THERE IS NO EXCUSE AND NEVER AN INVITATION TO RAPE

A series of public projections in collaboration with Peace Over Violence

April 2014

 

Since 1999, Peace Over Violence has run the Denim Day campaign in honor of Sexual Violence 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. Peace Over Violence developed the Denim Day campaign in response to this case and the activism surrounding it. 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, community members, elected officials, businesses and students are asked to make a social statement with their fashion by wearing jeans as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault. Denim Day 2014 focused on educating the community at large on the legal definition of consent.