Violence against women is today one of the hottest issues on which we must clash and focus our attention. Denim Day was born with the intention of fighting so that this cruel gesture can become a distant memory.
How It Was Born
The initiative was born as a sign of protest against a sentence of the Italian Court of Cassation which, in November 1998, overturned the conviction for rape because the victim wore tight jeans (skinny model) “impossible to take off without his cooperation”.
According to the girl’s story that emerged from documents dating back to the time – it is July 12, 1992 – the instructor, after picking her up for the lesson, takes her to the nearby countryside where the abuse is consumed, which – as we have said – was not recognized in the acts of the Court of Cassation.
The next day, in protest, the Italian deputies showed up in parliament in jeans, while the following year, Denim Day was born in Los Angeles.
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Social Initiatives
In addition to wearing jeans, the symbol par excellence of this movement, to date this gesture has been flanked by other forms of protest, such as those on the social network TikTok: “What happened to me does not define me”. This is the sentence that everyone writes on Tik Tok taking part in the Denim day, the new trend that sees victims of sexual abuse as protagonists. By sharing their traumas, young people try to give courage to others who have suffered their own violence.
The hashtag has been viewed almost 94 million times and tens of thousands of people are telling their stories on the most popular social media among teenagers.
In the videos there are girls and boys showing off the often tattered clothes they wore the day they were raped. They show jeans, skirts, sweatshirts, overalls, to combat the cliché that a certain type of clothing exposes to violence more than others.
Their aim is to help those who are in the same situation, encouraging them to talk about it and report it.
