This is Brazil? Short dress sparks student protest
I find it fascinating that while Americans are debating whether male high school students can wear wigs, tights and heels to school, Brazilian college students are outraged over a female student wearing a mini dress to class.
This student's short red dress outraged her classmates who cheered when police led her off campus. AP Photo/Leticia Moreira/ Folha Imagem
In what has to be the strangest story of the month, the AP reports that the woman was expelled from a Sao Paulo university after her short red dress sparked student protests and was then reinstated when the education ministry got involved.
I have never been to Brazil, but my understanding has been that it is a country with few hangups about nudity or risque attire.
Apparently that casual attitude does not extend to college campuses where students were quite miffed over their classmate’s nightclub garb. (There is a YouTube video that shows hundreds of students gathering and cheering as police escort the short skirt wearer out of a massive classroom building. There is nothing that outrageous about the dress, at least to me. I posted it here so you can judge for yourself.)
The Universidade Bandeirante said it had expelled Geysi Villa Nova Arruda, 20, for her “incompatible posture with the atmosphere” at the school.
I always find it fascinating when conventions and assumptions are turned on their heads. Based on what I see college students wearing in the warm months, I would think this dress would be considered fairly tame.
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6 comments Add your comment
Marie
November 10th, 2009
11:46 am
I do not want to impose my viewpoint on the traditions of other countries but I agree, I would not consider that dress outrageous. If young ladies in our schools here would agree to limit themselves at most what this lady is wearing in this picture, our schools would be a lot better off.
Gualter
November 10th, 2009
1:44 pm
Although the case involves a lot more than only the dress, your never having been to Brazil shows in your little understanding of the country: nudity is taboo over here. Sure, we are a lot less repressed about our bodies than people from the northern hemisphere, but this isn’t Ibiza. Just a few years ago, there was a big ruckus in Rio about a woman who wanted to go topless on Ipanema beach.
“What about Carnaval?”, you may ask. I’d return the question: what about Mardi Gras in the US? The impression we get is that otherwise well-behaved american teens go wild and broadly undressed then. Besides, even in Carnaval the nudity is restricted to the parades and perhaps private clubs.
Mike
November 10th, 2009
6:59 pm
Ok… but this dress is not in any way outrageous. The skirt doesnt even seem to be a “mini-skirt” from that pic at least. Her entire torso is covered, and the skirt comes to mid-thigh.
I guess the media is responsible for the erroneous impression that Brazil is open about nudity as most everyone I know thinks that too. Perhaps it is acceptable in resorts ? I think it is really rare worldwide that PUBLIC places accept nudity even though there have been plenty of rulings I could find saying that to not let women go topless is discrimination since men go without shirts all the time. Womens body parts are apparently pornographic to the general public whether they like it or not, questions of morality and “what message are we sending to …?” is often brought up. ( uh, perhaps a message of freedom, or that we all have bodies and that they mostly consist of the same concepts / parts from one person to the next ? )
I guess would be topless peeps should stick to Dominican Republic… I just got back from Punta Cana and there were topless women all over the beach. And it seemed like no one cared in the least.
Morena
November 11th, 2009
12:00 am
Yes, I find it extremely unbelievable. However what I find even more unbelievable is that this could deserve international attention when a far more sinister situation that exists in Brazil, goes unnoted. Through a political slight of hand, and American Child has been kidnapped and “given” to the highest bidder. Besides the 70 or so U.S.children that were kidnapped to Brazil by a non-custodial parent and kept there against the will of the remaining parent, WITH the blessing of a government that signed a treaty with the U.S. stating they would return any children kidnapped to their counry within 6 weeks for custody, there is the case of Sean Goldman which Brazil keeps out of the press, and out of the public eye. This is the child who like the other 70, was kidnapped by a selfish and self-serving mother, who used her new lovers political connections to keep the father out of the childs life, using dirty underhanded tactics. Well, she paid the ultimate price in a poetic fate of hand, and died giving birth to this “new husband’s” child.
The father of the child, David Goldman of N.J. went to get his son that he had fought 4 long years to gain after hearing of the mothers death……Not so says the new step-father……using his connecrtions of the courts without even so much as a notification to the father, he attempeted to have the court erase the father’s name AND replace it with his……..NOW, tell me how moral these people are…….Hipocrites, masquerading as a family oriented, religious, and just society…..HOW THE HELL DID THIS GET MORE MEDIA ATTENTION ,then that of the poor child who’s life is in limbo and is suffering from severe emotional abuse as determined by 3 court appointed Brazilian Child Psychologists…..Lets NOT even get into the case of poor Sophie Zanger, 4 who was killed in Brazil by her caretakers after Brazil denied the father to have a return of the children and instead “gave” them to step relatives in Brazil who murdered the little girl….
Blaine McAlees-Gates
November 11th, 2009
1:06 pm
I think that she would have a more satisfying college experience at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I attended Vanderbilt for college, medical school and residency, and know the dress code well. She may be more comfortable in short sleeves most of the year there, and I’m sure her new friends could help her find some nice new clothes.
jeremy
November 11th, 2009
1:45 pm
it’s interesting that a lot of americans seem to jump on this sort of situation as an opportunity to say how other countries are inferior to theirs.