What matters most to men and society—the type of teacher your children have, or what the teacher wears?
The viral #TeacherBae pictures and responses to fourth grade Atlanta teacher Patrice Brown tell us something about men, rape culture, and teaching—but what are we left with?
As sons, fathers, nephews, students, and men, we’re rarely scolded for wearing form-fitting clothes, yet we live in a culture that demands that women not only look curvy and sexy, but be held to a different standard than men.
And, nature forbid, when women look “curvy” and “sexy,” is it that they “look” a certain way, or that, as a culture, we’ve sexualized everything from Halloween costumes to little girls’ fashion?
Is this teacher doing anything different than any other teacher—male or female—does?
Is posing for a picture a crime? And does it matter that she’s teaching fourth grade?
Also the #TeacherBae hashtag—is this fitting for a woman who is a professional, not a babe, baby, sweetie, hottie, or any other word associated with “bae”? Why isn’t #PatriceBrown taking off?
Ms. Brown is also a mother to a little girl and has taken down all of her classroom pictures on Instagram and Twitter while scores of men and women berate and debate her online.
Plenty of issues here, dear readers!
Leave your comments and responses below.
The side of #teacherbae the media won’t show you pic.twitter.com/XSdDUD2Ug1
— Leo Madara (@ItsLeoJ) September 12, 2016
They Don’t Want You To Look Good ??? #teacherbae pic.twitter.com/h8JWHgSh0J
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free— #CaliBoyMarv? (@MarviMarv32) September 12, 2016
This black woman seems so happy & proud of teaching youth but y’all just had to sexualize the situation #teacherbae pic.twitter.com/g6bJkRkhhA
— S?U?N?N?Y (@FrankHoecean) September 12, 2016
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Photo: Twitter
“And, nature forbid, when women look “curvy” and “sexy,” is it that they “look” a certain way, or that, as a culture, we’ve sexualized everything from Halloween costumes to little girls’ fashion?” Leaning awful far off the ladder with that accusation, no? Last time I looked it wasn’t “dance dads” dressing their little girls up like burlesque queens and prancing them around a stage, or pushing them into beauty contests at like nine years old. Have yet to see a goblin holding a gun to the head of that sexy, half-dressed witch either. I don’t even know how we got… Read more »
Have them? Sure.
Show them? Of course not!
If teachers present themselves as anything other than secular nuns (or monks), students will inevitably become hooked on drugs, descend into sexual deviancy, and then drop out of school when they have children out of wedlock. It’s science.
It’s amazing to me how easily we sexually objectify females. What’s being said is that males are incapable of rational thought because they can’t think properly if a woman is wearing clothing that reveals her body shape.
So I suppose the next step is to tell females how to dress in order for males not to be so irrational.
That’s misogyny and part of patriarchy to control what women wear because somehow males are irrational.
They can have as many curves as they want but’s how the curves are shown that appear to make a difference. Curves or no curves boy develop crushes on teachers. Of course we take the position that this is perceived to be an issue regarding the “boys” but in fact it can have a negative impact on girls as well. Let’s be honest, the way she dressed and posed in those photos was intentionally set to look sexy. We talk about the “man box” yet here we have a women who is obviously well educated setting the standard of what’s… Read more »
How would it be different if she taught only girls and should it be? I think the primary objection would be that boys would be distracted. I admit to having been distracted by “hot” female teachers. Was it a problem? Not appreciably for me even in subjects I didn’t do well in like physical education. There were a lot of 14 and 15 year old boys who didn’t mind the physical contact with the hot physical education teacher at my high school and 11 to 13 years old at my grade school. The one in high school ended up leaving… Read more »
“As sons, fathers, nephews, students, and men, we’re rarely scolded for wearing form-fitting clothes,”
… Since when?? You show me the form fitting office wear for men, and we’ll talk.
And giving women consequence free choices is no different from any other aspect of life in this society.
John, you hit the nail on the head.