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New York, 8:39 AM
Thu Nov 26
64 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/09/09
Lets also remember that it was not long ago, in the U.S., that a teen girl was gang raped while a large crowd watched and jeered and no one at the scene called the police, although they did take pictures for their own wank fodder. The school's response was all about better lighting and rape prevention tips for women.
As much as this event is reflective of entrenched misogyny and double standards in Brazil, The Richmond gang rape is reflective of ours. I'm can't rest easy knowing it wouldn't happen here. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
The Ministry of Education, Procon (Consumer's Prosecution - [pt.wikipedia.org]), Public Ministry (Federal prosecution- [en.wikipedia.org])) and the Sao Bernardo DDM (Special Victims Police) all opened separated investigations about the case.
At least three Representatives and one Senator spoke against the University.
UNE (Brazilian Student Union), the feminist movement and the labor's unions protested the school today.
OAB (Brazilian law bar association) is also was against what happened.
Both left and right wing media are supporting the girl.
It is a horrifying case, but at least the outlook for discussions of gender in Brazil seems positive, even though there are other (valid or not so pure) reasons those entities are being so outspoken. Or maybe I'm being a little too patriotically optimistic. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/10/09
The cognitive dissonance was making my head explode - I heard incredibly progressive (and not so progressive) things coming out of people's mouths about the rights of women to wear whatever they want, and the macho culture, etc - all while openly objectifying all the "pretty girls" who spoke out, and Geisy herself. There was a five minute discussion about whether it would have been ok for Geisy to wear the dress if she were not pretty.....PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!!
The best part was when the school's general counsel called in to talk about why they expelled her - apparently Geisy responded to male heckling by lifting her skirt a bit. He was really flustered when people pointed out that perhaps the hecklers were also in the wrong.
Honestly. I love many things about Brazil, and was pleasantly surprised to see so much public support. However, unless people start talking seriously about the harmful side of the "culture of beauty" (i.e. ridiculous objectification and sexualization of women) and how it plays into incidents like these, it's going to be a real struggle to effect lasting change. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/10/09
It takes time for people to truly absorb feminist ideas, and if it keeps coming from the usual places it becomes background noise, at least with new actors involved even with less than desirable discourse the impact on the general population will be higher. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
Mob of Rapists Spark Mass Hysteria at Brazilian University.
Fixed that headline for you. There's not a skirt short enough in this world to make a man disinclined to rape shout at a woman that he wants to rape her. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
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11/09/09
I'm from Sao Paulo and spent summers in Rio for most of my childhood. When going topless at the beach became the fashion, women were protected by police lest they were stoned (unrelated to weed) or burned by hot sand thrown onto their backs. Never mind that the bikini tops at that time barely covered nipples anyway.
I see parallels with this story. There are so many layers of wrong here that teasing them apart will take my brain some time.
Brazilian culture isn't cohesive and there's a lot of regional variation. A couple of things apply, however: Catholicism was the founding religion and all festivities remotely related to nature originate from native or African religions. Anything related to sexuality is therefore fraught with two rather different understandings of the natural world and our own bodies, resulting in truly bizarre, context-specific rules for showing off a woman's sexuality -- such as "Carnaval ok, my wife not ok, beach ok, 1 block off beach not ok" etc etc.
Controlling, illogical, maddening. No wonder I moved to another country. :( #shortskirtexpulsion
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11/09/09
That poor girl. I can't even imagine how horrifying that would be. It would be like a real-life zombie movie, except instead of wanting to eat you, they just want to sexually assault you.
I would never want to leave the house again. Or go to class. Or talk to people. Holy hell, I cannot process this. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
Well played, Uniban. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
11/09/09
The real issue is the hyper-sexualization of females in this country; I say "females" and not "women" because they sell those famous thong bikinis and heels in sizes for 3-5 year old girls. Women are expected to constantly be made up, in heels, and available for ogling and lewd suggestions from men. Making platonic male friends has been incredibly difficult; so many men seemed confounded by the concept of a non-sexualized relationship with a woman.
The most disturbing part about this is that a large part of the pressure to conform to this ideal comes not from men, but from other women. Those women who are not hyper-feminine are shunned, yet the ladies get insanely competitive and hateful when a girl is *too* pretty. I've seen a lot of the interviews and news reports on this in Portuguese, and the message is basically like, this girl was blond and blue-eyed, so she was too pretty for school, and she acted inappropriately by being overtly sexual. Both sexes were punishing her for this; she was taunted by both men AND women.
I obviously think the school is out of line, as were the students who harassed her, and think women should be able to wear what they want without being attacked. However, I also think women should take responsibility in terms of not feeding into this insanely sexualized culture. Brazilian women need to STOP pressuring other women to conform to these ridiculous standards, stop sexualizing their daughters at a young age, stop accepting a double standard in terms of their son's aggressive behavior toward women, and stop defining themselves by their sexuality. Obviously what happened here is NOT this woman's fault - all I am saying is that women here do a lot of work to perpetuate these sexist attitudes here and it makes me really sad and angry. I expect more from both the men and women of Brazil. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
11/09/09
She is planning on going back to school, and from what I gather from her interviews, she does not plan on changing how she dresses.
She is wearing "the dress" in a lot of her TV appearances. What is kind of gross about the whole thing is how focused the media is on her looks - it just plays into this whole female competition thing without touching on the real issues, and frankly further objectifies her. Also, by focusing so much on her looks, it feels like they are excusing the men for going absolutely wild. Ugh. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
I speak Spanish, so I kind of understood some stuff. #shortskirtexpulsion
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The Brazilian minister of education is pissed and opening an investigation, most of the Brazilian side of the internet is also horrified and so is the national student union (UNE), even the most conservative media seem to be by her side.
The school is now known as UniTaliban.
11/09/09
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11/09/09
that's the way the article opens. it goes on to accuse her "of attending class with "inadequate clothing" and having a provocative attitude that was "incompatible with the university environment.""
it's not a stretch that someone reading only the msnbc article may conclude that the girl's alleged inappropriate behavior (as addressed in the article) is the core of the story. the fact that students were screaming that they wanted to rape her is a kind of an important detail that the article failed to mention.
in my above comment i was only intending to note that the author did a poor job in framing the story, which naturally would have impacted how it was received. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
Seriously though, having lived in Brazil for about six months several years ago, it's worth noting that Bandeirante University is a joke, as are many (but not all) of the private colleges there. I know this will seem counterintuitive to those used to the American system, but because a public college education is free in Brazil, it's much more prestigious. That's because you have to pass the Vestibular, a merit test, to get in. Students prepare for years to pass this test and get into a public college. A degree from a private college is much less valuable because it's regarded as a place where rich kids who can't pass the test go (since their parents can just buy them into college). As a result, the private colleges in Brazil tend to have a fratty atmosphere less conducive to education/tolerance/open exchange of ideas. #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
11/09/09
This article (the horror of human behavior) was so much worse that I expected.
11/09/09
she was expelled because a bunch of kids were mean to her because of the way she was dressed?
wha? #shortskirtexpulsion
11/09/09
Of course, Brazil has a very macho culture - my family is from there and I go back occasionally. It's quite a change. #shortskirtexpulsion