DENIM DAY 2013
SHOW YOU C ARE BY WHAT YOU WEAR!
WEAR DENIM
Wed, April 24
9am-1 pm in Quad
Denim Day is a rape prevention education
campaign that raises community awareness
about the devastating impact of sexual violence and how to prevent it.
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT BY WEARING DENIM on Wednesday, April 24, 2013
THE ORIGINS OF DENIM DAY
Denim Day is an event which is organized around wearing denim because of a 1998Italian court decision in which a 45-year-old man's rape conviction was overturned by the Italian Supreme Court. In Rome in 1997, the accused was a driving instructor. It is alleged that when he picked up a 17-year-old girl for her first driving lesson, he raped her for an hour, and then abandoned her in an alley, leaving her to find her own way home. While the alleged rapist was convicted and sentenced, the Supreme Court ruled on the appeal that because the victim was wearing tight jeans (jeans which the Court ruled could only be removed with her help) the woman must have consented to the act. This indicated consent made the incident consensual sex, not rape.
The Head Judge's decision argued that, "because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them...and by removing the jeans...it was no longer rape but consensual sex."
As a sign of protest, many women in the Italian Parliament protested the decision by wearing jeans. As a sign of support, the California Senate and Assembly followed suit. Soon Patricia Giggans, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, made Denim Day an annual event.
SHOW YOU CARE BY WHAT YOU WEAR
WEAR DENIM ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013
LAMC Sociology Department (818) 833-3414
