Kent State encourages students to fight back against sexual assault by wearing denim clothing on April 27  in solidarity with Denim Day.

Denim Day started in 1999 after the Italian High Court acquitted a driving instructor that raped his student after he served time.

The court statements argued that the victim’s jeans were too tight for the perpetrator to remove without the victim’s help. This statement started to become commonly known as the “jeans alibi.”

The women of the Italian parliament wore jeans to work in protest of the ruling.

International media started to cover the protest and eventually, the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence organized the official Denim Day, according to the Denim Day website.

The Center for Sexual and Relationship Violence Support Services is encouraging Kent State students to participate.

“We as women, or even men, should be able to wear what we want to wear when we’re out and not be harassed,” said Yvette Roberts, the support services coordinator for the SRVSS office.

Kent State has been honoring this day since Roberts started at the university 4 years ago.

“I encourage our community to show support this denim day and take pictures with them wearing jeans on Wednesday and share to their social media websites,” Roberts said.

Take a picture of yourself wearing denim and tag @SRVSSKSU and #DenimDayKSU on social media on April 27.

Katherine Masko is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].