Clothesline Project sheds light on violence against women
By Jamie Organski
Staff Writer
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Photo courtesy of the women's center |
April 1 and 2 the Seymour College Union Ballroom was filled to the brim with feelings of sadness, anger, hope and of course — T-shirts. It’s that time of year again where students and faculty were invited to visit the Clothesline Project to “break the silence and bear witness” to violence against women.
The Clothesline Project is a public exhibit that displays a variety of T-shirts hung side-by-side on clotheslines. Each shirt is decorated by either a survivor or a loved one within the community to represent a particular woman’s experience with violence.
The Clothesline Project delivered what could only be described as an emotional shock, with shirts filling up the entire center of the ballroom, trailing alongside the walls and up a small staircase.
Amber Humphrey, a women and gender studies professor at The College at Brockport, said she has visited, if not volunteered at the Clothesline Project every year it has come to campus.
“The Clothesline Project is an amazingly powerful learning experience,” Humphrey said. “It allows students to hear from victims and survivors themselves through their shirts.”
Humphrey said she also feels that students get more out of the exhibit than they originally thought they would.
“Students are usually surprised by how emotionally intense the experience of reading the T-shirts turns out to be,” Humphrey said. “They feel both sad and angry. Sometimes they feel hopeless, seeing hundreds of shirts and knowing they represent real people here in our community.”
Humphrey said she hopes that the Clothesline Project can help make “silent” victims and survivors of violence feel that they are not alone.
“It’s important to note that there are many more victims and survivors in our community who have not made a shirt and may never tell anyone about their experiences,” Humphrey said. “For those of us who have made it through sexist violence, the Clothesline Project can be a lifeline. We realize that we are not alone and we break the silence by making our own shirt and adding our voice.”
Humphrey said students of hers have used the experience of the Clothesline Project to help them in certain aspects of their careers and also to give them the strength to talk about difficult issues with their families.
“I have had students majoring in criminal justice, social work and nursing tell me that they will remember the experience as they go into their careers dealing with victims and perpetrators,” Humphrey said. “Some students have used the Clothesline Project to open up dialogues with their families and friends about violence against women. They tell them how to get help and how to make changes.”
Lindsay Hansen, a junior, said she thinks there should be more programs like the Clothesline Project on campus to raise awareness about violence.
“More programs like this need to take place on campus, because it’s a huge issue,” Hansen said. “When I have to use two hands to count the number of my friends who made shirts or could have made shirts, it’s too high, and something is definitely wrong.”
Hansen raises a valid point mentioning that there are not many programs, or at least programs that are highly publicized, to support men in their fight against violence.
“I think there needs to be something for men on this campus,” Hansen said. “It could be for a group of men who have been victims of sexual assault or domestic violence and want to say, ‘It’s not just women; it’s a problem for us too,’ or a group of men who say, ‘I won’t ever do this, and I want to make sure that no other men do, either.’ We put a lot of pressure on women to not become victims, but we don’t ever put that degree of pressure on men not to be abusers.”
Organizers of the Clothesline Project are taking steps in that direction, asking men to join together to show their disapproval of violence against women with a program called “These Hands,” which was displayed this year.
Men pledge to end violence against women by stamping one of their hands in paint and leaving their handprint on a large white banner to show their support and a need for change.
“History is full of examples of things that seemed unchangeable, but did change,” Humphrey said. “We all have the power to say that this is unacceptable and that we will not condone intimate partner abuse, sexual abuse, hate crimes, or the ideas, attitudes and traditions that make these things possible.”
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