Woke to the Bones? Pittsburgh Prof Denies Differences Between Male and Female Skeletons

The abrupt “No” drew guffaws of laughter from the audience at the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Gabby Yearwood, an anthropologist, was responding to a question posed by one Riley Gaines, a former female collegiate swimmer and outspoken defender of the sex binary. Gaines asked, “If you were to dig up a human – two humans – a hundred years from now, both a man and a woman, could you tell the difference strictly off of bones?”

It is unclear when the video was shot, but the tweet that sent it viral has now been viewed more than 1.4 million times. A variety of commentators have chimed in, many of them challenging Yearwood for the refusal to acknowledge biological sex differences and a lack of nuance. Some criticised the academic for making claims of credentialism to silence opposition. At one point during the video, the lecturer in the Department of Anthropology declared, “I have a PhD!”

The New York Post has the story.

“This is how far removed the Left is from reality that they must deny basic scientific facts,” tweeted the Independent Women’s Forum, a non-profit focused on economic policy issues.

“When the self-proclaimed “expert in the room” is offended that his assertion that males & females don’t have distinct skeletal differences is laughable, one might wonder what students studying anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh are being taught by their professors,” the group added.

Dr. Aisha El Ait Mohr tweeted, “That professor should resign immediately” – while another critic blasted, “back to school for that professor.”

Archeologists rely heavily on pelvis shape to determine the sex of a skeleton along with the general assumption that larger traits are male, including skulls and sizable areas where muscles attach to bone.

But archeologists have admitted mistakes in overlooking intersex individuals, along with small-statured men or large-statured women, according to Discover Magazine and other experts. …

On Friday, some observers argued it may take more information than bones to accurately identify gender.

“Sex encompasses the sum of different biological attributes, including sex chromosomes, certain genes, gametes, sex hormone levels, internal and external genitalia, other secondary sex characteristics, brain neurology and gender,” said one Twitter user wrote.

“Those attributes are not always aligned.”

Worth reading in full.