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Wednesday. If it wasn’t for the flowers and the new green leaves on the trees, I’d be asking “where the hell is my spring?”. It’s COLD, not snowing, thank goodness, but hand freezing cold. I can’t stand it any longer. And it won’t get warmer soon… And it bothers me that in the mail I only find folders with people wearing shorts or swimming pools or grills. But unless you wear the shorts in the house, put the swimming pool in front of the fireplace or grill in the garage, that’s not going to happen yet!

Today, April 29th, I’m participating in Denim Day. I believe that together we can make a difference.

If you wonder what Denim Days is, here is a bit of history I copied from denimdayinfo.org

An 18-year old girl is picked up by her married 45-year old driving instructor for her very first lesson. He takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her out of one leg of her jeans and forcefully rapes her. Threatened with death if she tells anyone, he makes her drive the car home. Later that night she tells her parents, and they help and support her to press charges. The perpetrator is arrested and prosecuted. He is convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.
He appeals the sentence. The case makes it all the way to the Italian Supreme Court. Within a matter of days the case against the driving instructor is overturned, dismissed, and the perpetrator released. In a statement by the Chief Judge, he argued, “because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”
Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same, which in turn spread to Patricia Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, and Denim Day in LA was born. The first Denim Day in LA was in April 1999, and has continued every year since.

Great. I’m taking driving lessons and my instructor three times rubbed my arm and once he patted my leg. I’m paranoid 99% of the time I’m awake and the other 1%, I must be waking up and still unconscious.
I don’t like living scared but I don’t like to live in denial thinking that nothing will happen. Because I know it could happen to me. It could happen to anyone. It did happen to many of my friends and what really bothers me is when the victim is blamed. “She must have done something”. “She asked for it”. NO. NO and NO.

That’s why today I’m wearing jeans. I’m supporting my sisters.

Please remember,

~ by DotedOn on April 29, 2015.