In 2016, it easy to look back to see how far women have come, yet there are certain setbacks that you’d assume would be eliminated by this point in our history. In the month of September this year, a woman by the name Patrice Brown was the topic of social media conversation for days at time. Now you can imagine that seeing the name of a black woman trending it might be because the hands of the law killed her… but we’ll save that tea for later. This fourth grade teacher at a local school in Georgia was being discussed because of her “inappropriate” work attire.
From the centuries of black women being oversexualized for their natural body parts, we have not come too far. “Her dress is too short,” but it came to her knees, “She’s trying to be sexy,” for whom exactly? Patrice Brown is a naturally curvy woman and anything she wears her curves would show. This topic wouldn’t have even been up for discussion if a petite white woman were the one wearing it.
The most disturbing part is the misogyny surrounding the controversial pictures. A few months ago, a picture of a buff, male teacher from D.C. surfaced twitter and no one batted an eye. In fact, he was praised for this. What’s the difference between a male wearing a tight button up to show his natural muscles, and a woman wearing a below to knee dress when she has natural curves?
On Patrice’s Instagram, there was an image with the caption stating that she received the educator of the month award from her school, yet people still demeaned her with names like “Teacherbae” “ThickyTeacher”. This intelligent young woman was turned into a Photoshop meme carrying bottles, all because she decided to wear a dress to class.
However, the fear and harassment of a black woman’s body is not at all a new topic. Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman was an African woman in the nineteenth century whom due to her larger body parts was placed in a “human zoo.” This freak show-themed circus allowed thousands of Europeans to watch her as if she was a wild animal; they were in fact, more than they pretended to be disgusted.
Baartman’s body was used as the beginning of scientific racism against Africans. The large breast and curvier backside were used to distinguish between savages (black women) and the normal skinny European woman. In fact, many Africans based historians have stated the concept of corsets and waist trainers were invited based on Baartman, because many European women wanted to achieve the same type of body. This concept is far from over since a fourth-grade teacher cannot wear a dress due to her curves. So next time you see a Caucasian woman appraised for having curvy features, understand it’s offensive to compare her to the black woman because history has done nothing but ridicule us for it. Situations such as these really prompt the question of “Why is it okay for men to sexualize half dressed women, but the second a woman does something for themselves it’s automatically wrong?” Why is dressing “inappropriately” only okay when it’s for the approval of a man?
No fourth-grade student is sitting there thinking that her attire is inappropriate, so the people over sexualizing her are more so twisted adults with nothing better to do than discuss something someone cannot fix.“The black woman is the most disrespected woman in America,” stated in a quote by the late Malcolm X, a quote that still applies in the year 2016.