You and your business can show your support of 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 will 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 of 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 the vehicle and 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 over turned 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.  Each year since, National Denim Day is recognized on the final Wednesday of April.