The Clothesline Project is actually a series of clotheslines displaying thousands of tee-shirts, each made by a sexual assault survivor or survivor ally. The shirts bear witness to both the pervasiveness of sexual violence in our nation and the extent to which violence harms physically and psychologically. Walking among the shirts, reading the stories, I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of shirts--so many testimonials of pain, anger, and strength. Today, our class will visit the Clothesline Project. Please take as much time as you can so that you can fully experience the point of the Project. You are also welcome to make a shirt if you feel so moved. Information about campus and community resources on sexual assault prevention, education, and support will be available. This event is sponsored by Residence Life and UHC's Student Wellness & Outreach.
Assignment: By Monday, 3/29, at 5:00 p.m., please post a reply to this blog entry that will serve as your commentary for next week. Your commentary should draw a connection between your experience of the Clothesline Project and one of the assigned essays from Chapter 10, "Resisting Violence Against Women." Your commentary must quote the essay as per the usual commentary assignment. Your commentary may either advance an original idea or respond to one previously posted here.
Nichole Beatty
ReplyDeleteCommentary Chapter 10
03/25/10
The reading I want to discuss from our text book, “Women’s Voices” by Susan Shaw and Janet Lee is Betrayed by the Angel written by Debra Anne Davis. In this reading, Davis discussed her story of being raped by a complete stranger. The point I found interesting was how Davis discussed when it is okay to be “rude” to a stranger. After reading this, I had to ask myself that very question…When is it socially acceptable to be rude to a stranger? When is a stranger crossing the line? I think women need to understand that it is socially acceptable to be “rude” to strangers especially in an uncomfortable situation. As soon as a woman feels a situation is uncomfortable she should use the defense mechanism of being rude. Davis also discusses that parents should not teach their children to be kind to everyone. I believe this point is very important. Children especially should understand that you cannot always trust everyone. I can connect this reading to some of the t-shirts I read because the victims wrote about how they were violated by complete strangers. I feel like in order to solve this problem people should be more stand offish to complete strangers and notice when the situation becomes uncomfortable!
Shaw, Susan, and Janet Lee. Women's Voices. 4th ed. New York: Mcgraw Hill Higher Education, 2009.
In her writing, Campus Violence, Joetta L. Carr talks about statistics of rape and sexual assault on college campuses. She says, “Sexual assault on campus is far more extensive than reported in official statistics, and the large majority of rapists are never apprehended.” Many women are afraid to come forward because they are scared that they will not be believed or that nothing will happen to their rapists. Because many rapists either go free or are never even charged, more women refuse to come forward. The clothesline project is one venue in which victims and those who know victims can share their stories and identify with other victims. It was very interesting to see such a variety of situations and how different people were handling them at different points in moving on with their lives. Many of the shirts said they had happened at JMU, which is scary to think that sexual assault can happen at a place where I feel so safe. If there were more organizations like this that would listen to victims and help them, maybe more women and men would feel safe and comfortable coming forward about rape and assault.
ReplyDeleteCarr, Joetta L. “Campus Sexual Violence.” Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions Classic and Contemporary Readings. Ed. Susan Shaw and Janet Lee. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 593-599.
After visiting the Clothesline project, I was overwhelmed by the number of t-shirts and what they had to say. I suppose I never realized how many victims there are, especially just in our area. While reading Campus Sexual Violence by Joetta L. Carr, I was able to see some statistics, “Approximately 15-20 percent of female college students have experienced force intercourse (rape) in their life time” (Douglas et al.,1997; Koss, Gidycz, & Wisniewski, 1987). That is a lot of college students. After reading this and then attending the Clothesline project, I pieced it together. Violence is out there, and it can happen to anyone at anytime. It’s a scary thought.
ReplyDeleteShaw, Susan, and Janet Lee. Women's voices: Feminist Visions. 4th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 594. Print. Campus Sexual Violence. Joetta L. Carr.
As I was walking around Transitions and how the usually stark room had been transformed into a room of memories-painful, sad, victorious, savage, scared memories. I read shirt after shirt of pain and was struck by those shirts that mentioned locations that I knew; JMU, Hampton-Sydney College, a bar in DC, and suddenly was scared to death. What if I was next? What if I'm not careful enough next time in I'm out with my friends? Or what if I had gotten separated from my friends when I was a freshman and naive? Joetta L. Carr says in her essay "Resisting Violence Against Women", "the nature of student life and structure of college campuses may contribute to higher stalking victimization rates among college-aged individuals" (595). I can't stand the idea that just because I'm a college girl, I'm victimized.
