TOI is proud to show support to our partners at A New Hope Center to bring awareness and raise funds for National Denim Day. Our staff joined together today to wear jeans to bring awareness of and support to survivors of sexual violence. The first Denim Day was held in the 1990’s and has become an annual symbol of protest against erroneous, destructive attitudes and misconceptions that surround sexual assault.
The Denim Day campaign was originally triggered by a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court in the 1990’s 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 in 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. In this rape prevention education campaign we ask community members, elected officials, businesses and students to make a social statement with their fashion by wearing jeans on this day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault.
To learn more about A New Hope Center, please visit https://www.anewhopecenter.org/
To learn more about Denim Day, please visit https://www.peaceoverviolence.org/denim-day
For more information on the case, visit The New York Times’ coverage.
