The Daily Signal - BONUS | Fighting for Biology Against Woke Professors: Olivia Krulczyk

Episode Date: July 22, 2023

Olivia Krolczyk is a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, whose professor of women’s gender studies failed her for using the term “biological women.” Since exposing the professor’s political aggression, she has encouraged thousands of women to stand up and speak out. She joins Tony Kinnett at the Turning Point Action conference in Palm Beach, Florida to tell her story and make an announcement.  Enjoy this bonus episode of The daily Signal Podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a Daily Signal podcast bonus episode. I'm Tony Kennett. Olivia Krollcheck is a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, whose professor of women's gender studies failed her for using the term biological women. Since exposing the professor's political aggression, she has encouraged thousands of women to stand up and speak out. She joined me at the Turning Point Action Conference in Palm Beach, Florida, to tell us her story. Stay tuned for today's show after this. The Heritage Foundation is the most impactful, conservative policy organization in the country. Every semester, our interns are a vital part of that mission.

We pay competitively, we develop talent, and give our interns access to some of the sharpest political minds in the country. We are going on offense. Join us. To learn more about the Young Leaders Program here at the Heritage Foundation, please go to heritage.org slash young dash leaders' leaders dash program. Hi, I'm Tony Kenan with the Daily Signal here with Olivia Krollcheck, and you had a viral video. out of Ohio not too long ago that caused a bit of a stir. Tell us about it. Hi, yes. Thank you so much for having me today. I was failed for saying biological woman in a paper in my women's gender studies and pop culture class at UC. And I was told that I was contributing to heteronormativity and was

exclusionary. So, so wait a second here. So you simply tried to define a biological trait. You were even kind of like playing by the rules here by not just saying women in general. You said a biological woman and you still got slapped for it. Correct. Yes. And I don't think that biological in front of women is exclusionary, or it is exclusionary in the same way that transgender in front of women is exclusionary of real women. Right. So when your professor talked about this, because I deal with people in education like this all the time, did they address it with you calmly and say, hey, you know, I kind of disagree. What was your thinking behind this? Or did you just kind to get slapped right out of the gate by the professor? No, I was immediately failed. Zero. Failed?

A zero on the paper. I saw my grade tank, and that's what made me look at my grade because I was confused why I failed in assignment. Right. Yeah. So did the professor give you an opportunity? to kind of make it up if you parroted her political viewpoint? My professor said to focus on women's rights, not females, and she would re-grade. That, which means something. It's an ambiguous term to hit. Exactly.

So when I was fired from Indianapolis for exposing critical race theory, I had a lot of parents, a lot of fellow teachers that started reaching out to me and saying, hey, there's this going on inside of this public school, can you give me some advice, you know, these things are going on with these students, Have you heard from other college students since this video has gone out that have been saying, like,

I had no idea other people felt the way that I did and were also kind of getting persecuted like this? Oh, absolutely. It's actually incredible the amount of messages I get from fellow students who are actually in my school and schools across the country. I had a kid from my high school class contact me and say, I'm so glad that you're speaking up about this. At my college, I was also failed for talking about abortion. Which is incredible because some of the teachers that reached out to me and I'm going to take a wild guess, that some of the students and maybe professors who reached out to you weren't all, you know, supposedly white, conservative, died in the wool Republicans, you know, they were from various belief sets, they were from different backgrounds, and they simply were aggravated that they

weren't allowed to participate in their education or their careers without having to not only pair it, but be extremely supportive to carry the flag behind all of this crazy ideology stuff. And I guess the question that I ask is, how do those conversations normally end? Because the person reaches out and then we eventually took me like weeks to go through all of them as I'm sure it does for you all the time Those conversations and do you feel as though the person is more encouraged Like they have kind of a broader network to reach out to or are they more despondent? It really depends on the student. I will say a lot of people are more encouraged. They say thank you so much I am inspired to you know voice my opinion rather than conform to the teacher's belief just to you know get the good grade because if you're spending so much money on a class you don't want to fail. It's not worth it's not worth your time and money.

So this is something that Ben Shapiro used to say about being in college, and he would say, kind of pair at the leftist political beliefs, or, you know, however you can to get the degree. And then when you get out, into the real worlds, you know, go to war. I disagree. But professors have made it so hard to even do that because it's like they smell individual liberties or they smell, you know, traditional views on biology in the water and they come out you like a shark. Yeah. So for those who might be looking at this, who are nervous about getting that bad grade, do you think that that, you think that that. that they should just kind of play the game or they should come out swinging. No, I disagree with Ben Shapiro on that.

That's something I very strongly disagree because I feel guilty and I'm ashamed to say that I have conformed in the past. And now I'm realizing we are just playing into it. We are just as bad as those who are actually pushing the ideology. Do you think it's like enabling those who are pushing the ideology when you kind of play along? You have to say something. Because I think that they're, when you allow,

when you kind of play along, because they never play along with the other side of the aisle, It kind of gives them this sense of security that they are the default opinion. What they're saying is correct and that nothing else is even feasible. They don't even have to think about how there might be multiple perspectives because if you're willing to be quiet, then what they're saying asks to be right. And you know what? In schools, it's not even about whose perspective is correct.

It's about being able to grade a paper unbiased. That's what professors should be doing. And you're actually supposed to take differing ideals and weigh them against each other and determine objectively what is more profitable. in each idea. And then subjectively, why individuals would uphold those ideals. Correct. See this is the Republican Party right now.

So you see like traditional conservatives, more neo-conservative warhawks and your libertarians kind of arguing with each other over where the Republican Party should go. And that's a good thing, right? In your class in women's studies, arguing about what it means to define women's rights and how those have been benefited and how those have suffered detrimental effects

over the last hundred years might be a good thing to discuss. for the next hundred years of women's rights. For sure, yeah. And obviously I wrote my paper on the rights and opportunities of women throughout time in sports. And that's very important topic to me. And I started from the beginning of time where people were fighting just to have an own Olympics, to be able to get funding from schools to participate in sports

and have their own category. And so obviously part of my project touched on the fact that men are in biological women's sports and taking all of these away. So kind of to wrap things down here, I know that obviously Riley Gaines has been in the news a lot. And I believe, if I'm correct, you told me before the interview that the Leadership Institute might be sending you around to do this work of kind of championing women's sports. Correct, yes. I'm very excited to hopefully get to voice my opinion and talk about the suppression of free speech on campuses. And I feel I have a unique stance because I was suppressed in my school.

And I also spoke about why men should not be in women's sports. So those are very two important topics. And I should be able to write about Riley Gaines in a paper and not fail for it. Absolutely. And not just, you know, criticizing her. either because I'm going to take a wild guess that if you criticize Riley Gaines in that paper. Then I'd probably get an A. You'd probably get extra credit.

Yeah, exactly. Moving things forward here, do you think that you see a lot more activists for traditional women's rights in having their own sports and kind of being revered and respected as a biological gender kind of in the world moving forward? I think people are getting fed up. I think a lot of people are getting fed up because women are being injured. There's high school girls being injured in volleyball games. I mean, when do we draw the line?

So students, moms, teachers, professors, whoever out there who is currently fed up with this stuff. What's the first step? What do they need to do to start changing things around them? It sounds so simple, but just say something. Tell someone. I have learned that even just telling social media, there are hundreds of people who will support you. You have support out there. Even if it's one person, there's better than nothing.

You have to get your opinion out there. Olivia Krollcheck, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our evening show right here in this podcast feed, where we bring you the top news of the day. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcasts and help us reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read all of your feedback.

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