ReplyDeleteI could not tear myself away from the clothesline project Friday afternoon. I was planning on doing a brief walk through to get a feel for the project, but two hours later I was still in Transitions reading t-shirts. There was something magnetic about the testimonials from survivors and friends and family of survivors of sexual assault that I just wanted to read every single t-shirt in the room. The emotional pulse in the room was palpable the moment you stepped through those glass doors. The shirts that stuck with me were the ones that deliberately said that they are reclaiming their voice; the ones that explained that their voice was taken away from them when someone else made the choice to sexually assault them. The clothesline project is such a powerful way to find your voice again and in one same motion have the unwavering support of other survivors; strangers brought together by the terrifying acknowledgement of the frequency of sexual assault. The statistics laid out in the chapter 10 readings seemed far too high, horrifyingly high. But the clothesline project displays the truth behind those statistics. I completely agree with Sarah and Jana’s posts about how frightening the reality of violence against women truly is. The amount of students and community members that have been assaulted, particularly the cases of incest and child molestation, are astounding. John Stoltenberg gets straight to the cause of sexual violence in his essay “Pornography and Freedom”. He writes, “Sexual freedom has never really been about sexual justice between men and women. It has been about maintaining men’s superior status, men’s power over women; and it has been about sexualizing women’s inferior status, men’s subordination of women. Essentially, sexual freedom has been about preserving a sexuality that preserves male supremacy” (Stoltenberg 602). This is the heart of the problem and the clothesline project is the result and a display of the outcome of the uneven power struggle within our society.
ReplyDeleteStoltenberg, John. “Pornography and Freedom.” Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Janet Lee and Susan Shaw. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 601-604. Print.
I was shocked to read that "between 1995 and 2002, college students ages 18-24 were victims of approximately 479,000 crimes of violence annually: rape/sexual assault, robber, aggravated assault, and simple assault....During this seven-year period, students experienced crimes at a lower average rate than nonstudents ages 18-24, except for rape/sexual assault" (Douglas et al.,1997; Koss, Gidycz, & Wisniewski, 1987). I never knew how prevalent the issue of sexual assault on college campuses was until I visited the Clothesline Project. It was here that I read numerous shirts that discussed a rape taking place here at JMU. One shirt that really hit home was a young women who had finally convinced her parents to let her little sister come stay for the weekend. The young lady bought her expensive alcohol and just wanted her to have fun. Her little sister ended up getting raped and now the young women cannot help but blame herself. It has really helped raise my awareness that rape and sexual assualt can happen to ANYONE. I have always heard that it could but after visiting the Clothesline Project and reading about first and second hand accounts of rape here at a place I call home, I can only be more cautious of my own actions.
ReplyDeleteShaw, Susan, and Janet Lee. Women's voices: Feminist Visions. 4th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 594. Print. Campus Sexual Violence. Joetta L. Carr.
-Laura Creel
I found The Clothesline Project to be an extremely moving exhibit. There were so many shirts, covered in pain, and I thought to myself, how many of these are reported? How many people are silently dealing with the hurt of sexual assault?
ReplyDelete“Campus Sexual Violence” by Joetta L. Carr says “in an important study of 3,400 students randomly selected from 12 selected from 12 colleges and universities stratified by student enrollment and location, Sloan et al. found that only 25 percent of campus crimes were reported to any authority across all offenses.” I think in this type of crime, it is especially difficult to report because it increases the amount of vulnerability of the victim. Few people want to face their attacker, or recount the incident to a jury. I wonder…is there a more discreet way that our justice system can handle sexual assault?
Source:
Carr, Joetta L. “Campus Sexual Violence.” Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions, 4th ed., Mc-Graw-Hill, 2009.
-Annie Blewett
When reading John Stoltenberg's essay,"Pornography and Freedom," the idea of pornography and male supremacy kept re-enforcing how men should act when it comes to sex. "Pornography says about that sexuality,"Here's how": Here's how to act out male supremacy in sex. Here's how the action should go. Here are the acts that impose power over and against another body. And pornography says about that sexuality, "Here's who": Here's who you should do it to and here's who she is: your whore, your piece of ass, yours"(p.602). This just disguised me when I read it. Then, it got me wondering has pornography brain-washed men into thinking that women are just an object of sex and meant as nothing more? If so, then why dose our society keep allowing pornography to exist? Sexually abusing women's bodies through sexual crimes just to get feel superior, is ruthless. Sex no longer intertwines with freedom. Sex becomes imprisonment for women!
