Machismo is faced with sarcasm, says Geisy Arruda about debutante party for pink dress

Exactly 15 years ago, a tourism student decided to go to college wearing a short pink dress — the way she liked to dress. What Geisy Arruda did not expect was that she would become the target of a collective act of misogyny. Hundreds of colleagues gathered to attack the young woman, using insults and threats.

“The violence could have become physical, because they jumped the door, hung in the room. I could have been raped — and even worse things —, collectively”, says Arruda, who, today, at 35 years old, is an influencer and actress .

To safely escape the hostile environment, the young woman needed help. “The person who called the police was a teacher, because the imminent danger stopped being just me and started involving all the students in the room.”

The student was forced to wear a white coat worn by teachers and was escorted by the Military Police, to the sound of shouts of “whore” directed at her.

The violence did not end there. Several students shared videos of the student in her short pink dress on Orkut, the most popular social network among Brazilians at the time. She was then the target of sexual violence online, with the retaliation reaching national levels.

Thinking today about the episode that changed her life forever, Arruda remembers the vulnerability she felt. “That day I felt very fragile, I felt guilty too. But then I was able to see that I wasn’t to blame for being who I am”, she says.

Even today, however, the marks of the traumatic day reverberate in the life of the former tourism student. “Today I am a more mature woman, but I have scars from that day and I still fight against sexism to this day in different ways.”

Despite having been a victim, Uniban College, in São Bernardo do Campo, issued a public note days later, published in the press, informing that Arruda had been expelled for “a stance incompatible with the university’s environment”.

“They did this without talking to me and my family. They simply thought it was better to put the blame on me by expelling me, but then the repercussions were very negative. A few days later they went back and invited me back. But there was no way, and I ended up choosing to sue them”, he says.

What Geisy Arruda experienced today is considered a crime of sexual harassment by law 13,718, which typifies, among others, violations of sexual freedom. The legislation was introduced in 2018, nine years after the fateful night she wore the short pink dress.

To deal with what happened, the influencer decided to give a humorous tone to the event. She gathered close friends and family for a debutante party for the garment.

“Today we celebrate, we bake cake, we have a party, but only I know how traumatic that day was for me and how sad it is to look at the dress, pick up the dress, wear the dress, so there are still traumas, traumas that will remain forever,” she says.

For her, it is an attempt to give new meaning to the memory. “I usually say that the only way to confront machismo is with sarcasm, so it’s a bit of an ironic party, it’s my way of being superior and showing that I’ve overcome aggression.”