I’m educated. I read. I have plenty of time. I’m unemployed. I’ve reached a point where my education does not fill the needs of the current market. So I spend my time reading about people who do.
Recently I read a CNN.com article about a college student in Brazil. Students can’t do anything these days. Mary couldn’t bring her lamb, and Geisy Arruda couldn’t wear her little pink dress to school. Mary made the children laugh and play (which was against the rules) and Geisy brought catcalls, heckles, and viral video (also not allowed).
To me, this is odd. A culture that celebrates Carnaval with as much abandon as Tiger Woods at a women’s retreat, admonishes a girl for wearing something suggestive? Did her thong clash with school colors? No. Brazil likes their parties in the street, and their modesty behind closed doors. They’re a Catholic culture.
That’s not a joke. I mean it. Maybe I’m culturally insensitive, but I found Geisy pretty in pink. So has the YouTube culture. People hit her video snippets and sightings hundreds of thousands of times daily. If only I had that kind of stamina. The public favorite is the clip where police escort her from campus as students insult her in Spanish.
How does Robby white-boy know they’re insulting her? Because that’s the only Spanish I speak. That and the pitchforks and torches imply nonverbal content as well. Yup, my deductive education at work.
Geisy’s formal education ended—at least for a few weeks. For every offended student screaming whore (in Spanish of course) there was another revolutionary screaming, “Woo hoo!” (mostly men). A public uprising of Brazilian blue-collars with Internet access demanded to see more Geisy. The school relented and welcomed her back into the fold, even though you couldn’t see any folds on her clothing.
This isn’t the end of the Geisy’s afterschool special. The publicity storm turned her into a Brazilian Octo-Mom (publicity-wise, not brood-wise. Geisy is quick to admit that she’s single and enjoying it. That’s hard to do with young goslings waddling behind you. Ask Kate.). Geisy and her pink dress appear in magazines, newspapers, and TV shows as part of daily Brazilian culture.
She’s making more money because she was kicked out of school than she could have in her chosen career: a travel professional. She’s spending her money to increase her market exposure and branding. Geisy has undergone 4 different surgeries for cosmetic enhancement.
This begs the question: Do the clothes make the woman, or did the woman make the clothes? It also makes me embrace the pink dress decision for my last interview. I am so hired.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/04/29/romo.brazil.pink.dress.celeb.cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/10/brazil.short.dress/index.html
