Author: Saige Jolley, COMM 2311.601 Newswriting. File photos from students in COMM 1316 News Photography
They are startling. And they’re meant to be.
Dozens of pairs of jeans, skirts, and shorts- both men’s and women’s- dangle inside the Student Center on the South Plains College Levelland Campus as part of its 2023 Denim Day observance.
This year Denim Day takes place on Wednesday, April 29, and the jeans that will be on display are meant to send a message as they do every year.
National Denim Day is always recognized on the last Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Organizers from the national Denimday.org site explain, “As the longest-running sexual violence prevention and education campaign in history, Denim Day asks community members, elected officials, businesses and students, and all individuals to make a social statement with their fashion statement by wearing jeans on Denim Day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that continue to surround sexual violence.”
Rebecca Canon, the SPC director of Health and Wellness, says this year organizers at SPC already have enough denim donations to create displays. Jeans will be decorated, she says, with phrases that promote personal safety and consent.
Why denim?
The national Denim Day site explains the event goes back to a case from 1992 in Italy, when an 18-year-old was raped during her first driving lesson. Wearing jeans too tight to remove without help made the case consensual. The women of Italian Parliament protested by wearing jeans to the steps of the Supreme Court.
This event caused national media attention. Denim Day started in 1999 and has continued ever since. Currently it is run by the Peace over Violence, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization dedicated to preventing and treating sexual, domestic, and interpersonal violence.
The Denim Day website tackles some common misconceptions about sexual assault. It points out it’s a myth that most rape occurs in a dark alley by a stranger. Instead, the site says, about 70% of female rape or sexual assault survivors say the offender was an intimate partner, other relative, friend or acquaintance. This includes classmates, coworkers, dates, neighbors, caretakers, family members, husbands, and boyfriends.
Here at SPC, Canon says a similar Denim Day booth will be present at every campus on April 29 so students and employees can sign jeans and pledge they will support survivors of sexual assault.
“As always, we will have counselors available and information about the other services Health & Wellness provides,” Canon says, “and encourage students to come by our offices.”
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