It’s Not Rape If You’re Wearing Jeans

It’s a good thing skinny jeans are going out of fashion because wearing them means you’re basically agreeing to be raped.

At least that’s what an Australian court ruled yesterday.

Of course if history can be trusted, it looks like no jeans are safe from scrutiny.

Nicholas Gonzales had sex with a 24 year old woman. He claims it was consensual and she claims it was not.

Of course, what is a jury to do under the circumstances other than look at all the available evidence and try to come to a reasonable conclusion? Evidence like what she was wearing.

When defense lawyer Paul Hogan questioned the alleged victim, he said: “I’m suggesting it’s difficult for skinny jeans to be taken off by someone else unless the wearer’s assisting, collaborating, consenting.”

To which she replied: “I would disagree.”

Being a good lawyer doing his job properly, he wanted his client to walk. All he had to do was sew the seed of doubt with the jury, which he appears to have done masterfully.

The jury requested more information from the judge about “how exactly Nick took off her jeans,” and a note from one juror read “I doubt those kind of jeans can be removed without any sort of collaboration.”

The old she-must-helped-me-with-her-jeans-because-they-are-so-tight-(and-that-makes-her-a-slut) defense is not a new one. When an Italian court ruled that: ”Jeans cannot be removed easily and certainly it is impossible to pull them off if the victim is fighting against her attacker with all her force,” the whole country erupted in anger. Female lawmakers wore jeans to Parliament and women across the country slapped on the denim to show how ludicrous the ruling was.

At the time Italian Parliamentarian Alessandra Mussolini said ”That decision seemed like it came from 50 years ago. The judges obviously have no sensitivity to the psychology of rape — no understanding of how victims think or how real life works.”

Half a world away and a decade later not much has changed.