Brazil student expelled after wearing mini-dress

[samanthajane13]

By TALES AZZONI, Associated Press Writer Tales Azzoni, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 51 mins ago

SAO PAULO – A Brazilian university has expelled a woman who was heckled by hundreds of fellow students for wearing a short, pink dress to class — publicly accusing her Sunday of immorality.

The private Bandeirante University in Sao Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo, said 20-year-old Geisy Arruda disrespected "ethical principles, academic dignity and morality."

Bandeirante University published newspaper advertisements Sunday accusing Arruda of attending class with "inadequate clothing" and having a provocative attitude that was "incompatible with the university environment."

Arruda made headlines after the Oct. 22 incident, in which she had to be escorted away by police after wearing the mini-dress to class. She put on a professor's white coat and left amid a hail of insults and curses.

In the ad, titled "Educational Responsibility," the college said it had warned Arruda to change her behavior and decided to expel her after talking to students, staff and Arruda herself. It accused her of posing for pictures and provoking other students.

The university said it was also temporarily suspending some of the students who were seen heckling Arruda in a video of the incident that made the rounds on Youtube. It did not say how many were being suspended or how long they would be kept from attending classes.

Brazil's national student union released a statement on Sunday saying it was against the university's decision to expel Arruda, and Brazil's top official for women's policy, Nilcea Freire, told the official Agencia Brasil news service that the decision showed "intolerance and discrimination."

Although Brazil is known for its skimpy attire, especially in beach cities, most college students dress more modestly on campus — commonly in jeans and T-shirts. Some students had complained that Arruda seemed out of place in her revealing clothes, Brazilian media reported.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091108/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_short_dress

[samanthajane13]

Brazil college backs down on mini-dress expulsion
By TALES AZZONI, Associated Press Writer Tales Azzoni, Associated Press Writer – Tue Nov 10, 6:05 pm ET

SAO PAULO – Brazil's case of the pink mini-dress that went viral on the Internet has left many scratching their heads: How could it be that an outfit, no matter how short, would cause such an uproar in a tropical nation where skimpy clothing and tiny bikinis barely raise an eyebrow?

The answer, a Bandeirante University official said, is not in the pink dress, but in how Geisy Arruda, a 20-year-old tourism student, chose to wear it. In expelling her from the university — where she has since been reinstated — officials said she paraded provocatively and raised the dress.

"There are hundreds of girls wearing miniskirts on this campus every day, and nothing has ever happened," Vice Dean Ellis Brown said at a news conference Tuesday. "The size of the dress was never discussed — her behavior was."

Arruda has vehemently denied acting provocatively, telling the private Agencia Estado news agency: "It's a big lie that I raised the dress."

In reversing the decision to expel Arruda, Brown said the school was opting for educational rather than disciplinary action.

He said the university was not wrong in its initial decision because it followed internal rules, but admitted the reaction in Brazil and around the world played a part in Arruda's reinstatement. He said the attention was hurting the other 60,000 students at the university.

Maisa dos Santos, 38, a maid in Rio de Janeiro, called the dustup absurd. She guessed it was the result of different attitudes in Sao Paulo, known in normally carefree Brazil as a city that is all work, no play.

"The people in Sao Paulo, they're just squares. There was nothing wrong with that girl's dress," Santos said. "If I had a body like hers, I'd show it off, too. Besides, here in Rio, it's too hot to wear much clothing."

Some who studied with Arruda confirmed the school's view that the dress was never the problem.

"She extrapolated," 22-year-old engineering student Adriana Santiago said. "It wasn't normal the way she was acting that day and it wasn't normal how she acted before. It wasn't a surprise it happened."

Brown didn't say if or when Arruda would return to the university. She has not made any public statements since being reinstated.

Arruda said previously she would be afraid to go back.

Her lawyer, Nehemias Domingos de Melo, said there must be safety guarantees for Arruda to return. Earlier, he had said that she had been contacted by two other colleges offering her a full scholarship, but Tuesday afternoon he told the O Globo newspaper those were apparently fake phone calls.

Brown said that if she came back, the school would monitor the situation to make sure she could safely study, but he provided no details.

Videos of students ridiculing and cursing Arruda turned up on the Web, quickly made headlines across Brazil and drew attention around the world to the Oct. 22 incident.

Arruda was forced to put on a professor's white lab coat to cover her short, pink dress and was escorted away by police amid a hail of insults by students, some chanting "*****, *****."

The case drew widespread protests in Brazil — from government officials and a national student union to an online movement among local celebrities and others, who used the color pink to frame their Twitter profile photos and send messages of support.

Civil police in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo outside Sao Paulo, where the university is located, said they will investigate the students accused of heckling Arruda. The university said earlier that some would be suspended. But Brown said along with Arruda's reinstatement, the heckling students would not be punished.

