More than just words

The sun warms the bricks of the Commons Plaza, and a swift breeze ruffles T-shirts hanging from a wooden clothesline. Students just released from class fill the plaza, their minds focused on what to do next. They suddenly notice a T-shirt splattered with red paint and two red handprints. The students step a little closer and read the words, “Her blood is on his hands.” Then they realize this is not a simple T-shirt sale.

Jonathan White, a junior mass communications major, was one of the hundreds of students startled by the T-shirts.

“I thought they were selling T-shirts at first,” White said.

The Clothesline Project is a national event to raise awareness of violence toward women. A project that began in Cape Cod, Mass., it expanded throughout the country with the goal to bear witness to victims and survivors of violence.

The display featured T-shirts with personal, often detailed, stories. Not only did the paint or printed language tell the story, but the T-shirts were color coded for the type of violence victims experienced.

White shirts represented those who died; yellow and beige for those who have been battered or assaulted; red, pink and orange for survivors of rape or sexual assault.

Blue and green shirts represented survivors of incest or child sexual abuse, purple and lavender for those attacked because of their sexual orientation and black for those attacked for political reasons.

At VCU, the project is sponsored by the peer-education group Sexual Assault and Dating Violence Education by Students. SAVES is an organization affiliated with the Office of Health Promotion, and it organizes the Clothesline Project twice a year: once in October, Women Against Violence Awareness Month, and once in April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Tammy McKeown, faculty adviser for SAVES and the coordinator for Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Services, said the T-shirts she receives for this project are nothing short of incredible.

“It gives victims a voice to tell their story and empower them,” McKeown said.

McKeown, who works with the battered, abused and sexually assaulted on their path to healing, said awareness is important.

“We do know that (in) 21 percent of college dating relationships, at least one partner is being abused,” she said. “That is one in five.”

According to the Virginia Department of Health, in 2003, half of the 84 female adult homicide victims in Virginia were killed by intimate partners.

“We just like to put this up so people can actually see it does happen,” said Vashtae Williams, a junior women’s studies major and SAVES member. She spent the day passing out purple ribbons for students to pin on their jackets.

Megan Sadtler, a junior mass communications major, stopped by in between classes to check out the T-shirts. She said the project was moving.

“It’s really powerful, and you kind of get shocked when you walk by,” Sadtler said. “It’s more than just a poster or someone petitioning.”

Sadtler said she was touched by the T-shirts’ stories and their strong presence even though they hung silently outside.

“These are all personal stories,” she said. “It’s not just someone going out and saying what’s wrong with the world. It’s people who have personal experiences.”

Sadtler said she always knew abuse happened behind closed doors, but she has never seen it “hung out on the line,” she said.

Within an hour, about 50 students stopped by to examine the T-shirts, said Williams, who kept a tally. Each student left with an insight into the often silent world of abuse.