You and your business can show your support for sexual assault survivors when you encourage your employees to donate $5 to wear jeans on Wednesday, April 27, 2022.  PCASA will provide you with all the promotional items you need to get the word out.  The business collecting the most funds will receive a first-place traveling trophy and free, state-mandated sexual harassment prevention training for all your employees.

Email development@prairiecasa.org to register your business today

The Story of Denim Day

In the early 1990s in Muro, Italy, an 18-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by her 45-year-old driving instructor.  He drove the young girl to an isolated area, forced her out of the vehicle, forcibly assaulted her, and threatened to kill her if she told anyone. Refusing to be silenced, the girl told her parents and the police.

Her rapist was initially convicted of indecent exposure.  Ultimately the conviction was overturned by the Italian Supreme Court. The court, in essence, declared that since the girl was wearing tight jeans at the time of the assault, she must have consented. In its ruling, the Italian Supreme Court stated, “it is a fact of common experience that it is nearly impossible to slip off tight jeans even partly without the active collaboration of the person who is wearing them.”

The day after the supreme court’s ruling, the female members of the Italian Parliament staged a protest by wearing jeans and holding signs that read “Jeans: An Alibi for Rape.”

The protest received international media coverage, which brought it to the attention of Patricia Giggans, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (now Peace Over Violence), who established Denim Day in Los Angeles in 1999.  National Denim Day is recognized each year on the final Wednesday of April.