Op-Ed: 'Denim Day California': Diminished By a Single Word

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California has long been on the forefront of protecting its citizens' rights, so it was hardly a surprise when the Senate and Assembly got together to craft Senate Concurrent Resolution 43, to recognize April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and further to designate April 29 as "Denim Day California," in honor of an 18-year-old sexual assault victim whose attacker was turned loose by the Italian Supreme Court in 1998 because, according to the court's ruling, "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." Seems that that ruling inspired women in the Italian Parliament, not to mention sexual rights activists across Europe and much of the rest of the world, to protest that ruling by wearing jeans to work, and by designating one day each year as "Denim Day" in memory of that victim. The complete text of the proposed Resolution, while was filed on Monday, April 20, and is presumably on a fast track, can be found here. But there's just one problem: The fifth "WHEREAS" clause of the Resolution reads, "WHEREAS, Women, children, and men suffer multiple types of sexual violence, including acquaintance rape, stranger rape, sexual assault by an intimate partner, gang rape, incest, serial rape, ritual abuse, sexual harassment, child sexual molestation, prostitution, pornography, and stalking ..." Can anyone see the problem? First of all, the "pornography" made in California by the legal adult movie and content production industry is aggressively (if one can use that word) NON-violent, although sometimes performers act out consensual though violent-appearing scenarios in the course of making a movie or Web content, not unlike Hollywood movies that feature actors engaging in fake torture and killings. Beyond that, San Francisco is arguably one of the birthplaces of the prostitution legalization movement, with many activists such as Dr. Carol Queen and sex worker Maxine Doogan currently working to overturn archaic laws regarding what women may do commercially with their own bodies. It is in fact those very archaic laws that allow pimps to victimize women engaged in prostitution, since if the women go to the police to escape the pimp, they themselves may be charged with a crime. As an example, TheGuardian.com (UK) website recently reported, "More than 70% of UK sex workers have previously worked in healthcare, education or charities, while more than a third hold university degrees, according to one of the largest surveys of the industry ever undertaken." So on behalf of the legal adult industry in California, we hope that the bill's main sponsors and co-sponsors, which include Sens. Cathleen Galgiani and Marty Block, as well as Los Angeles area representatives Sens. Robert M. Hertzberg and Fran Pavley and Assemblymembers Travis Allen, Young O. Kim and Tom Lackey, will see fit to delete the references to "pornography" and "prostitution" as creators of "multiple types of sexual violence." Pictured, l-r: Maxine Doogan and supporter.