ReplyDeleteFinally; when researching the Clothesline Project, I kept thinking how much these victims had to suffer, so that men could feel superior because dirty magazines and videos brainwashed them to believe such nonsense!
Stoltenberg, John. "Pornography and Freedom." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions, 4th ed., Mc-Graw-Hill, 2009.
The clothesline project affected in more ways than I could imagine. After reading 4 rows of the exhibit, I had to leave because it was becoming too overwhelming. I can only imagine how rape victims felt after going through the display. There was one particular tshirt that struck me the hardest, it only said in capital letters "YOU STOLE MY WEDDING PRESENT TO MY WIFE". It really drove home the idea that men too are susceptible not only to sexual abuse, but also how rape is truly a violation and theft of one's innocence and purity. I think this stands for rape victims that aren't virgins just the same, their once beautiful perception of sex has been stolen away from them and left them with these inner demons they are now left to cope with. It's hard to imagine that human beings can inflict each other with such an awful sense of pain, loss and suffering. Rape is defined in our textbook Women's Voices Feminist Visions on page 563 as "the penetration of any bodily orfice by a penis or object without consent," however I feel as though the definition should be accompanied by "with negative psychological side affects as a result of the violent act."
ReplyDeleteThe clothesline project really overwhelmed me, and made me very sad. In our book it says that "approximately 15-20 percent of female college students have experienced forced intercourse (rape) in their life time." (594). Our book also says that "campus crime statistics have been found to be flawed due to a significant underreporting among victims." (594). This means that the statistics for this could be higher than 20 percent, which is more than one out of five girls. This number is appalling to me. Something needs to be done to lower this statistic, because this is ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteJessica Romeo
ReplyDeleteIn her article, Campus Sexual Violence, Joetta L. Carr states, "Campus crime statistics have been found to be flawed due to a significant under reporting among victims,". The obvious reason for not reporting sexual violence is either because the victims fear the authorities will not believe them or because they do not want to get the offender in trouble. The former case unfortunately rang true for one of the victims displayed in the Clothesline Project. On her shirt she mentioned while on duty during the night shift for the rescue squad she was raped by a co-worker. She had enough courage to tell the people in charge, who all happened to be older men, and they did not believe her. She ended up being the one to get fired for starting trouble. This type of situation is sad and unfair and is also the reason that so many acts of sexual violence go unreported every year.
Carr, Joetta L. "Campus Sexual Violence." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 594. Print.
"One thing being raped did to me: It caused me to be sometimes rude to strangers. Not out of anger, though, but out of fear" (Davis 592).
ReplyDeleteThis quote, to me, really connected to The Clothesline Project. Many of the shirts that I saw mentioned how the victims could never really trust men anymore. It shows that rape leaves a lasting impression and that it can truly change a persons life forever. It was very upsetting to read some of the shirts. I was very introspective and quiet when I left the display.
Davis, Debra Anne. "Betrayed by the Angel." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 594. Print.
Brittany Fielding
In "Pornography and Freedom," Stolenberg describes the relationship between pornography and male supremacy as having a mutually beneficial relationship. He describes how sexual relationships based on this power struggle are becoming increasingly tolerated. Examples of this include, "Treating women's bodies or body parts as merely sexual objects or things; treating women as utterly submissive masochists who enjoy pain and humiliation and who, if they are raped, enjoy it; treating women's bodies to sexualized beatings...(Stolenberg 603). Many of the shirts in the Clothesline Project told stories of perpetrators who internalized this idea. The idea that they believed they had the RIGHT to torture, humiliate, injure, and strip these people on their dignity. This is the result of the misogyny that is prevalent in our society.
ReplyDeleteOut of all of the shirts, I cannot forget one that simply said "This is the shirt I was raped in," which had a dark green strapless shirt attached to it. It was an ordinary "going out" shirt, something you would wear when the weather got a little warmer and you were going out for a night of casual drinking with your friends. One plain shirt that to someone embodies their nightmare.
Stoltenberg, John. “Pornography and Freedom.” Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Janet Lee and Susan Shaw. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 601-604. Print.
