Denim Day brings sexual assault awareness to campus
The American Chemical Society joins in on denim day dress, April 26. Photo courtesy of the American Chemical Society.
The residence life & housing staff, and Title IX department, held the “Denim Day” event which aimed to support sexual assault victims by wearing denim.
The idea of the event was not born at MSU. In fact it arose from a case that outraged the public in 1999. The event occurred in the city of Rome where an 18-year-old girl was sexually abused by her driving teacher. When the young woman filed the complaint with her parents, the Supreme Court favored the aggressor, justifying that the victim was wearing very tight jeans, so it erroneously assumed that this girl must have helped him remove her pants and therefore consented to the act. After the Supreme Court verdict, many Italian women parliamentarians were uncomfortable with the decision. The next day, the women appeared in Congress wearing jeans. The California legislature adopted the act of protest and then created Denim Day (Jean Day). The Los Angeles Peace over Violence organization promoted the event as a symbol of the fight against sexual abuse. Since then, worldwide, wearing a denim garment is a conscious protest, where wearing jeans shows someone is on the side of the victims.
MSU decided April 26 would be the date for the event since organizations use this date worldwide for this type of peaceful protest. Additionally, the month of April is a time for advocates, survivors, their loved ones and the community to come together to talk openly about sexual violence to support survivors, increase knowledge and awareness and identify strategies and resources to prevent sexual violence.
Teresa Lopez, the project specialist at the residence life and housing office, said it is not common for the faculty and staff team to wear jeans at work, so wearing them during working hours represents that they as a university community are united against sexual harassment.
“It’s not something that we get to wear on everyday basis being in a professional field, so it’s a way of showing we still being professional while also showing we are a united university,” Lopez said.
For students, psychology senior and peer educator Samantha Garcia said she was pleased to see that every year more students are aware of the sensitive issues the peer educators try to spread. She said seeing so many students wearing jeans on April 26 reflects that the message is being not only received, but also understood.
“It’s definitely getting better over the years. I remember last year only seeing the housing department wearing it, but this year I definitely saw an improvement. I feel like it further proves that we’re doing our job right and that we’re actually spreading awareness,” Garcia said.
Teresa Lopez said emphasizing the physical and mental health of MSU students is a priority for all the faculty and staff. She said the goal is for students to always have someone willing to help and talk about any concern that students may have.
“We want to be able to have an open door policy where people, especially students can come in and have a talk and discuss things and know that they can come to this university and feel safe, since there are people here to support them no matter what’s going on,” Lopez said.
