Denim Day 2019

For the past 19 years, the organization, Peace Over Violence has run its Denim Day campaign on the last Wednesday in April to honor Sexual Violence 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 her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women of the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim.

Peace Over Violence developed the Denim Day campaign 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—there is no excuse and never an invitation to rape such as her jeans were tight, she was flirting online, she was partying and drunk, or he assumed consent,  

In this rape prevention education campaign our club members made a social statement by wearing jeans/denim as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault.