Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Wear jeans on Denim Day — Wednesday, April 24 — to show support for victims of sexual assault and to raise awareness for intervention and prevention. 2024 marks 25 years since the first Denim Day was observed in the U.S.
In a large-scale observation of Denim Day, which takes place during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, 300 middle and high school students from Milwaukee Public Schools will attend a workshop and participate in a talkback and question-and-answer session.
The event, the 3rd annual by MPS, is intended to educate and create awareness around sexual assault, consent, and trauma. The event also will provide resources for reporting assault and recovering from assault.
“We know that 1 in 4 Black girls will be assaulted by the age of 18, 1 in 3 victims of sexual assault are under the age of 12, and for every incident that is reported, 15 go unreported,” said Glenna Scholle-Malone, Girls of Color coordinator in the Department of Gender and Identity Inclusion. Scholle-Malone is speaking at the MPS Denim Day event, to be held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“As a survivor, I believe equipping young girls of color with the awareness, tools, resources and support to feel empowered to advocate for themselves and others allows us to break the silence and break the cycle of sexual assault in our families and communities,” Scholle-Malone said.
The Denim Day event is organized through the MPS Department of Gender and Identity Inclusion, specifically the Girls of Color program. The department launched the event in response to feedback from listening sessions that Gender and Identity Inclusion held at 30 schools in the district.
Denim Day came about after Italy’s supreme court in 1998 overturned a sexual assault conviction, basing their action on the teenage victim’s wearing of tight jeans. They held that the man accused could not have removed her jeans without her help, indicating her consent.
The next day, women in the Italian Parliament wore jeans to protest the court’s ruling and in support of the victim.
Wearing jeans on the last Wednesday of April has become an international campaign against blaming the victim and for violence prevention.
Denim Day has been observed in the U.S. since 1999, to educate and to change attitudes about sexual misconduct.
Wearing jeans on April 24 with purple is intended to raise awareness about domestic violence; wearing them with orange raises awareness of violence against women and girls.
More information about Denim Day is at denimdayinfo.org. More information about the MPS Gender and Identity Inclusion Department can be found online, as well.