narrative according to which people of all body types are healthy, including overweight ones. This attempt itself is authoritarian and is like saying 2+2=5.
If my interpretation is correct, than Peterson should have used the word “healthy” rather than “beautiful” to avoid misunderstanding. Indeed, all healthy bodies can be said to be “beautiful” depending on your understanding of the word. A different word choice would likely have irked many readers, who believe that the woman is both beautiful and healthy. “She is not obese,” they claim, “just a little chubby, a little on the heavy side.”
Not that many responses interpret his tweet the way I do. Far fewer than I expected. It is rather saddening to see that many call this an act of bullying. While it is appropriate to critique the PC culture, it is not exactly a nice thing to say “not beautiful,” because it reasonably would lead to misunderstanding. But no, it is not bullying at all.
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Part of me says that Peterson’s tweet was unkind due to its imprecision, assuming that it was meant to critique the excessively PC culture and not an attack on the seemingly overweight model. Part of me, however, found the woman too thin-skinned, for lack of a better word. By becoming a model, she voluntarily put herself in a position to be criticized for her body shape and to receive unkind–and often unfair–criticisms. Is it morally right to attack? No. If I were the woman who consented to appear on the magazine cover, I would reasonably expect to be receive negative comments, some of which would be less than moral and less than well-intended. If I were indeed overweight, I would address it. If I were not, then I would not have cared.
Calling a woman model “not beautiful,” even if it is meant to mean “not physically beautiful,” is not bullying. Calling a female colleague or classmate “not beautiful” might well be. From a female perspective, it is. Imagine being stuck in a workplace or school, where a male colleague/classmate attacks you harshly for something that you cannot change and is completely irrelevant. Dishing out this completely unnecessary comment is bullying–even if it happens only once.
Peterson is not the model’s colleague or classmate. They are not related at all. The woman posting a long response to fight back shows that she was truly bothered by negative comments. She could have just shrugged and moved on. She did not know him. Why should any public figure expect to receive positive feedback, not lest from a random stranger, all the time?
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What does female empowerment really mean? It means taking pride in oneself without caring too much about what others think, especially if their opinions do not matter and would not have real impact one’s life and career. If we go by this definition, Yumi Nu does not seem truly empowered. She already has a huge following. If she is indeed unhealthy, she should use his remark to motivate herself to keep fit. If she is indeed healthy, she should not be bothered by a random nobody’s remark.
I had a close friend who went to college in Hong Kong. (This, alone, is rather unfortunate as the place is full of toxicity even back then!) She was presentable by any objective standard and was (is!) in my eyes rather good-looking (fit, slim, and feminine). At the orientation camp, a guy in her group said to her: “Someone told me there were any beauties in my group. There’s none. Ha!” This was no different from telling her that she (and others) was not pretty to her face. A reserved and humble person she was, my friend likely did not consider herself a real beauty. Nonetheless she clearly did not deserve this comment. It was not as if she was in a pageant or on the cover of some beauty magazine. The guy kept reiterating the same remark throughout the entire activity. She was hurt but chose to stay quiet and pretended to laugh it off, largely due to her superior upbringing (both of her parents were teachers and very decent people). As she observed, this guy (who was not even presentable by any objective standard, but that is beside the point) passed harsh judgments on almost all females, including celebrities. God knew what made him so entitled and arrogant, let alone mean and nasty. Well, although I don’t know Peterson, I dare to say that he would never have done such a thing, despite that he has been called a “misogynist” by many.
My friend turned down all post-camp activities due to the negative activities. Meanwhile she improved her look (e.g. stop wearing glasses), worked hard, and excelled in her studies. Later on, the guy tried to persuade her to join his group for a project. (Imagine the extent of his shamelessness!) She declined his request, despite not having joined any group by the time she was asked. By that time, she had got over the hurt feelings. Although she avoided any activities in which he was involved, whenever she saw him on campus, she smiled and nodded.
I thought I would have fought back (e.g. by telling him to look in the mirror before passing judgments on others) if I were my friend. Yet my friend’s approach was in fact superior: by avoiding the negative experiences and by maintaining her composure, she rose above the mean-spirited low-lives. She proved to be strong, smart, and beautiful.
You know you are smart, strong, and beautiful. You are well loved. Nothing else matters.
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Some comments regarding Peterson’s tweet said that a slightly overweight–or “plump” or “round” as they call it–model is much more preferable than a skinny–or “anorexic”–one. The level of immaturity, lack of self-awareness and self-righteousness of these people is shocking. And these people claim moral superiority to Peterson. What an irony! They remind me of the double standard of those who believe that it is acceptable to shame fit or thin people for their body sizes but unacceptable to do the same to overweight people. Unfortunately, the abundance of these comments do sometimes make me wonder if the world is beyond redemption.