A college history student explained how her professor’s “tone,” when grading her assignments, changed after she disclosed that she is a woman.
According to the Independent, Devon, who is known by the username @friedpicklegirl28 on TikTok, shared a video showing the change in responses from last week to this week’s assignment.
The clip begins with screenshots of the responses she received when her history professor mistook her for a man saying the answers in the assignment she submitted were satisfactory and therefore earned As.
“Valid contribution and comment, Mr. DeCurtis,” the (initial) remark from the Professor in a screenshot shared by the TikToker who was given a score of 93 out of 100.
“The C’s are questions historians ask to analyze a source.” the Professor added.
On a second screenshot, which still displayed Mr DeCurtis as the TikToker, Devon was told by her professor that she had provided a “sufficient contribution and comment,” and had received a 92 out of 100.
“Good work, Mr DeCurtis, the post is well-written and meets all the requirements,” the third screenshot shows that Devon received 94 points.
In a caption, the TikToker said: “History professor’s comments when they thought I was a guy.”
After Devon informed her professor that she was a woman, the video moved onto screenshots of the professor’s responses to her work, in which he gave her a B.
“Once I correct him lol,” Devon wrote in a caption on the video and followed with a screenshot which shows an 85 / 100 grade and a lengthy explanation for why Devon’s answer was now “incorrect,” with her professor addressing her as “Ms DeCurtis”.
The screenshot below shows Devon receiving a paragraph from her professor about the errors in her assignment and the grade showing 85 out of 100. As well as criticizing TikToker’s response, the screenshot also showed her professor telling her not to use the “passive form”. “‘Jesus is seen.’ By whom?” the professor wrote.
Devon wrote in the caption next: “Should’ve kept my damn mouth shut.”
More than 1.3m views of Devon’s video have prompted a flurry of comments, many of which agree with her that the professor’s tone changed.
“The expectations for male students and expectations for female students are clearly not on the same playing field,” someone said, while another added:
“Regardless of if those answers were really wrong or not, there’s a clear change in the way he speaks to you.”
A person claimed the video showed Devon’s professor going “from ‘yes this is sufficient enough of an answer sir’ to ‘ma’am here’s all the ways you’re wrong,’” while one person claimed, “there’s no academic expectation for guys”.
“That’s so nice that they implemented the wage gap into the curriculum,” another person sarcastically added.
It was clarified by Devon that she is “not saying I’m a victim,” nor is she “saying it is unjust grading”. “I am just showing the difference in tone. Thanks,” she said.