'Denim Day' to Include Collection for Crisis Center

04/24/2018

“Denim Day,” an international activist event, will be held on Wednesday, April 25 from 1:15 to 3:45 p.m. in Room 253B, Busch Student Center.  This year's event includes a donation drive to benefit the YWCA of Metro St. Louis and its crisis intervention services.

The day's speakers and performers include Anna Kratky, SLU's Title IX Coordinator at 1:30 p.m., the SLU Breaking Out Campaign at 2:15 p.m., and Decadence at 3:30 p.m.

Donations will be collected for the YWCA of Metro St. Louis, which provides crisis intervention services for survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence, as well as programs in racial justice, economic empowerment, and health and safety for women throughout the metro St. Louis region with its mission of “eliminating racism, empowering women.”

In partnership with the YWCA Metro St. Louis, students in American Studies 2700/Women's and Gender Studies 2930 class: “Gender, Race, and Social Justice,” will provide information and programming to educate people about sexual assault, crisis services, rape prevention, and anti-violence activism.

This event will be part of “Denim Day,” which was initiated in the 1990s when a rape conviction was overturned by the Italian Supreme Court, which decided that since the victim had been wearing tight jeans when she was assaulted, she must have removed them herself, and that she thereby consented. In solidarity with the victim, the women of the Parliament wore jeans the next day. “Denim Day” in years since has been an annual expression of that solidarity.