The question about Jordan Peterson reminded me of his characterization of the masculine as order and the feminine as chaos. He offers a few reasons for doing so including the cross-cultural archetypes represented in the stories of Eve and Pandora where women bring chaos into the world and that chaos gives birth to order. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent two complimentary forces that interrelate and explain how the world works (yin represents the passive, darkness, chaos, the feminine, yang represents the active, light, order, the masculine and various other dualities).

Peterson argues for a similar balance: that chaos and order compliment each other, too much of either is a bad thing. He of course would think that our current society has tipped too far in the direction of chaos and that more order is needed.

Do you think all of this is just old-fashioned sexism and an attempt to justify the patriarchy (as some critics say) or do you think there’s some validity to the idea of the feminine and masculine complimenting each other, to chaos and order complimenting each other, etc.?

I realize this question is a little esoteric. I’m admittedly asking about something I don’t know that much about.

Topics: feminism, philosophy, women, men, symbols, dualism