A few weeks ago, a firestorm blazed across social media, focusing on the outfits worn to school by an elementary school teacher in Atlanta, Georgia. She’s been nicknamed “TeacherBae” but her name is Patrice “Tricey” Brown and she teaches fourth grade at a public elementary school.
She’s been scrutinized online for her outfit choices at school, which she occasionally posts on her personal Instagram page. In all of the photos, Ms. Brown is shown in dresses, shirts, skirts, and pants that completely cover her cleavage, upper legs, and shoulders. Yet hundreds of people have commented that her attire is too sexy and inappropriate for a school setting. Now obviously the term “sexy” itself is extremely subjective, but anyone with some basic common sense can see that her outfits are completely appropriate for the workplace. What society is actually judging her on is her body itself. Ms. Brown is what most would consider, “curvy” and/or “thick”. This body type, although often given praise, is unfortunately associated with provocativeness and is oversexualized.
This is certainly not the first time that a woman has had to go under public scrutiny for how she chooses to dress for work. But in most all cases, the problem isn’t the woman’s clothes, it’s their bodies. All those who share this view are essentially saying that Patrice’s body is inappropriate, and that she needs to cover it up completely in order to shield us from it. This type of thinking, and outright body shaming, is what is holding our society back in terms of gender equality and fairness.
Many people online were also arguing that there is a double standard here as well. It’d be hard to imagine that a woman with a less curvaceous figure wearing the exact same, or similar outfit, would be looked at and criticized in the same way. Patrice Brown herself spoke out about all of this, she told the Daily Dot, “I just wish they would respect me and focus on the positive and what truly matters—which is educating the children of the future generations and providing and caring for them.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.