Denim Day at USC

April 26, 2018

I came across the Denim Day event held by VOICE volunteers of USC Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services (RSVP) at USC Village. They provided information and held arts and crafts activities. I got to learn about Denim Day and misconceptions on gender based violence.

Denim Day (April 25th) is held to raise awareness of rape and sexual assault. The event originated from a legal case that took place in the Italian Supreme Court in 1992. A driving instructor was accused of rape during a driving lesson. The Italian Supreme court overturned the conviction because the judges felt that the victim must have helped the rapist remove her jeans because she was wearing tight jeans (which supposedly would have been nearly impossible to take off without active collaboration of the victim) and they concluded that it should be consent. Incensed at this nonsense, the women in the Italian Parliament went to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. Peace over Violence started the Denim Day campaign.  “Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault” says Peace over Violence.

USC RSVP  located in Engemann Student Health Center, provides therapy services for situations related to gender and power-based harm (e.g., sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking). They also provide various workshops and training to students, staff, and faculty. Topics include sexual assault/sexual violence, consent, healthy relationships, stalking, and other information related to gender or power-based harm. Moreover, they also promote Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October), Stalking Awareness Month (January), and Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April), and Denim Day (April). Here is a link to their website for more information: https://www.peaceoverviolence.org/denim-day/

VOICE; Violence Outreach Intervention and Community Empowerment, is a peer outreach program. They are dedicated to increase awareness at USC on sexual violence and gender based harm to engage USC students in supporting survivors of trauma and preventing sexual and gender-based violence in their respective communities on campus.

There are so many gender violence victims all over the world. We should not turn a blind eye and tolerate this. It is very important to raise awareness to prevent gender based violence. If you think likewise, support USC VOICE volunteers at their upcoming events and don’t forget to follow them on Instagram (@uscrsvp)!

Thank you for reading my post! See you in the next post.

References:

https://engemannshc.usc.edu/rsvp/voice/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denim_Day

https://www.peaceoverviolence.org/denim-day/

Published on April 26th, 2018

Last updated on April 1st, 2021


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