An elementary school teacher aide in Georgia has sparked a Twitter debate over her choice of work attire. People were left wondering if this was a case of body shaming or not. The hashtag “teacherbae” started to trend after photos of Patrice Brown, a teaching aide for the Atlanta public school system, were posted on the internet. Brown was scrutinized by some for not having appropriate work attire, while others came to her defense.
While people disagreed with Brown’s choice of dress, others defended her and called her criticizers “body shamers”. Many people stated that of Patrice Brown had no curves at all and wore the same exact clothes, this conversation would not be taking place. Since she became popular Patrice’s Instagram grew to 212K followers. Even though now she has set it to private.
It was surprising to see many men defending Brown because men defending women on clothing choice seldom occurs. I was even more surprising to see women disagree with her attire. Although she was not fired, Patrice Brown was reprimanded by the principal of the school she works for.