Clothesline brings healing

Martha Knauf Guest Writer

The North Atrium of the College Center was transformed into a makeshift memorial for victims of domestic abuse on Feb. 8. Although here for only a day, the Clothesline Project (sponsored by the Dutchess County Coalition Against Domestic Violence and brought to Vassar by the Feminist Alliance and CARES) left a resounding image in the minds of students and staff who took time out of their usual routines to read the shirts.

T-shirts of all colors and sizes hung on clotheslines about the room. At first glance, it seemed that there was no difference between this display and laundry day, but upon closer inspection it became clear that the shirts were full of emotion and meaning. Each shirt was created by victims and those close to victims of domestic abuse in Duchess County, where one out of every four households experience physical violence in the home.

The project began in 1990 in Hyannis, MA as a public display to increase awareness and to bring a more personal face to the powerful epidemic of domestic abuse. The use of clotheslines originated from the female tradition of gathering around a clothesline, a safe space and haven promising confidentiality. This project, now displayed in communities nationally and globally, offers a venue both intimacy and anonymity in which victims finally can tell their stories.

The display was a reminder that domestic abuse, like ink on cotton, leaves permanent imprints on the lives of its victims. Feminist Alliance Co-Chair and Women’s Center Intern Elana Santana ’08 said, “I think Vassar students need things like the Clothesline Project as a reminder to use their positions within the Poughkeepsie community in more active and positive ways by helping to change the things so many of us simply talk and complain about from a distance.”

The T-shirts were varied in their messages, style and meaning. Some were inscribed with long poems, detailing disturbing stories of abuse, while others displayed simple pleas, cries for help, and appeals for hope.

One proclaimed “Violencia Adios!” while another chose a metaphor saying, “We are flying away from the trap.” Many shirts spoke to absolute frustration regarding a lack of legal help. Another posed the question, “Why did they let him go free?” Each shirt had a singular character and stood for an individual victim with her own story. “It is a truly unique project,” said Santana.

“It provides a visual representation of individual realities which are so often generalized and forgotten,” she continued. “These narratives need to be heard and confronted with empathy and not sympathy in order to progress and move forward in the fight to stop domestic violence.”