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Wednesday’s Denim Day Campaign Seeks to Start Conversations About Silent Plague of Sexual Violence

Published on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 | 5:44 am
 
Pasadena City Council proclaims support Denim Day during its Monday, April 24, 2017 meeting.

In a stand of solidarity with both male and female victims of sexual violence, Mayor Terry Tornek, Assemblyman Chris Holden and State Senator Anthony Portantino on Monday proclaimed support for this week’s “Denim Day” campaign, when people are encouraged to wear jeans as a way show support for the victims and start conversations that lead to greater awareness of this plague.

Denim Day — held this Wednesday, April 26 — stems from a 1999 Italian Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a rape conviction because the victims jeans were allegedly so tight, Justices argued that the victim would have had to consent and help her rapist remove them.

Women members of Italy’s Parliament reacted with outrage at the ruling, wearing jeans in protest. The denim wearing reaction to what the Parliamentarians called the Justices’ ignorance, insensitivity and bias morphed into today’s Denim Day, a key date in the Sexual Violence Awareness Month of April.

“I think we are helping shift this paradigm about breaking through the silence around sexual violence that’s been so devastating. The goal is to support survivors and help create a climate where they are not re-victimized and that they can come forward and seek help and seek justice,” said Peace Over Violence Executive Director Patricia Giggans.

“Our jeans become a way in to start this conversation that is a pretty hard topic to talk about,” said Giggans.

The Commission on the Status of Women and Peace Over Violence received a Proclamation from the City of Pasadena Monday night in recognition of Denim Day on April 26 to bring awareness to sexual assault and its crippling effects on communities throughout the world

“Denim Day is really important to me because it is an opportunity to get out into the neighborhoods and educate people about sexual assault. It used to be that sexual assault was a taboo to discuss,” said sexual assault survivor Christina Mauro who fell victim 25 years ago.

Mauro is a member of the Peace Over Violence Speakers Bureau “Voices over Violence” which is comprised of individuals willing to share and discuss in an open and educational way their experiences with sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence.

Speakers are able to address common myths surrounding violence, resources, and the healing process — something she says is different for everyone.

“It’s an ongoing healing process. I don’t think it’s something that just goes away. It’s something that becomes part of your DNA. It is who you are now,” said Mauro.

“As I’ve gone through the years, it’s become a little easier to talk about and I’ve been collecting these tools to help me educate people on a much larger scale,” added Mauro.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, women who are sexually abused by intimate partners suffer severe and long-lasting physical and mental health problems, similar to those of other rape victims.

They have higher rates of depression and anxiety than women who were either raped by a non-intimate partner or physically abused, but not sexually abused by an intimate partner.

“How you feel about the event you experienced changes from day to day and year to year. It’s a constant process you have to deal with and choose how you want to live your life with this being a permanent part of who you are,” explained Mauro.

Denim Day’s intent to raise awareness about sexual violence is just the starting point for giving people the courage to speak out and seek support.

“I think we’ve made a difference. Survivors are coming out of the woodwork and they are saying ‘it happened to me and I’m not going to be silent anymore. I’m not carrying this blame anymore’,” said Giggans. “People who were raped twenty years ago continue to come to our offices to seek help,” explained Giggans.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States has been raped in their lifetime. Almost half of female (46.7 percent) and male (44.9 percent) victims of rape in the United States were raped by an acquaintance.

Of these, 45.4 percent of female rape victims and 29 percet of male rape victims were raped by an intimate partner.

“Most people aren’t prepared to be a victim. That’s something that they’ve never imagined and never wanted to happen in their life. Most people don’t know what to do when they’ve been a victim,” said Pasadena Police Sgt. Schuyler Sandeen.

“The vast majority of rapes that we have now days are not stranger rapes,” Sandeed added. “Typically it’s somebody that somebody already knows or even has recently met and has known in sometime of a social setting. Those are the things we have to consider and that’s part of the stigma that comes once someone’s been victimized is ‘what do I do now?’,” explained Sandeen.

Most female victims of completed rape (78.7 percent) experienced their first rape before the age of 25 and almost half (40.4 percent) experienced their first rape before age 18 (28.3 percent) between 11 and 17 years old and 12.1 percent at or before the age of 10, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

According to Sandeen, there was an uptick in rape cases in Pasadena during March of this year.

“In my experience, it’s not consistent. We can go a month or so with very few and then all of the sudden we’ll get hit with a bunch. I wouldn’t say that it’s going down, but it’s definitely remaining steady,” said Sandeen.

Denim Day and Sexual Violence Awareness Month concerns a demographic that is often overlooked as victims–males.

“We’re finding out more and more how young boys have been sexually assaulted by some of their most trusted people,” explained Giggans who said that one in six males are victims of sexual assault.

Earlier this month a male student at Pasadena City College was allegedly raped by another male in a campus locker room.

The suspect has yet to be identified and the investigation is still ongoing, according to Sandeen.

“Most sexual assault reports involving males are male juveniles,” said Sandeen.

According to National Data on Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Violence, and Stalking, more than a quarter of male victims of completed rape (28 percent) were first raped when they were 10 years old or younger.

The Pasadena Commission on the Status of Women is partnering with Peace Over Violence are asking community members, elected officials, businesses and students to make a social statement with their fashion by wearing jeans on this day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault.

For more information, visit http://www.peaceoverviolence.org/.

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