This week, a young Atlanta teacher by the name of Patrice “Tricey” Brown, became our society’s latest flaming hashtag, #teacherbae. The Alabama State University alum has been the face of controversy on every major social media platform since early in the week. Many people may be posing the question, ‘why is this woman trending?’ Why is she so important? Why is her anatomy showing, as expectedly, through her clothing so significant?
The issue at hand, is the vast problem of society oversexualizing the Black woman and her body. The woman is then depersonalized, assuring that woman is no longer relatable to, nor personable. She becomes an inanimate object, whose physical being is too regularly up for debate and discussion amongst truly irrelevant commentators.
This woman is a 4th grade teacher. So again, keeping that important fact in mind, let’s explore to whom exactly she is “too sexy” for. To whom exactly is her sex appeal appealing to. Certainly not the eight and nine year olds whose minds she’s working to sculpt into great ones. Under Brown’s pictures, we see her being told she is dressed “too inappropriately.” That she would “never be in a class with my son.” That she serves too much as a distraction for children to “properly learn.” And probably the most disgusting comment that keeps re-incarnating itself, “I wish she was my teacher when I was in school…” This woman is being criticized and ridiculed ultimately, for existing in the uncontrollable physical way that she does… What is disturbing, and makes this topic so unhealthy and damaging, is the fact that many are not even concerned with this woman’s talents, skills, or any factual evidence concerning her being a strong educator to our future generation. The true question is, what is “too sexy?” What is sexy? If we put aside our social and sexist bias that make us as the human population dictate what is how and when our body is to be presented to society, we will see that whether Brown had on a dress that so happened to slip so perfectly onto her body, or baggy ‘Mc Hammer’ sweatpants, her voluptuous curves and shape and beautifully made face would still apply to her appearance.
Can we discuss Patrice Brown’s ability to teach young children? Or perhaps get into how dedicated this woman is to her students? How diligently and focused she works with her students inside of the classroom?
Our bodies as Black women are consistently prodded, both verbally and physically, until we begin to deny ourselves of what has become the luxury of living free and in peace. We are expected to go to unrealistic measures to cover up our chests and backs and stomachs and legs and ankles and arms in fear of not being taken seriously, being perceived as inappropriately promiscuous, or serving as a distraction to others. Our bodies too often deemed offensive, a threat to those not figured with many curves and edges, or whose eyes just simply seem to not be able to handle the mesmerizing curves women of color are known to possess. How dare we bare protruding and hefty assets? How dare we not hide everything we were blessed with?
Women like Patrice Brown will continue to be disrespected and disregarded so long as we allow our sons and daughters to withhold and perpetuate the idea that if you are shapely, you must hide yourself from public view. The idea that there is something to go out of your way to hide in fear of public observation, objectification, and scrutiny, is detrimental to our psyche as Black women and must be stopped. Until then, people like Patrice Brown will continue to be put on public display like a mere attraction up for speculation, misrepresented, and soon to be disregarded.