April 14, 2017
By Emory News
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the Respect Program, SGA, Campus Life, the IPVWG, Emory Healthcare, SAAW, SAPA, and FSAP are commemorating it with a month of events culminating in Emory Denim Day on Wednesday, April 19th.
Emory Denim Day is both an awareness event AND a fundraiser. The Emory Student Government Association will donate $1 to the Respect Program for each Emory student, staff, employee, or faculty member wearing denim in a picture sent to the Respect Program on Emory Denim Day (i.e. $1 for every person participating in the day of action!).
This is a great opportunity to come together as an office or department to show your public support for survivors while helping raise money! Your office was a collaborator last year and we’d like to continue that partnership and would love your assistance in any way you see fit. Last year we had several departments, teams, and organizations send in group photos. Let’s get the number of participating groups in triple digits this year! See below for how to get involved.
This national day of action* originates from a 1992 Italian court case involving a sexual assault. Six years after the original conviction of the rapist, the conviction was overturned. Because the survivor was wearing tight women’s jeans, the appeals judge ruled that “she had to help the accused remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer sexual assault but consensual sex.” Although in 2008 the original ruling was finally re-instated (it took a decade!), victim-blaming like that is still a widespread issue globally affecting survivors and all those impacted by violence. Wearing jeans on Emory Denim Day is a simple way to stand in solidarity against victim-blaming; sexual assault is never the survivor’s fault. We can all work together to end sexual violence.
*We commemorate the day of action one week earlier than the National campaign, due to final exams period. But we are a part of the movement and send them support and pictures on the National day!
Here are just four ways to support #EmoryDenimDay:
- Wear jeans or denim on Wednesday, April 19th. (and get your friends to as well!)
- Stop by the table at Wonderful Wednesday, Rollins Café, Highland Bakery, or another location to make a sign showing how you support survivors (the full schedule of tabling locations/hours for April 19th will be posted here next week)
- Take pictures of you/your colleagues/students wearing jeans and tag/share them to the Respect Program. (so that we get donations from SGA!)
- Email pictures to respect@emory.edu (let us know if you want us to post them online or not)
- Tweet pics @RespectWell (use #EmoryDenimDay!)
- Instagram @Respect_Program (use #EmoryDenimDay!)
- Post your photos on the Respect Facebook page!
- Donate to support the Respect Program. This could include a small donation per person for getting to wear jeans on a Wednesday. Your donation will benefit awareness campaigns and months of programming, Sexual Assault Peer Advocates (SAPA), the Sexual Assault Forum to Educate Greeks (SAFE Greeks), Emory Active Bystander Skills (ABS), and much more. Donations can be made by check to Emory University Division of Campus Life with “Respect Program”.