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Ally Beres Ms. Cordonnier Race, Class, and Gender May 6, 2013 The Clothesline Project Bearing Witness to Violence Against Women, has been the motto of The Clothesline Project since its beginning in 1990. It was started in Cape Cod, Massachusetts to address the issue of violence against women. (Clothesline) When a woman chooses to participate in The Clothesline Project, she uses words and/or artwork to decorate her shirt. After she is finished, she hangs it up on the clothesline. These shirts provide comfort for survivors, and their friends and family. However unique each individual shirt may be, all of the shirts have the same underlying purpose: working towards a common goal of educating people, breaking the silence, and ceasing violence against women, for which this program was developed. In October of 1990, the first Clothesline Project was put into action. After short articles about the project appeared in a few magazines, it began to flourish. At the moment, we estimate there are 500 projects nationally and internationally with an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 shirts. We know of projects in 41 states and 5 countries. (Clothesline) Survivors and victims alike are honored by this project. The Clothesline Project is a small, but mighty step towards breaking the silence. When The Clothesline Project began, its purpose was to raise awareness about violence against women. On Thursday May 2, 2013, the Race, Class, and Gender class here at Westminster Choir College organized and actively participated in it, slightly changing our

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project to focus on all people as a whole. Sadly, women are more often than not portrayed as the victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, and other types of abusive behaviors. Perpetrators of violence are not of one gender, but both, and this is a recurring problem that affects everyone all around the world. Our event was held from 1:00 to 3:00 pm on The Great Plains of our Princeton campus, which is a conveniently large, grassy area in the middle of our campus. It has always been a great location for school events. As the semester was coming to a quick close, we all realized that this was the best day for all of us in the class to collectively participate in this project. We began setting up around 12:30 and had everything cleaned up by about 3:30. It turned out to be a beautiful day with sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. Prior to our Clothesline Project, I was given the responsibility to promote the event. In choir, I made an announcement about the project and began recruiting volunteers. A few days later, I made flyers and hung them up all over the schools campus. Because we have such a supportive community here at WCC, I was positive that we will have a good turn-out for our project. However, in preparation for this event, I have also had some not so great predictions. Many people have approached me and asked me what to write on the shirts. My hopes were that people would see the examples from previous years and gain some ideas from those shirts. Also, it would be beneficial to be prepared to handle conversations that may occur with individuals who choose to share personal experiences regarding this issue. I continued to remain positive and remember the goal of this project: to actively raise awareness and break the silence about violence against women. When we began to set up at around 12:30, I recruited some young men who were outside to help us hang the clothesline from the trees. While Arielle and some other volunteers were hanging shirts on the clothesline, I set-up and organized the tables. I taped one sign on each

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table, each of which represented a different colored shirt. The set-up process was quick and easy, thanks to a handful of volunteers and friends who gave up their time to help. As 1:00 quickly approached, people began to show interest in our project. Some made t-shirts, while others just wanted to look around for a short bit on their way to class. However, some people were unsure about what to write on their shirts. I directed them to look at the shirts that were already hung on the clothesline, and because many people have never even heard of this project, I also took the liberty of explaining the representation of each shirt and the purpose of this project. During the course of this two hour event, a large number of people made shirts, and many people at least stopped by our tables to inquire about the project. A majority of the people who made shirts wanted to keep their shirts, so they wrote their names on the tag to be returned to them. At the end of our two hour project, a few volunteers and I began taking down the shirts from the clothesline. We removed the shirts with names in the tag, folded them, and put them in a box for distribution. The shirts without a name on the tag went in a separate box to be used as samples for future endeavors of this project. I was able to distribute the shirts back to those who wished to keep theirs that evening and during the next day. Overall, we had a great turnout, a beautiful day, and most importantly, we raised awareness about violence against people. All of the participants that day really loved the idea and message of The Clothesline Project. A few of my friends even mentioned to me that they would be interested in taking this course in the future. I discussed with them what we do daily in class and how the class causes one to become aware of issues in todays general society. It is important to many Westminster students to have as many opportunities as possible to expand their knowledge and increase their awareness of cultural and social issues, especially because our campus is so small and secluded.

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Participating in such a life-changing event has allowed me to see what is really going on in todays society. Violence has been an ongoing epidemic for many, many years. As previously stated, its sad that women are more often than not portrayed as victims of violence. Jackson Katz explains this in The Macho Paradox, his book that was written to address violence against women as a mens issue. In chapter one he states: If we are going to bring down dramatically the rates of violence against womenwe will need a far-reaching cultural revolution. At its heart, this revolution must be about changing the sexist social norms in male culture. (Katz 8) The Clothesline Project was originally started to raise awareness about violence against women. The Macho Paradox makes a prevailing case to men that the only way to end the mistreatment of women is to motivate the large number of good guys to willingly participate as a part of the solution. From this experience, a man can develop a willingness to listen to and learn from women, let go of the need to be in constant control, and gain the courage to admit his failures. Projects like The Clothesline Project are put into action to allow people to speak out about ending this violence against all people, not just women. It is important for people to become aware of these horrible events that occur in our society. What one person says or does to someone else may not seem necessarily violent to him/her, but could devastate the other person in many different ways. Certain events may not affect us personally, but they can be devastating to someone close to us. Surprisingly, I did not have any encounters with anyone who attempted to share their personal issues during our project. This is a sensitive subject about which not many people can open up, but Im sure that making a t-shirt helped most of our participants realize that this is a world-wide issue, if they have not personally endured such violence themselves.

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I did not actually get a chance to make a t-shirt during our event, but watching everyone else make their shirts was rather satisfying for me. It a comfort to know that there are people in this world who can take a few short minutes out of their day to become aware of whats going on in the world. In current times, people are so busy and always rushing around that they only think about themselves, where they need to be, and what they need to do in that moment. I believe its safe to say that everyone is guilty of doing that at some point in their lives, whether it is avoiding a person begging for money on the street, or speedily passing by a girl scout asking for donations at the supermarket. The one thing that I will take away with me from this project is that its okay to just let go and breathe for a few minutes now and then. Things may not always go as planned, but we must learn to roll with the punches and continue to move on with our lives. We all often take for granted what we have and dont know how much we actually appreciate it until its gone. There are many people in this world who suffer from such awful abuse and harassment that we could not even begin to imagine. We must speak out on their behalf of the voices that are silenced by violence. I would highly recommend this project to anyone. It is a truly humbling experience that I will never forget. All of the volunteers that came out gave up their time on that beautiful Thursday afternoon to assist us in raising awareness and breaking the silence. I cannot thank them enough for all that they have done for us. Although I was skeptical about this event at first, it turned out to be a great day. It was especially nice to see upperclassmen who have already taken this class come back and make another shirt. I am already looking forward to next years Clothesline Project and what more this world can do to ultimately break the silence about violence against all people, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity.

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Works Cited "The Clothesline Project - Fighting Violence Against Women." The Clothesline Project Fighting Violence Against Women. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. <http://www.clotheslineproject.org/>. Katz, Jackson. The Macho Paradox. Naperville, IL: Source, 2006. Print.