Annual Denim Day in LA celebrates it's 11th year today.Denim Day was inspired when in Italy in 1992 the Italian Supreme Court overturned a guilty verdict in a rape case. One judge stated that the middle-aged man in the case couldn't have raped the young girl “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.”
Quoting further from the website:
"Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same..."
On this day I make a point of wearing jeans to show solidarity with men and women around the world who agree that rape is a crime of violence. There's no excuse, and never an invitation to rape.
Writing a post like this sounds so serious--it is, after all, a serious subject. There are no funny rape jokes. Show me someone who thinks rape is funny and I'll show you someone who's never known or loved or been a rape victim, or learned anything to do with the crime. But if Denim Day can turn that last bit around by teaching, I'll be glad I posted about it.
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