Victims of Domestic Violence Use T-Shirts to Share Their Emotions

The Clothesline Project at the University of Maryland showcased about 500 shirts, with messages about sexual assault and relationship violence. See additional photos in a slide show. (Maryland Newsline photo by Aleita Johnson)

By Aleita Johnson
Maryland Newsline
Friday, Oct. 16, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md.  –  At Hornbake Plaza at the University of Maryland,  students stopped to stare this week at the T-shirts hanging from clotheslines strung between trees.

“Stop the violence, end the tears,” one shirt said.

“My life is not the same! You scared me,” another read.

“My body is beautiful and it is mine,” was emblazoned on a third.

Each shirt told the story of a University of Maryland survivor of sexual or relationship violence. Some were written by victims and spoke directly to the perpetrators; some were written on behalf of family and friends.

Their messages burned with anger, vulnerability and fear, but also of growth and survival.

“One shirt … was basically my story,” said a 20-year-old junior from Silver Spring, who was in an abusive relationship for two years and asked to not be identified. “And it makes me realize that everything I went through for two years and felt like I was alone in… I’m not at all.”

The Clothesline Project was sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Program to raise awareness of sexual assault. The day-long event Wednesday was part of a nationwide project launched in Massachusetts in the 1970s as part of a domestic violence program.  

“They thought it would be a very powerful way to create individual pieces of art,” said Allison Bennett, coordinator of SARPP. “It’s mobile, inexpensive and looks really beautiful when they are all hung up-- but like a really painful beauty.”

The University of Maryland has been participating in the Clothesline project since the early ‘90s.

This year, volunteers and members of SARPP started setting up shirts at 8 a.m. Blank T-shirts were available throughout the event for victims to create messages. An information table was also set up for students wanting to learn more about sexual violence.

About 500 shirts were displayed in all.

“These women have been through hell,” said sociology major Brandy Walker, 28, of Charlotte, N.C., who stopped to look at the shirts. “But they still have the strength and courage to make art and to make a statement. That’s beautiful.”

Dating and sexual violence is pervasive in our country, said Bennett, with college-aged women at the highest risk of being victimized. National studies have shown that one in five college students now in relationships are experiencing dating violence, she said..

“People don’t realize how much of an issue it is in our community,” Bennett said. She added that 90 percent of SARPP’s clients knew the person who assaulted them, whether it was a friend, ex-partner, or current partner.

“It’s scary, and it’s real,” said sophomore criminology major Brittany Ballard, of Stevensville, Md.

“The likelihood that you will pull out your mace when the friend from your class offers to walk you home is pretty low,” Bennett said. “We are trained to be fearful of people that we don’t know, but the people who are most likely to cause violence are the people we do know.”

The most typical sexual assault on college campuses involves the use of alcohol to  make someone drunk, Bennett said. Often, this group of assailants isn’t aware that their actions fit the legal definition of sexual assault; they think they are just taking advantage of a situation, she said.

Most education around domestic violence and sexual assault focuses on risk-reduction techniques, Bennett said. However, SARPP tries to focus more on by-stander intervention when educating students.  

Bennett said she hopes increasing awareness and a greater understanding of sexual assault will influence students to take more steps to help stop sexual violence before it happens.

She added that the violence impacts “everyone in our community … whether they know it or not” –through increased stress levels and feelings of being unsafe.

SARPP offers resources to students experiencing sexual and relationship violence on campus or to anyone wanting to learn more.

“I hope to come back to the university 10 years from now and still see [the project] being continued,” said volunteer Krystale Norman of Richmond, Va., a second year master’s student at the university. “I’ll definitely be making a T-shirt next semester and helping hang T-shirts again.”

Copyright © 2009 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism

Top of Page | Home Page