Students, groups observe Denim Day

By John Henry

Published April 25, 2008

In honor of Denim Day, MU students worked to raise awareness and educate other students about the issue of sexual assault on campus and in the world on Thursday.

Denim Day commemorates the reaction to a controversial 1999 rape ruling, in which the Italian supreme court found a taxi driver not guilty of raping a woman under the grounds she was wearing extremely tight jeans. The court said there was no way she could have participated in sex without consensually agreeing to take her jeans off. Women in the Italian parliament protested the court’s decision and decided to wear jeans to work one day.

Since their act, numerous observances of the case have taken place across the world.

MU Denim Day Director Sarah Shollar helped coordinate this year’s event at Lowry Mall with the Department of Textile and Apparel Management. She said she thought Denim Day was a big success because of the wide range of people who attended.

“We had so many people come by between students and teachers,” Shollar said. “With the high school band stuff going on, the high-schoolers pass on that information (sexual assault awareness) to their parents too.”

Before holding the event, Shollar and other students went to Gov. Matt Blunt’s office in Jefferson City to ask him to proclaim April 24 Denim Day in Missouri. Shollar said a number of institutions across the state already observe the day.

“We have gotten 82 other high schools, junior highs and organizations throughout Missouri to participate this year,” Shollar said.

Planned Parenthood and The Shelter were among some of the organizations present at the event. Students who approached the Denim Day area were given free condoms and rape whistles, along with information on sexual assault.

MU graduate student Kristen Walle is an intern at Planned Parenthood. She said in Missouri, getting the word out about sexual education is extremely important after a bill the state General Assembly passed into law last year. The bill made it illegal in the state of Missouri for anyone associated with an abortion service to provide information related to sexual education to students in public schools.

“We feel like we especially have to reach out to college students who may not have gotten all of the information that we necessarily think they should have gotten in high school,” Walle said.

Planned Parenthood Education and Outreach Coordinator Ellen Baker said she could only teach students about sexual education in jail, probation meetings or rehab clinics. She said the state is doing the people of Missouri an injustice through its new law.

“The message in the state of Missouri is we are going to wait until you get into trouble before we teach you how to stay out of trouble,” Baker said. “It is really a slap in the face of teenagers because we do not think they can handle the truth.”

Overall, Shollar just wants to make sure people learn as much about sexual assault as they possibly can. She advises anyone who has been sexually assaulted to make his or her case known.

“Rape awareness is a very important issue and for those males and females who have been victimized my advice is to take a stand either for themselves or their attacker’s next victim,” Shollar said.