Clothesline gives voice to victims
In league with the National Domestic Violence Awareness month, the university’s Women’s Center for Lifelong Learning held a week long Clothesline Project which ended Friday.
The project, discontinued by BYU in 1996, ended its eighth annual display at Utah State University, providing one way for domestic abuse victims to express themselves and be heard.
The project, which originated in Cape Cod, Mass., was brought to USU in 1993 by Janet Osborne, director of the Women’s Center for Lifelong Learning.
T-shirts designed by victims of domestic abuse hung on clotheslines in the Sunburst Lounge of the Taggart Student Center for one week.
“The clothesline reminds us that not everybody’s life is good,” Osborne said. “Sometimes it is important for us to pause and think about it. It is really a global problem.”
“I think it is a very worthwhile project. It helps the healing process,” Becky Hardcastle, secretary of the Women’s Center, said.
Osborne said, “Therapists and counselors think it was quite helpful. Sometimes, it is not just one thing that helps a person. What it becomes is a series of things to process, and this is just one avenue.”
When asked to comment on the issue of censorship, Osborne said she will not ever censor what the victims feel. She said the victim’s voice to her is the important aspect of the project.
“To me, it wouldn’t be a clothesline project if you have to say, ‘Well you can process this but you can’t say that’,” Osborne said. “That does not make sense to me.”
On April 17, 2000, The Salt Lake Tribune published an article by the Associated Press, stating the same project organized by BYU’s students was discontinued due to decisions made by BYU officials. The article also mentioned one reason the project was banned was due to some critical reference to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A few years ago, BYU made a decision to make a program that would look at the overall solution to domestic violence instead of just talking about it, said Carrie Jenkins, assistant director of BYU’s Public Communication.
She said the university wanted to focus on long-term programs, such as year-long lectures and conferences to help domestic abuse victims rather than just on the Clothesline Project.
Contrary to the article, Jenkins said the display was never shut down, although it has been discontinued.
“There were some concerns by some of the sensitivity of some of the T-shirts from the outside and inside voices of BYU. But the issue was more on what we can do to help solve these problems and how we can help our students,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins also said there were concerns whether or not the words on the T-shirts were truthful.
“There were a few shirts that were asked to be taken down,” Jenkins said.
Osborne said, “Sometimes some of the shirts are quite graphic. I am sure that there are some people who would find them offensive, and my response to that is that I find violence offensive.
“And if you have never experienced violence, then it may be hard to understand how one would have to express what it feels like. The woman is expressing herself as a result of what happened to her. It is her voice and I don’t expect her to be nice,” she said.
Despite BYU’s stand, Jenkins said, the week-long Clothesline Project has little or no affect on helping domestic abuse victims heal.
Osborne thinks otherwise.
“I think the issue of what and how it is expressed is not the important part of this project,” Osborne said. “The important part is that women have a voice. How they feel to voice their feelings is up to them.”
Mary, a former victim of domestic abuse, whose name was changed for confidentiality purposes, agreed with Osborne. Mary, who was mentally abused, said there was little outside help available when she was a victim.
“If you had programs and help like that [project], I’m sure it would help in the healing process,” Mary said. “I think sometimes women talking about themselves and knowing there have been people who have experienced the same things are helpful.”
Osborne said, “I appreciate this administration’s views as far as I know in terms of diversity and in terms of inclusiveness on all kinds of issues. Because for me, that is what an institution of higher learning is all about.”