Clothesline makes students aware of violence
Each day many women fear being battered, abused, assaulted and attacked by someone even as close as a family member. Some are too scared to seek help and become locked in a destructive pattern of ruin.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Utah State University is doing its part to participate.
The USU Women’s Center, supported by Healthy Anti-Violent Environments Now (HAVEN), Community Abuse Prevention Services Agency (CAPSA) and Victim Services, is displaying The Clothesline Project, Oct. 21 to 25 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Taggart Student Center International Lounge.
The Clothesline Project is a visual display of T-shirts designed by women survivors of violence and by their friends and family members, who also honor those women who died as a result of violence.
“It can be a very powerful awareness tool,” said Janet Osborne, director of the Women’s Center. “Each woman designs a shirt as an expression of their own
experience.”
Each shirt represents a story of one woman, a real person dealing with the aftermath of violence.
“By reading and looking at the shirts and stories, the woman becomes real, not just a number,” Osborne said.
At USU, the project is very localized; all shirts come from women in Cache Valley.
“This project is part of the healing process,” Osborne said. “It draws on emotions and people need to have courage. Hopefully, by seeing the shirts, other victims might gain the courage to make their own.”
Survivors have commented that although the process is hard, this project is important for their healing, Osborne said.
“This is a chance to break the silence,” she said.
The Clothesline Project was created in 1990 in Massachusetts by a group of women called The Cape Cod Women’s Agenda. Their focus was to establish a tribute for women survivors and to give them a voice and a way to educate about violence against women.
In 1993, Osborne, through the Women’s Center, brought The Clothesline Project to USU, which became the first project in Utah.
Anyone who is interested in designing a shirt can contact the Women’s Center at 797-1728. The Women’s Center supplies all materials for those interested in designing a shirt.
-klm@cc.usu.edu