Brazilian Girls

November 11, 2009 7:33 PM

Brazil is known in the US as the home of Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, the "dental floss" tanga bathing suit, and the namesake of the Brazilian wax. This week in Brazil, though, a Sao Paolo university defied national stereotypes by expelling, and then unexpelling (inviting back? reabsorbing?) a student for wearing a hot pink minidress and "acting provocatively". Video of her expulsion shows her being escorted out by guards in bulletproof vests, covered in a lab coat, while a largely male crowd shouts "puta! puta!" (Portuguese for whore; spelling not guaranteed.) The BBC's international call-in show World Have Your Say addressed the topic today (this link is not to the audio itself but the variety of comments are representative.)
posted by chesty_a_arthur (20 comments total)

(Sorry, that should have been "at least in the US".)
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:36 PM on November 11, 2009

'world have your say' is the worst show ever. they accomplish nothing, ever.
posted by rainperimeter at 7:37 PM on November 11, 2009 [3 favorites]

Ever since I've read the monster 'Watcha readin?' threads, everything is interpreted through a slightly different lens. I keep seeing this 'patriachy attempts to control women's bodies' theme everywhere. It's kind of scary that I never noticed it before.
posted by twirlypen at 7:39 PM on November 11, 2009

(inviting back? reabsorbing?)

Reinstating.
posted by ceribus peribus at 7:44 PM on November 11, 2009

That's not a video of her expulsion, that's a video of the riot she caused.
posted by delmoi at 7:46 PM on November 11, 2009

I thought the dress was surprisingly tame for inspiring such a radical action. There were women at my convocation who were more scantily clad.
posted by Decimask at 7:47 PM on November 11, 2009

'world have your say' is the worst show ever. they accomplish nothing, ever.

I have to agree. I was trained to award people with English accents +3 intelligence points through years of involuntary exposure to masterpiece theater at an impressionable age, so I keep thinking I should like like this show but it seems to always be either shouty (when interviewing) or banal (when reading the world's say).
posted by shothotbot at 7:51 PM on November 11, 2009

This video contains her being expelled -- not the papers being signed, the woman being physically removed. Thought the other did, too.

"The riot she caused?" Can she be blamed for people rioting over her dress?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:52 PM on November 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

(Yep, it's the same video. See 1:10 for Arruda being walked out.)
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:54 PM on November 11, 2009

I can't really process this as a thing that actually happened. A riot? Police escorts? Over that dress? Really?
posted by Tha Race Card at 7:56 PM on November 11, 2009

Same reaction here, Tha Race Card. Can anyone give some cultural context?
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:58 PM on November 11, 2009

To be fair, Sao Paulo is a very different city from Rio de Janeiro. When I think of Brazil, sexy bikinis and Carnival is pretty far down on the list. Flying over burning rain forests, endless high rises, and loud happy people is what comes to mind. The framing of the post is kind of silly and should've just been about the incident at hand, perhaps not even posted at all.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:01 PM on November 11, 2009

I was listening to this story on NPR... whatever that BBC program they carry is called. While it's usually a nice show there was a particular female guest who, no shit, proffered the "she was asking for it dressing like that" bullshit. Unbelievable. I felt like my brain was dying.
posted by odinsdream at 8:04 PM on November 11, 2009

Well, damned if the name of the show isn't in the post.
posted by odinsdream at 8:06 PM on November 11, 2009

OK, Burhanistan, I'll plead to kind of silly and thin -- I wish I had more insight but I've been kind of puzzling over this all day. Maybe I should have AskMeFi'd instead.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 8:06 PM on November 11, 2009

Although I realized that she was expelled initially by the university, the video actually described her being escorted out by the police for her protection, because of the crowd which was acting very aggressively towards her. The reporter describes how she is crying as she is escorted, and points out that the public opinion of the event, once the cell phone footage hit the internet, was very negative towards the crowd of students (yeah, they are yelling "puta", so it is not hard to feel negatively towards them).

Just wanted to clarify the content of the video a bit, but I am a little too lazy to transcribe it word for word.
posted by TheyCallItPeace at 8:11 PM on November 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

There were women at my convocation who were more scantily clad.

Same here. Of course, in my case it was the Malibu Adult Film Institute.
posted by jimmythefish at 8:12 PM on November 11, 2009

The other side of the story is the university alleges she was wearing that minidress without underwear, and intentionally attracting attention (like walking into classrooms to get catcalls, provocatively crossing her legs, etc, etc). Not that it justifies the boorish behavior from the students, but that's how the school justified the expelling.

Also, prostitution is legal in Brazil, and a not-so-unusual form of paying for college. From what I understood, part of the backlash is because people were assuming she were really a prostitute ("prostituta", which "puta" is short for), and harassing her for that. (prostitution is legal, but still stigmatized). It possibly started with a conservative-hypocrite "I don't want prostitutes at my school" mentality.Again, not justifying, just clarifying the context here.

Finally, with a few notable exceptions, Brazilian private universities are weak. This one in particular is kind of on the lower end. So, don't take this as a snapshot of the Brazilian university environment (in the school I went to, I remember an art girl running around topless in the middle of the cafeteria during lunch hour to announce her play - no biggie).
posted by qvantamon at 8:16 PM on November 11, 2009

"Puta" is spelled like that, São Paulo is not.
posted by keijo at 8:23 PM on November 11, 2009

The framing of the post is kind of silly and should've just been about the incident at hand, perhaps not even posted at all.

I'll disagree - regardless of the reality, the Carnivale-oriented view of Brazil is definitely dominant, at least in the US, or at least in the parts of the US I'm familiar with. This story has been passed around a lot among my extended social circle, generally with a framing of "Wait, banned? Aren't mini-dresses MANDATORY in Brazil?" If anything, this is a great wake-up call to remind folks that countries aren't one-note stereotypes, and that Brazil isn't all sexually promiscuous and flesh-tastic.
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:26 PM on November 11, 2009