Denim Day: Students line downtown streets with jeans

The women of the Italian legislature wore jeans to work to protest the ruling, and ever since, one Wednesday in April is designated as Denim Day. The idea of tying the project to blue jeans came from HRV art teacher Carol Birdsell. “We needed a canvas, a format for kids to work on,” she said. “The jeans became a symbolic canvas.”

Some jeans were adorned with slogans including “It’s on us“ and “No means no,” while others had more intricate messages: some students used camouflage designs to represent the fact that women in the military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed in combat, while others used men’s jeans and children’s jeans to show that not just women are the victims of sexual assault.

“I drew hands on mine and wrote, ‘Stop!’” said sophomore Sandra Piatt, who took part in the installation. “I also wrote, ‘My body, my rules.’” Piatt said she wanted to take part in the project because “a lot of my friends and family have been victims of sexual assault. I wanted to get out and help prevent it.”

Six HRV students participated in the installation: sophomores Peter Koenig, Allison Thompson, Sofie Larsen-Teskey, and Piatt, junior Lexi Lane, and senior Deylan Gudiel.

“It was a great experience for the students,” said Birdsell. “A few of them weren’t even in my classes. They wanted to work on the issue so they came in on their own time. They were motivated by the issue.”

Although it was removed (a new location is in the works), Birdsell liked the public nature of the installation. “It was a really good experience for the kids to interact with the public because that’s what art is,” she said. “It’s interacting and informing the general public about your message.”

Piatt agreed with Birdsell’s assessment. “It was really thrilling going down there and being a part of this group,” she said. “They were all so into it and they all wanted to make a change. I really liked seeing how many people cared.”