Clothesline
Project brings violence to light
By Karla Casillas
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
Survivors,
victims, friends and family spoke out
during the Clothesline Project at Cal
State Long Beach, Wednesday.
The Clothesline Project is designed to take people on sexual and domestic violence
victims’ and survivors’ journeys. About 300 T-shirts on the clotheslines
by the College of Business Administration building used words and artwork to
describe their experiences.
“
The goal is for people to have a sense of the pain and growth of what that
particular person went through,” said Lynne Coenen, assistant director
of the Women’s Resource Center.
Each T-shirt was a different color and had a different message for different
people. Some of the messages were from family members of victims, but many
came from the survivors speaking to the people who assaulted them.
“
The colors of the shirts reflect various kinds of violence against women,” according
to a pamphlet handed out at the event.
White is for women who have died of violence; yellow/beige for survivors of
dating/domestic violence; red, pink and orange for survivors of rape or sexual
assault; blue and green for survivors of incest and child abuse; purple and
lavender for women attacked because they are lesbian or perceived to be lesbian;
gray for survivors of gang rape; brown for survivors of ritual abuse; and black
for survivors of sexual harassment.
The Clothesline Project is a community effort. T-shirts are collected from
the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency (SACA) in Long Beach and students from Cal
State Long Beach. Everyone is welcomed to participate, Coenen said.
Students on campus and the community walked through the clotheslines and spent
as much time as they wanted looking through the t-shirts. Coenen said some
students take their time, moving from shirt to shirt, while others glance at
one shirt and move on.
Michael Manzano, 27, came from South Central Los Angeles to see the project.
It was his first time hearing about it. He took his time, walking from shirt
to shirt reading the messages.
“
It’s heavy,” he said. “I’m caught up in the middle
of it. You hear their voices. They can’t go unnoticed.”
Some students took out their cell phones and digital cameras and began to take
pictures of the hanging shirts.
Reeny Wang, a freshman pre-art major, took pictures of individual shirts.
“
Pictures speak thousands of words,” she said.
Wang said she took the pictures to share with everyone else and remind herself
she’s one of the lucky ones.
“
I’m happy we’re doing stuff like this,” she said. “A
lot of people can’t speak out and we’re giving people a voice.”
Jessica Vega and Andrew William, junior political science majors, noticed the
shirts and stopped by before class.
“
It’s sad,” Vega said. “You know [violence against women]
happens, but there’s more meaning to it.
The shirt represents somebody.”
William stopped by because he saw Vega there and began reading some of the
shirts.
“
I don’t know what to think. It’s tragic, there’s sorrow,” he
said.
“
It’s one form of expressing themselves,” Armando Mayoquin,
a graphic design major, said. “It’s a good idea.”
Jesus Fuentes, a senior studio art major, looks for the Clothesline Project
every year. He said he supports the project and finds it very powerful. He
said he goes through every shirt, but has to take a break from it all because
it’s so powerful.
The organizers hosted a Brown Bag lunch from noon to 1 p.m. to discuss the
history of the project and answer any questions. This was the first time the
lunch was hosted.
Students sat in a small circle and discussed of violence against women. Evelyn
Edwards, from SACA, said the Clothesline Project represented a chance to speak
out without being judged, without feeling shame, guilt or fear.
The main point of the discussion was asking the question of what people can
do to stop the cycle of violence.
There is a mentality of “if it’s not happening to me, I don’t
need to worry about it,” Edwards said.
Edwards and Coenen said that mentality needs to change.
Students in the circle got to open up and express any thoughts they had on
the subject or their own experiences. There has to be more awareness, starting
from a young age, as early as third grade, Edwards said.
“It’s a lifelong process,” she said.
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