Clothesline addresses female abuse

According to the Georgia Department of Human Resources (1998), every nine seconds a woman is battered in the United States. Because of statistics like this, the Women’s Resource Center will once again present the Clothesline Project.

“Gender-based violence can happen anywhere, including our community in Milledgeville, and (it) does,” said Jennifer Graham Stephens, interim coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center and one of the creators of the Clothesline Project. “By educating ourselves and promoting awareness about these forms of violence, we can, as a community, work to end violence against women.”

The project is a visual exhibit of T-shirts with real messages and images that have been created by women survivors of violence or by someone who cares for a woman who has been killed. The aim of the project is to increase awareness of the impact of violence against women, to celebrate a woman’s strength to survive and to offer another opportunity for women to bravely break the silence that frequently surrounds their experience.

“I want to educate people about violence against women and promote awareness about these forms of violence in the community,” said Stephens. “I also want to provide an outlet for the survivors of different forms of violence against women to speak out and break the silence about gender-based violence.”

The International Clothesline Project began in Cape Cod, Mass. in 1990. It was established by a group of women who wanted to educate, raise awareness and speak out about gender-based violence.

“The T-shirts are meant to represent each woman’s story but also represent visually the airing of society’s dirty laundry,” said Jennifer Lindenberger, the creator of the Clothesline Project and a Women’s Resource Center volunteer.

“In the spring of 2003, I was taking an independent study with Dr. Susan Cumings on domestic violence. Dr. Cumings asked me to bring the project to our campus as part of my class,” said Lindenberger. “With the help of my friend Jennifer Graham-Stephens, we put the project up in April and had around 75 shirts created. Since then, we have had the project on campus three more times, and every year it grows. We currently have around 175 T-shirts from three years.”

Although everyone, men and women, are allowed to participate in making the t-shirts, the project is aimed at women, said Stephens.

Volunteers for the Clothesline Project are students of GC&SU, including some who also volunteer for the Women’s Resource Center.

“I became involved with the Clothesline Project because I wanted to help with the awareness of violence against women,” said Senior English major Amelia Mills.

The number one priority of the project is confidentiality.

“No one knows who (makes) the shirts, Lindenberger said. “We don’t want more terrible things (to happen) to them.”

There is also a color code guideline for shirt making. White shirts are for women who have been murdered as a result of sexual or domestic violence. Red, pink or orange shirts are for women who have been raped or sexually assaulted. Yellow or beige shirts are for women who have been battered. Blue or green shirts are for women survivors of incest of child sexual abuse. Purple or lavender shirts are for women attacked because they were or were thought to be lesbian. Gray shirts are for emotional abuse, and black shirts are for women attacked because of a disability.

The Clothesline Project shirts will be displayed on front campus Oct. 10 to 14 from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Other events for Domestic Violence Awareness Month include a brown bag lunch discussing domestic violence and what students can do. It will be held on October 11 at 12:30 p.m. on front campus. On October 13 at 7 p.m. on front campus, there will be candle light vigil in honor of survivors of violence against women.

“I feel that it is important for students to know that domestic violence can happen to anyone, as can any of the forms of violence against women,” Stephens said. “Gender-based violence, including domestic violence, knows no boundaries. It does not care how old you are, what color your skin is, how much education you have or how much money you make.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 7 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry