Denim Day 2012

This year Denim Day took place on Wednesday, April 25. Denim Day helps promote the fight against sexual violence with a fashion statement. Employees at Mammoth Hospital took the time to wear their denim and take a photo.

The idea behind Denim Day arose in Italy in the 1990s. An 18-year-old girl was picked up by her married 45-year old driving instructor for her very first lesson. He took her to an isolated road, pulled her out of the car, wrestled her out of one leg of her jeans and forcefully raped her. Threatened with death if she told anyone, he made her drive the car home. Later that night she told her parents, and they helped and supported her in press charges. The perpetrator was arrested and prosecuted. He was convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.

He appealed the sentence. The case made it all the way to the Italian Supreme Court. Within a matter of days the case against the driving instructor was overturned, dismissed, and the perpetrator released. In a statement by the Chief Judge, he argued, “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.”

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. The incident sparked the annual Denim Day recognition.