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Monday, Nov. 09, 2009

Brazil college backs down on mini-dress expulsion

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Brazil's case of the pink mini-dress that has gone 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, Bandeirante University officials have 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 had paraded provocatively and raised the dress.

Arruda vehemently denied the claim, saying, "It's a big lie that I raised the dress," the private Agencia Estado news agency reported.

She has not made any public statements since the university - which is not religious or known to be conservative - announced Monday she would be allowed to return to classes. But 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, adding that she has been contacted by two other colleges offering her a full scholarship.

Meanwhile, the case has drawn widespread protests in Brazil - from government officials and a national students 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.

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 "whore, whore."

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 some will be suspended.

Arruda said just before Monday's decision that she was humiliated by the experience and was never warned by university officials that her dress was too racy, according to Agencia Estado.

"If a security guard or a professor had told me something I would have humbly returned home and changed my clothes," she said, accompanied by seven lawyers at a packed press conference.

In Sunday's ads, titled "Educational Responsibility," the college said it had previously warned Arruda to change her behavior and decided to expel her after talking to students, staff and Arruda.

University lawyer Decio Lencioni told Globo TV that the institution was merely following its rules.

"The problem is not her clothes," he said. "It's her behavior, her attitude."

Her expulsion prompted complaints from the national student union and Brazil's minister in charge of women's policy, along with a demand from the Education Ministry that the university explain why it had kicked her out.

The student union released a statement Tuesday praising the decision to reinstate Arruda. The group organized a small protest Monday night that was booed by some other students who were attending classes and were not happy with the noise, Brazilian media reported.

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."