March 28, 2010 8:07 PM
A great amount of strength was needed for the people who participated in The Clothesline Project. Debra Anne Davis expressed that "Sitting at my computer typing for hours about being raped and how it made me feel and how it makes me feel makes me distracted, jittery- both because I drank too much coffee and because writing goes beyond imagining to reliving." (591) The victims that made those shirts were taking a great leap because rather than trying to forget about what happened, they were reliving it for anyone spectator to see. Through this act, more people are aware of what emotional implications come from the act of rape. This Clothesline Project really gave me a pit feeling in my stomach when I left, but reading the shirts almost made me feel like that victim because of the visualization that took place.
ReplyDeleteDavis, Debra Anne. "Betrayed by the Angel." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 594. Print.
Walking through The Clothesline Project, I was very moved by a lot of the messages on the t-shirts. The women and men who made these shirts shared a lot of terrifying, life altering, and horrifically unforgettable experiences. My heart went out to each victim. I was most moved, however, by the shirts which ended on a “positive” note – stating that the creators of the shirts are not victims, but they are survivors. I think that this mindset is often the result of building a safe community; in her essay, “Reclaiming Our Mojo,” Jane Fonda describes the effect of “active listening.” Fonda states, “I could feel it: Each girl saw she was believed and began to hear her own story with empathy. For the first time, the girls heard one another’s stories, and this, too, seemed therapeutic. A community had been created” (Lee and Shaw 609). I think that, through organizations and available resources, JMU has aimed to create this same type of community, allowing women and men to come together with empathy and love, making each other stronger and recognizing one another as survivors. I really admire each person who was brave enough to contribute to The Clothesline Project; they were strong enough to share their story with those who can understand their pain and those who cannot fathom the pain they’ve experienced.
ReplyDeleteLee, Janet, and Susan M. Shaw. Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions. 4th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2009.
-Katie Duffy (sorry I forgot to include my name at the bottom of my post!!)
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, after reading chapter 10 from out textbook, I was left speechless. Being the only male in the class and knowing that this chapter and the exhibit were focused on women being victimized by men, I felt disgusted. More than anything, I was shocked by the drastic numbers displayed on college campuses of women being raped as well as the low percentage of rape incidents that actually get apprehended. The essay, “Human Rights: Sex Trafficking and Prostitution”, really brought to light the worldwide epidemic of sex trafficking and how lucrative the business actually is. One of my good friends who graduated from JMU is actually working on a behind the scenes documentary on sex slavery and is traveling all over the United States to document this epidemic. Last time we talked, he mentioned how all the media, how all the beauty adds, those sexual displays on TV all feed the demand that goes into Sex Trafficking. It gave me goose bumps listening to his one on one conversation with women who were able to escape from being trafficked and just the amount of brutality that goes into this business; the worst part is the fact that all these accounts were here in the United States. I believe that Sex Trafficking is an epidemic that often gets overlooked because you hear more about it in other countries without realizing that it is starting to become an even bigger problem here in the United States.
ReplyDeleteIn the reading, "Campus Sexual Violence" by Joetta L. Carr, a statistic really stood out to me. "Approximately 20-25 percent of college women are projected to be the victims of an attempted or completed rape during their college careers" (Carr, p.. 594). While walking through the clothesline project I saw so many shirts about these victims being assaulted or raped during their college experience at JMU. It is shocking that all these occurred because so many people think that JMU is so safe. One shirt I remember seeing said something about getting how this victim got raped for first month at JMU, and I just thought that was so sad. This poor girl was probably so excited to start her college experience and then a month into it gets completely ruined. It is so sad and this happpens to so many girls here, and most of the guys that do the crime do not get punished for it, and that is the scariest thing.
ReplyDeleteCarr, Joetta L. "Campus Sexual Violence" Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. pp. 593-599. Print.
Caitlin Andreotta
The reading, "Lisa's Ritual, Age 10" reminded me of some of the shirts I saw at the Clothesline Project on Friday. The shirts told stories of women being assaulted by fathers, step-fathers, brothers and other men related to them. In the reading, the little girl Lisa tries to forget the memory of what her father has done to her. It says, "she falls inside slides down like dust like kitchen dirt slips off the dustpan into noplace a place where nothing happens, nothing ever happened." This to me is such a normal response to trauma that it puts into light how amazingly brave the women are who stood up and told their stories in the Clothesline Project. Hopefully with the help of this project, and others like this, the little Lisa's of the world can open up and tell their stories.
