Page 33 - California Woman with daisy cover

DENIM DAY

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024

This year Denim Day is Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Denim Day is a nationally recog-
nized day where people are encouraged to wear jeans in order to raise awareness of rape and
sexual assault in their communities.

Denim/jeans are the theme of the day because in Rome in 1992, an 18-year-old girl
was picked up by her 45-year-old male driving instructor for her first lesson. He subsequently
wrestled her out of one leg of her jeans and forcefully raped her. The perpetrator was arrested,
convicted of rape and sentenced to jail, only to appeal his sentence on the claim that “the vic-
tim wore very, very tight jeans, and she had to help him remove them, and by removing the
jeans herself, it was no longer rape, but consensual sex.”

Enraged by the verdict, the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate
action and protested by wearing jeans to work.

Inspired by these events, Patricia Giggans, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Com-
mission on Assaults Against Women (now Peace Over Violence), established Denim Day in Los

Angeles in 1999. It has since become an annual, international event, involving over 12 million
people around the world, according to Peace Over Violence.

As of 2011, at least 20 U.S. States officially recognize Denim Day in April. This call to
action continues to motivate state agencies across the nation to bring awareness to rape and
sexual assault.

Wear Denim on Wednesday, April 24th!

Linda Wilson