City of Pasadena employees will support Denim Day on Wednesday, April 29, by wearing jeans.
For the past 20 years, Peace Over Violence has run its Denim Day campaign on a Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The campaign was originally triggered by a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove them, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. Peace Over Violence developed the Denim Day campaign in 1999 in response to this case and the activism surrounding it. Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault. In this rape prevention education campaign, community members, elected officials, businesses and students are asked to make a social statement with their fashion by wearing jeans on Denim Day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault.
“Campaigns
like Denim Day give us the opportunity to show our unwavering support for survivors
of sexual assault. By wearing jeans, we send a visible, united message to
survivors that we are here for you and will continue doing everything we can to
help eradicate misconceptions that still surround sexual assault,” says
Pasadena Police Chief John Perez.
The City of Pasadena is grateful
to Peace Over Violence Executive Director Patti Giggans and her team for their
tireless work raising awareness about sexual violence, providing prevention education,
and supporting survivors.
