The Clothesline Project

The voices of 250 protestors of sexual assault and abuse were defiant in Utah State University’s International Lounge Monday and Tuesday, although there were no voices to be heard.

The Clothesline Project, a visual display of T-shirts designed by survivors of sexual attack, bears witness to violence against women. Susan Crosbie, an office staff member at Utah State’s Women’s Center said, “It is a way for survivors of domestic violence to find a voice, putting their feelings into an art form.”

Every October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the quiet but impactful protest has been a way for the Women’s Center to help community members become aware of the domestic violence crisis in our own valley. “Domestic violence and sexual assault is a lot more prevalent here than we think it is,” said Amber Taylor, a Utah State student involved with the project. “The general public in Cache Valley is not aware,” said Crosbie.

The idea for a “Clothesline Project,” started in the fall of 1990 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts where just 31 shirts hung. According to the Clothesline Project’s official website, “58,000 men soldiers died in the Vietnam. During that same period of time, 51,000 women were killed mostly by men who supposedly loved them.” That statistic alone began the program “that would educate, break the silence, and bear witness to one issue-violence against women,” the website said.

Since then, the project has spread nationwide, and to countries as far as Tanzania.

Patricia Stevens, in charge of the project at the Women’s Center since 1993, has supported this raise of awareness as a therapeutic way for struggling women to get over abuse by getting their message out in the open. “All throughout history women have used clotheslines to get information out,” said Stevens, referring to the transmission of secret information on quilts, used by slaves in the 1800’s.

Along with spreading awareness, survivors used this project to “celebrate a woman’s strength to survive, and to provide another avenue for her to courageously break the silence,” says the website.

“What some people don’t realize is that some of the shirts are celebrations of life,” said Stevens.

For counseling services or help against sexual assault and abuse call CAPSA at (435) 753-2500 or for more information about the Clothesline Project visit, www.clotheslineproject.org.