Arruda's expulsion prompted a demand from the Education Ministry that the university explain why it had kicked her out. The Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that an explanation was no longer needed because the student was reinstated, but that it would continue to follow the case closely.

The student union released a statement Tuesday praising the decision to reinstate Arruda.

Although Brazil is known for revealing clothing — especially in beach cities, where one popular style of bikini is so skimpy that it's called "dental floss" — most college students dress more modestly on campus, commonly in jeans and T-shirts.

"I always dressed in a way that makes me feel good and that doesn't offend anybody," Arruda said during an interview with Brazil's Globo TV. "I was always like that and was never recriminated by anybody."

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Associated Press Writer Bradley Brooks in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.

___

On the Web:

YouTube video of incident: http://tiny.cc/pW2Yk


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_short_dress

[samanthajane13]

AP Interview: Brazil miniskirt woman soaks up fame
By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer Alan Clendenning, Associated Press Writer – 46 mins ago

SAO PAULO – Brushing back freshly dyed blond hair as she posed for pictures, the Brazilian woman whose short pink dress got her kicked out of college said Tuesday she's enjoying her newfound fame, but wants go back to school — with a security guard.

Just the day before, 20-year-old Geisy Arruda took her first trip on an airplane so she could relive her experience in a comedy skit on one of Brazil's most popular television shows.

Star-struck business executives on the flight to Rio de Janeiro asked if she really was Geisy, then used their cell phones to snap pictures of themselves with her.

It was heady stuff for a 20-year-old freshman from a blue-collar industrial suburb who says she just wants to get a tourism degree so she can fulfill dreams of working for a resort or a cruise line someday.

She'd already appeared on two of Brazil's top interview programs, recounting how she was hounded from the campus of Bandeirantes University in October by male students yelling "*****! *****!" and was then expelled by school officials.

The private university, which doesn't have a conservative reputation, backtracked amid a national uproar and said last week she was welcome to return for her regular routine of night classes.

But Arruda's lawyer says she won't go back until she's promised a well-trained security guard to accompany her on campus.

Wearing a black halter top with dressy eggplant-colored satin shorts for an interview with The Associated Press, the daughter of a cleaning company supervisor and a housewife beamed after finding out the AP is an American news agency.

"How cool!" she gushed just before the start of the interview in her lawyer's office.

Then to the photographer as she adjusted her lengthy tresses and took a last look at her brightly painted red nails: "Hey guy, do I look pretty?"

She said she's still stumped that an outfit, no matter how short, would cause such an uproar in a tropical nation where skimpy clothing and tiny bikinis barely raise an eyebrow.

And she again denied the university's claim that she paraded provocatively and raised the dress, resulting in the expulsion.

Arruda said one young man said he liked her looks, then more joined in. Soon other students loudly proclaimed they wanted to have sex with her, snapping pictures with their cell phones. Hundreds were drawn to the scene, creating a sort of mob mentality, Arruda said. Chants of "*****! *****!" erupted from the mob as she was escorted from the university in a borrowed white lab coat.

"It was total terror," Arruda recalled. "And the worst thing was that I had no idea why it was happening."

"I think they just didn't want to study and this was fun for them, the big happening at school for the year, and I was just the joke of the year," Arruda said.

Arruda said she had worn the dress to classes once before, in March, with no reaction.

The evening of Oct. 22 started like any other. She got to her parents' home after finishing work at a cashier's job where she makes 400 reals ($235 monthly), thinking about what she would wear before heading to campus on a public bus. Arruda said she chose the dress because she was heading to a birthday party with friends after class.

After fleeing the campus in tears, she hasn't returned. A spokeswoman for the university said Tuesday that students who scared and ridiculed her in the near riot won't be expelled.

The university has promised to monitor her security, but won't comment on the demand for a personal guard, said the spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with policy.

Arruda is convinced her future is in tourism, and now she might get a job more easily, whether she eventually graduates from Bandeirantes University or not.

"Imagine me abroad," she said with another big smile. "Maybe living in Portugal; it'd be great, different from how I grew up. Tourism is fascinating, I could work on a cruise ship, maybe at a resort, or a travel agency."

Above all, she said, she wants to make more money to help her parents move from the roughly built concrete block home they expanded bit by bit over the years to accommodate a growing family after moving to Sao Paulo from Brazil's impoverished northeast about 30 years ago.

Brazilian media reported that magazines want her to pose nude and she has received an offer to launch a lingerie line. Arruda is referring all inquiries to her lawyer, Nehemias Melo, who said some of the reports are untrue and he has fielded no serious business proposals for his client so far.

Arruda thinks it's a funny twist of fate that she became famous in Brazil and across the planet after her story went wild on the Internet.

"I still can't believe it," she said. "It's like a real strange, stupid movie."

___

Associated Press writers Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo and Bradley Brooks in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.


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