Domestic violence on the line

In conjunction with the Student Health Center and the Sacramento branch of Women Escaping a Violent Environment, the Women’s Resource Center presented an exhibition called the Clothesline Project, which was displayed at River City Day last Friday.

The exhibit featured over 40 shirts that were designed by survivors of assault, rape and incest.

Pat Grady, director of the Women’s Resource Center, said both women and men helped to create the shirts.

“This is a way to acknowledge issues of domestic violence toward women in an artistic way,” said Grady.

The shirts are color-coded for different types of violence – white, for women who were murdered; yellow or beige, for women who have been battered or assaulted; red, pink or orange, for women who have been raped or sexually assaulted; blue or green, for women who are survivors of incest or sexual abuse; and purple or lavender, for women attacked because they are or were perceived to be lesbian.

“Making the shirts brought up a lot of emotion, for some survivors,” Grady said. “Some women would start a shirt, but have to come back later to finish.”

A red shirt read: “11 years old. 2 months before her first period, 3 weeks after her first French kiss, with 2 days left until her first day of junior high, a few hours before the sun came up ... It took him three minutes to stick a screwdriver in her ... she cried a lot.”

A white shirt read: “He hit me today – he never has before, so he brought me some flowers. He hit me again ... and did not stop! So he brought more flowers. This time to my grave.”

The Clothesline Project began in 1990 when members of the Cape Cod Women’s Agenda hung a clothesline across the village green in Hyannis, Massachusetts, with 31 shirts. Since then, the project has grown nationally and internationally with an estimated 35,000 shirts.

Grady says she would like to eventually house the shirts in a permanent exhibit somewhere on campus.