What is Denim Day?

For the past 19 years, Peace Over Violence has run the Denim Day in USA campaign on the last Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The campaign was originally triggered by a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim.

Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault. In this rape prevention education campaign, The Phoenix Center at Auraria (PCA) and campus partners ask faculty, staff, and students to make a social statement with their fashion by wearing jeans on this day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault.

Send your photos of you in denim to em.alves@ucdenver.edu, or tag us on instagram at @PhoenixAuraria!