Having seen the cellphone vid and a few articles on the net (I don't speak portugese, so the selection is limited) I am somewhere between amazed and shocked.

Not that some ruffled feathers exist. What mystifies here is what in a world would motivate a mob of university students to yell, no, chant "puta puta puta" when one of their fellow students is escorted out of the university by armed guards.

Even when, in a university around here, a dress would be in violation os policy, students rather would silently inform the authorities and then lean back and let them handle the situation.

Why this rage? Why this collective outrage? What fuels this anger? It would be nice for a magazine like Salon to do some investigative work on this.

Has anybody asked Brazilians about this? What is wrong with this school?

After this article I feel I know more without understanding anything.

Brazil is home to some of the hottest women on earth. This girl in the pink dress is not one of them. Therefore, I can't for the life of me imagine what they were carrying on about. What was it about her that set them off?

If there's one consistent them throughout human history, it's how sexually exciting it is for men and even women to rip apart a young woman displaying her sexuality.

Brazilian Brazilian!

Until these people learn how to communicate in proper English they obviously cannot handle a miniskirt.

I suspect that the young lady had other personal issues unless they sprayed her with some nerd sweat. I have heard that the Simpson Family did visit Brazil. Lisa Simpson also wears a RED MINI-DRESS. They both have BLONDE hair.

I think we have all we need to know.

This goes to show what dangers are inherent in distributing The Simspon's episodes to non english speaking markets. Further such tragedies and outrages are inevitable until Congress Acts to protect those who do not "get" Matt Groening's perverse and decadent Hollywood humor.

I am shocked and outraged.

Why was that video not in higher resolution?

I can't figure out what would cause that kind of reaction. I wouldn't have thought what she was wearing would have been considered that out there in Brazil, or in a lot of other hot-weather countries, truth be told.

How would those students react at the beach? I mean, wtf?

for aspiring Brazilian young republicans. This would explain much.

From all we see up here, it appears 78% of Brazil's women wear thongs at the beach. And this gal turns heads? I'm confused too, but perhaps she is a known entity on campus, maybe disliked for other reasons. I suspect much of the story is missing.

what made those students so reactive besides a really strange group mentality. I'm half Brazilian and am pretty familiar with Brazilian culture. I mean that dress is not that bad for Brazil I really don't understand what the fuss is about. I think this kind of reaction maybe comes from some sort of feeling of anger towards women from the men. Obviously Brazil has a very macho society and as a result has become a hyper-sexualized culture these days. Maybe she caused some guys in the school to feel emasculated in some way and they took it out on her in the only way they felt they had power (to call her a whore). This still is puzzling to me though... I mean what she's wearing you see people wearing down a neighborhood street it's absolutely no big deal.

and the situation described here does not surprise me (though my university experience there was already 15 years ago). Of course, I'm also a Nordestino (Northeasterner), and in my region controls on people's sexuality have always been stronger; people in the Sudeste (Southeast) were supposed to be less strict. But not so much.

It's funny, though understandable, that Americans would think, just because of the sexiness of Brazilian women and their generous displays of flesh during Carnival, that everything was OK on the sexual front in Brazil. It's not.

Brazilians (in my 15-year-ago experience) are more repressed, more concerned with the whore-bride, 'nice' vs. 'nasty' girl duality, and in many ways much more machista than most Americans I've met -- and I'm talking mostly about Texans.

Brazilians say they aren't hung up on sexuality -- but they are. There are specific roles than men and women are supposed to follow, and (at least 15 years ago) they were set in stone. Not only girls, but also gays and any non-traditional men could get mobs shouting things at them. (Chris W, I don't know where you are in Brazil, but where I come from -- Recife -- this behavior would sadden but not surprise me.) The video with the interview of the student shows clearly that she is a normal person--but her taste in clothes was sufficient to get that reaction.

There is no sexual paradise anywhere on earth.

I don't agree with Beans&Greens that simply attacking women's sexuality is "hot". The point is not the woman -- the point is sex. A man could be similarly attacked if he disrespected the expectations made on him with respect to his sexuality, too. It's not disrespecting women, it's disrespecting sex that gets such things started throughout history.

I had hoped my country would have changed more in the meantime. And when I talk to other Brazilians I think it has. But clearly not as much as it should.

"Brazil's Volatile Student Body, Rape Culture Cause a Riot at a Sao Paulo University"

There, all done. The "scantily clad student" didn't cause an episode of hysteria, nor was it her attitude. The would-be assaulters did.

It's just really quite simple. Men want to get a quick fix, and women want something more complex. Women bring forth fully formed humans from "the act," men get physical euphoria. Women could get the physical euphoria but mostly get treated like non humans if they try. Men could get a strong sense of identity if they invested in being parents, but they get little encouragement to do so. The sexes are at an impasse. We need to work at getting beyond madonna/whore, macho/wimp non-starters for both sexes. Why not try? I know this can be done. When both sexes grow up, and women are friends to men, and men are friends to women. This really isn't rocket science.