Wear your Canadian Tuxedo for a great cause! Today is Denim Day in LA & USA, a rape prevention educational effort where people, politicians and students are asked to wear jeans as a visual protest against the misconceptions of sexual assault.
Why denim? The story goes back to Italy in 1990 when an 18-year-old girl was raped by her 45-year-old driving instructor. He forced her out of the car and made her remove her jeans. She brought charges against the perpetrator, who was prosecuted and sent to jail. He appealed. The case went to the Corte Suprema di Cassazione, where the case was overturned. Why? The chief judge 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.”
Women in the Parlamento Italian immediately protested by wearing jeans to work.
The movement made its way to Los Angeles in 1999 and has continued every year since then.