Miniskirt outrage Brazilian becomes Carnival queen

The 20-year-old Brazilian lass who was expelled from São Paulo's Bandeirante University for wearing a miniskirt has strutted her stuff as a Rio Carnival queen. Geisy Arruda and her miniskirt Geisy Arruda provoked a near riot at the seat of learning last October by turning up to lectures in what fellow students considered …

[Cameron Colley]

Eh? What?

I missed this story the first time around.

Are the students of this university members of some brainless cult? Have they joined the Taliban or the Latter Day Saints or something?

[Nick Davey]

Eh? What? Indeed

As a Latter Day Saint myself I'm interested in being compared to both a brainless cult and the Taliban. While the Church itself does ask its members to adhere to modest dress standards it is also down to personal choice and certainly not the same as some interpretations of modesty seen in Islam. Also, I doubt any Latter Day Saint would condone the actions of the people at the University, I certainly don't. Even if I think that a person dresses immodestly I have no right to jeer or shout abuse at that person. Misrepresentation of religious groups in this manner tars good people with a bad brush. You might want to do some research about people before making some sensationalist comments.

[Cameron Colley]

"modest dress standards"

Apologies, yours was the cult picked out of the hat for my comment -- it could just have easily been any other <generic protestant cult> or, indeed <generic Catholic cult>.

Unless the modest dress is fig leaves?

[Fred Flintstone]

No, no, no - you got it all wrong

The Catholic cult is the one which is messing with young boys, not dress codes.

Please pay attention.

The flasher Mac, please

[Ed Blackshaw]

I'm guessing Brazilian academics are still living in the middle ages then?

Surely the ones being kicked out of university should have been those shouting 'whore'. If you don't like what you see, don't look, etc...

[BristolBachelor]

What actually happened

I studied with someone from the town where this happened. She said that the girl walked around the campus, from room to room, and was lifting up her skirt to show-off what was underneath.

She wasn't thrown out for what she wore, but for what she did. Bare in mind (like what I did there?) that this was an expensive, exclusive college, where people go to study, not play football in spacesuits, or dance around with pom-poms.

I'll get me coat on me way out.

[SynnerCal]

Football in spacesuits

Gee, ta for that "playing football in spacesuits" line - that's another keyboard/screen needing coffee cleaned off of it.

I shouldn't see it as amusing, if some get their way then rugby will have to have the mega-padding too.

[Chris Collins]

view

Wash she wearing her smalls or not? Just out of idle curiosity...

[Ed Blackshaw]

That is interesting to hear

and certainly differs from what I read in the press. Turns out you shouldn't believe everything you read, eh?

[Oninoshiko]

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

As little faith as I put in media accounts, they are probibly still safer then to beleave some random person on the internet who "knows someone who went to school there"

[J 3]

Er... no.

"that this was an expensive, exclusive college, where people go to study"

I'm from São Paulo, and know that university quite well -- have had undergrad students from there attending our winter courses when I was still in grad school, and have a friend who works there at their TV station.

It's NOT exclusive, and not that expensive either. Most students in private universities in Brazil are from lower middle class or lower in socio-economical status -- because they often could not pay for good elementary and high school, they are not well prepared enough to get into public universities. Uniban is mostly a diploma mill (in spite of the good intentions of many faculty), there's a ton of units all over the place, and as long as you pay your monthly fees, you're fine. As the semi-joke goes for that type of school, "if you lose you ID card in the sidewalk in front of their door, you're admitted" (BTW, yes, we've always had mandatory national ID cards, boo hoo). Such establishments are also nicknamed "uni-esquina" ("uni-corner", because there's one in every street corner). They try to hire the cheapest professors possible -- i.e., people without any graduate school or teaching experience. Therefore government had to pass a law forcing "universities" to hire a minimum proportion of instructors with masters or PhD degrees. And even then they find ways around that too.

Now, as to whether she was behaving in the way you describe, I can't comment on that. I wasn't there, or haven't talked directly to anyone who was. But I haven't seen, in any of the Brazilian news I read on this, anyone describing things happening like that. So who knows. Either way, even if she DID do what you've been told, that wouldn't justify the near lynching, I believe.

In Brazil, the "exclusive" universities where "people go to study" (well, some of them at least) are the public ones -- where tuition is completely free.

[John Gamble]

Re: What actually happened

But with no disrespect to your study-colleague intended, that is exactly the sort of friend-of-a-friend story that activates my BS detector. It sounds plausible, but it's the "she deserved it" excuse that we've heard before.

[Anonymous Coward]

@What actually happened...

Pictures or it didn't happen.

[Anonymous Coward]

So what was it?

Come on, we're all dying to know - what unthinkable thing was underneath, exactly?

What was it that she kept under there that so offended these silly little people? Was it a terrorist? Maybe a paedophile? Come on, do tell!

M O R A N S ;)

[Paul Smith]

Consumer rights

"Arruda reportedly had around $20k-worth of nip and tuck before her Carnival debut..."

Is she too late to get a refund?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bemused disbelief

I thought Brazil was more liberal minded.

In a sales pitch for Canadian universities, I am constantly bemused by the a common undergrad female apparel which often appears to include only spandex tights and a thong on the lower bits. (To be clear there is upper coverage.) Of course winter has temporarily limited exposure but spring is coming...

[Anonymous Coward]

Canuck female apparel

Hmm, if it's spandex and thongs in autumn and spring in Canada, then we know where Geordies emigrated to.

[Anonymous Coward]

"What happened to me really shook people"

You're not wrong there, I was so shaken up it was like a jumbo jet wearing a miniskirt had crashed into the world trade center.

[Anonymous Coward]

Skirt/dress

By the looks of the pics, should that be "minidress"? Yes I know, I should probably spend less time in ladies' changing rooms.

[Anonymous Coward]

Effective Product Placement?

seems to have worked anyway.

[Tim #3]

Hoorah

Please can we have more stories with headlines including "Brazilian" and "Miniskirt" ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Note merely the headlines!

That would be a mean trick.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks

for all the hard work you've put in on this story, boys

[Uwe Dippel]

She let me down

Actually, I was on her side from the beginning. Incredible! ain't it? Our Brazilian friends much less tolerant than the carnival do Brasil promises; with millions being half naked.

Even if she lifted her almost non-existing dress as someone reported here, by all means, we are adult people, aren't we?

She's just 20, and looks pretty okay on those pictures, at least to me. Where she let me down, so to say, is with this polishing work of hers. What a sick world we have, haven't we, when a 20-year-old good-looking bird doesn't have the confidence to make it into the public without some uplifting work.

Maybe she's not quite sane after all.?

[heyrick]

The linked video

To make an interesting news story, they play the same shots several times. Mmm...

As for the chant, I had an Ally McBeal moment - hooga-shaka-hooga-shaka-hooga-shaka...