Wednesday’s Denim Day Will Raise Sexual Assault Awareness

Mayor Gordo officially recognized April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Pasadena at Monday’s Council meeting. The national campaign aims to educate the public about sexual assault and support survivors.

On Wednesday, the City will participate in Denim Day in LA, a national effort to raise awareness about sexual assault. City employees are encouraged to wear professional-looking denim jeans to show their support.

For the past 24 years, local nonprofit Peace Over Violence has run its Denim Day campaign on a Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Norma Fernandez, former chair of Pasadena’s Commission on the Status of Women, once commented that it takes cross-sector collaborations and educational awareness campaigns, such as Denim Day, to bring attention to this issue that continues to plague society.

Police said the number of reported rapes in Pasadena dropped sharply since the onset of the pandemic. From 52 in 2020, reported rapes fell by 57% to just 22 in 2022, according to Pasadena Police Lt. Monica Cuellar.

During the pandemic, Pasadena police officials worried that reporting sexual abuse had become more difficult because of stay-at-home health orders.

So far in 2023, just 5 rapes have been reported in Pasadena.

“We want to remind the survivor that they are not alone. We understand the victim will often struggle with being believed or taken seriously,” Cuellar told Pasadena Now. “There is no pressure to report but understanding the process during this traumatic experience and what to expect may ease their worries to help them move forward. We believe in encouraging, empowering, and supporting.”

Detectives from the Department’s Special Victims Unit are trained experts in the field and teach SVU procedures to patrol officers, schools and new detectives. The unit handles sexual assaults on minors and adults as well as child pornography, child abuse, elder abuse, missing persons and domestic violence-related incidents.

The Department continues to take steps to raise awareness about sexual assault by delivering presentations on internet safety to local school audiences,  according to Cuellar. The presentations are conducted by detectives from the Department’s Special Victims Unit.

Denim Day began after an infamous 1998 Italian Supreme Court decision overturned a rape conviction because the victim wore tight jeans.

The incident began when an 18-year-old girl was picked up by her married 45-year-old driving instructor for her first lesson.

The diver driver took her to an isolated road, pulled her out of the car, wrestled her out of one leg of her jeans and raped her.

The driver threatened her with death if she told anyone, and forced her to drive him home. He was later arrested and convicted of rape charges.

But after the case made its way to Italy’s High Court it was overturned after the judges ruled that “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.”

Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work.

This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same. People worldwide were outraged, and wearing jeans became an international symbol of protest against attitudes and myths surrounding sexual assault. Denim Day was born.