Denim
Day - April 21st - Mission College
Denim Day started
five years ago in response to an Italian Supreme Court decision
to overturn a rape conviction because the victim wore jeans. The
justices reasoned that because the tight fitting clothing could
not be easily removed without cooperation and were impossible
to take off if someone were resisting, the assault must have been
consensual. As a result, women worldwide protested the decision
by wearing jeans and today people all over the world wear denim
to acknowledge that rape cannot and should not be blamed on the
victim.
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This is all part of Sexual
Assault Awareness Month, which should be a time for us to reflect
on our behavior and the environments we create at school, the
office, in social situations and at home.
Please Join us in Celebrating Denim Day at Mission College - this
Wednesday - April 21st at Mission College
Clothesline Project
- Campus Quad - Weds. April 21st - noon to 6 pm
Please join Staff
Development and the Diversity Committee in the Mission College
Campus Quad this Weds. April 21st from noon to 6 pm.
We will be participating in the "Clothesline Project"
- click here for
more information
HISTORY OF THE CLOTHESLINE PROJECT:
According to the Men's Rape Prevention Project in Washington DC,
58,000 soldiers died in the Vietnam war. During that same period
of time, 51,000 women were killed mostly by men who supposedly
loved them. In the summer of 1990, that statistic became the catalyst
for a coalition of women's groups on Cape Cod, Massachusetts to
consciously develop a program that would educate, break the silence
and bear witness to one issue - violence against women.
This small, core group
of women, many of whom had experienced some form of personal violence,
wanted to find a unique way to take staggering, mind-numbing statistics
and turn them into a provocative, "in-your-face" educational
and healing tool.
One of the women, visual
artist Rachel Carey-Harper, moved by the power of the AIDS quilt,
presented the concept of using shirts - hanging on a clothesline
- as the vehicle for raising awareness about this issue. The idea
of using a clothesline was a natural. Doing the laundry was always
considered women's work and in the days of close-knit neighborhoods
women often exchanged information over backyard fences while hanging
their clothes out to dry.
The concept was simple
- let each woman tell her story in her own unique way, using words
and/or artwork to decorate her shirt. Once finished, she would
then hang her shirt on the clothesline. This very action serves
many purposes. It acts as an educational tool for those who come
to view the Clothesline; it becomes a healing tool for anyone
who make a shirt - by hanging the shirt on the line, survivors,
friends and family can literally turn their back on some of that
pain of their experience and walk away; finally it allows those
who are still suffering in silence to understand that they are
not alone.
Gender Sensitivity
Workshop - Dr. Karmen Payne from Integrated Insights - Thursday
- April 22nd - 12:15 ("light lunch served") - to 2 pm
- Campus Center 5/6
Please join the Diversity
Committee in welcoming Dr. Karmen Payne who will conduct a workshop
in conjunction with Sexual Awareness Month and Denim Day activities
at Mission College. The workshop will include: gender sensitivity,
attitudes towards women, sexual harassment and sexual assault,
and re-evaluating personal attitudes and actions. A light lunch
will be served starting at 12:15 pm in Campus Center 5 and 6.
recommended links for your review:
Nevada Coalition Against Sexual
Violence
Los
Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women - Denim Day
“Denim Day” celebrated
in West Hollywood during April’s Sexual Assault Awareness
Month
California Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CALCASA)
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
- 2004
Women
Escaping a Violent Environment
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