Pitt anthropology students should demand a refund of their tuition
Christopher Tremoglie
Pretty much every elementary, middle, or high school student who has ever taken a social studies class knows that there are distinguishable differences between male and female skeletons. It’s one of the first things students learn in anthropology. Anthropologists have used this fact to determine the gender of human remains for years, decades, if not centuries. And the gender of a skeleton can matter in more than one respect. In one high-profile case, it was male sex chromosomes, which no woman has, that identified the remains of King Richard III.
Yet, Gabby Yearwood, an anthropology professor at the University of Pittsburgh, did not know this basic fact about his field.
During the question and answer period at a speaking engagement last week, former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines asked Yearwood whether scientists could differentiate between man and woman based on skeletons hundreds of years old. Yearwood incredibly replied with “No,” which drew laughter from the audience and the former swimming champion.
“The man just discredited himself,” Gaines could be heard saying after Yearwood’s response.
I suspect that Yearwood didn’t want to concede to Gaines that men are different from women in any way, even in ways that his own field of science relies upon, because that would support her claims about why male athletes have a biological advantage over women. That’s to be somewhat expected, albeit odd, given the rabid fanaticism that comprises transgender activism. Even more bizarre was Yearwood’s doubling down and “trans”-plaining his answer.
“I’m just curious as to why I’m being laughed at?” Yearwood asked after declaring himself the expert in the room. “Have any of you been to anthropological sites? Have any of you studied biological anthropology? I’m just saying, I’ve got over 150 years of data. I’m just curious as to why I’m being laughed at.”
They clearly don’t make experts like they used to.
I am not sure about Gaines, but I have actually been to an anthropological site. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, I studied at its Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. This doesn’t make me an authority on the subject. However, the experts who taught me said that bones reveal a skeleton’s gender. And, given the widespread international prestige of the museum, the scientists who work there, and every other bit of historical information about archaeology and anthropology, I am more inclined to believe them than some radical, agenda-driven professor who would discredit his entire field of study in order to avoid conceding an obvious point in a discussion about the transgender fad.
On college campuses, students expect their professors to know their areas, especially when they have doctorates. Left-wing radical teachers such as Yearwood want these students to think a particular way so that they will vote a certain way, even if that means distorting truth and manipulating reality.
What does this mean for the students at the University of Pittsburgh? They pay tens of thousands of dollars in tuition to be honestly educated on the subjects they study. They shouldn’t have to suffer through Yearwood’s “trans”-plaining and brainwashing. That’s not what college tuition is for — especially in a science class, for crying out loud.
Over the last few years, the Left emphasized we were to “trust the science,” not be corrupted by it. Yearwood’s students should demand a refund.
Like many left-wing professors today, Yearwood is an indoctrinator, not an educator. He abused his authority and violated the trust between himself and people who paid through the nose to learn from him and deserve better than what they’re getting.