A Response to Matthew Pinna: The Market Is Not Top-Down

“The mere fact that ‘girl’ scooters exist proves that girls tend to have different preferences than boys when making consumer decisions.”

In his recent article “Jordan Peterson, Women, and Who Really Makes 80% of Consumer Decisions,” Matthew Pinna claims that the 80% female consumer statistic Jordan Peterson invoked in the now-famous Cathy Newman interview is irrelevant to the discussion. In response to Newman saying “markets are dictated by men,” Peterson cites the statistic that 80% of buying decisions are, in fact, made by women. Pinna’s thoughts on this are as follows:

“The intent of her [Cathy Newman’s] assertion wasn’t to argue that men make the bulk of consumer decisions, but rather that men control the market as a whole. That is a significant distinction and warrants a completely different type of discussion.”

No, it does not. Peterson’s claim was predicated on the assumption that consumers dictate the market. So if 80% of consumer decisions are made by women, then women dictate the market. However, Pinna assumes the market is controlled in a top-down manner, so he does not see it from this perspective. The evidence he then provides to bolster his assumption is insufficient and rather arbitrary.

The following highlights Pinna’s faulty assumption again, when he states:

“But, even if women do indeed control a fair amount of consumer spending, it’s all taking place in a market orchestrated by men, opening the door for a potential mismatch in gender parity.”

This observation is, yet again, ill-conceived. Yes, if men make up the majority of senior management positions, they are responsible for key operating decisions. However, they certainly do not dictate demand—they respond to it. While they can dictate supply, this is irrelevant; since if there is no demand, whatever supply they have will not sell.