ReplyDeleteBridges, Grace C. "Lisa's Ritual, Age 10." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. By Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 600. Print.
After seeing the Clotheslines Project, it really made me evaluate a lot of situations I have watched and heard through friends. I think one of the worst things about rape, is that most of the time young girls don’t even realize its rape. In chapter ten it reads, “Very often, women realize that a past sexual encounter was actually a rape, and, as a result, they begin to think about the experiences differently.” (Shaw 566) This quote really made me think of the different shirts, because there was so much resentment and emotion in the words. I think the book’s quote is exactly right; rape isn’t just brutally forced sexual intercourse. Rape can also be pressuring a girl, trying to persuade her that sex is what she really wants, even though she’s saying no. I think it’s really important that we explain to our youth and women all together that we are strong enough to say no and mean it. Sometimes you hear a friend explain a sexual encounter and you hear all the “charming” lines the guy tells her when she’s explaining she’s not ready. The Clothesline Project also reminded me of the amount of grief and pain that one endures after such a traumatic and horrible experience. I think it’s beneficial that they have this for the public eye to see, because it reminds women and girls of how often it happens, and that it can happen to anyone.
ReplyDeleteShaw, Susan Lee, Janet. "Resisting Violence Against Women." Women's Voices Feminist Visions. Ed. Michael Ryan. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print.
The Clothesline Project was very eye-opening to me because it made me realize how easily I could become one of those women. The most powerful shirts for me were the ones that described the circumstances of their physical or sexual abuse. The scenarios were ones that I have been in many times, which makes me see that it can really happen to anyone, including myself. It's not a matter of "she was asking for it" or "she put herself in that situation." It's easy for me to make myself feel safer by saying that I would never put myself in a position where I could get raped, and that its all about staying mindful and being smart. But its not like that. None of those women were stupid or did anything to deserve what happened to them. The article "Betrayed by the Angel" definitely hit me hard just like the Clothesline Project because I could relate to it so much. I am definitely polite out of habit, even when I feel uncomfortable or angry. The author's story about being raped is very similar to some of the stories I read on the T-shirts. Even when her instincts are telling her to shut the door and to not let the man in, she hesitates. "I push the door to close it, but I don't push very hard; I keep remembering that it's not polite to slam a door in someone's face." The expectation for women to be polite little angels definitely sets us up for violence and rape. It makes us an easier target because it's not acceptable for a woman to put up a fight. I think this is also the reason why there were so many women in the Clothesline Project that hadn't told anyone about their experience. It's not ladylike to bring up such an upsetting topic. The expectations for how a woman should act needs to change so that we can feel confident when we push a man away who is getting too close or come forward about being raped, instead of feeling like we are doing something wrong and letting down our gender.
ReplyDeleteKate Corbey
Davis, Debra Anne. "Betrayed by the Angel." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 590. Print.
Stephanie Phillips
ReplyDeleteIn Debra Ann Davis’s essay “Betrayed by the Angel,” she describes how she was unable trust any man after being raped. She says, “One thing being raped did to me; It caused me to be sometimes rude to strangers. Not out of anger, though, but out of fear.” She then describes a scene in which a friendly man working at a coffee shop attempts to strike up an innocent conversation with her. When he asked which college she worked at, Debra instantly panicked, afraid that information was too personal and could potentially lead to him finding her and hurting her. While reading some of the stories written on the shirts of the Clothesline Project, the t-shirts that affected me the most, were the ones describing how their life has changed for the worse after they were attacked. It is so sad to think that after being attacked by a man, some women can never trust any man again. Even the most innocent conversation would terrify them, because in the back of their mind, they are thinking, “yes this guy seems nice…but so did the guy who raped me.” Most people do not realize sexual violence is not a short-lived problem; most people carry around the harmful emotional and physical distress of the horrific incident for the rest of their lives, especially when they are too afraid to report the incident and too ashamed to talk to anyone about it, which happens way too often. Presentations such as the Clothesline Project, will hopefully be able to reach out to victims of rape and sexual violence and help them realize that they need to report incidents, and allow them to know that they are not alone and have many people who are willing and eager to listen and help them through this emotional time.
Davis, Debra Anne. “Betrayed by the Angel.” Women's Voices, Feminist Visions Classic and Contemporary Readings. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 590-593. Print.