The End of the Jeans Defense – A Not A Moment Too Soon
July 23rd, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Gender, Human Rights, Italy, Patriarchy, rape, Sexism, Social Deviance, Structural Violence
Here is the story, again, from Italy. Ten years ago, a man sexually assaults a teenager and gets convicted of rape. He appeals his conviction, arguing that the sexual encounter was not rape because the young woman was wearing a pair of jeans. Jeans are hard to remove, ergo, no rape because, obviously, the young woman had to have helped in the jeans removal.
In 1999, the Appeals Court subscribed to this reasoning in a different case where a driving school instructor was accused of raping an 18-year old. Italian women were not pleased and started wearing jeans everywhere in protest, at work, in Parliament, etc.
Today, the same Court reinstated the conviction, stating that jeans are not chastity belts and the fact that the woman was wearing jeans was no obstacle to her being raped. Case closed. Ten years too late.
Posted in Gender, Human Rights, Sexism, Social Deviance, Structural Violence | No Comments »
