In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) hosted “The Clothesline Project,” a display that is held to raise awareness for victims of abuse and assault.
Although it began in Hyannis, Mass., OVP brings the project to Ramapo each year and welcomes students to create their own t-shirts and view their gallery. Many organizations join OVP for this event, including healingSPACE, Bergen County’s only Sexual Violence Resource Center, and Bergen County’s Alternatives to Domestic Violence (ADV).
Organizations such as The Student Government Association (SGA) and Ramapo’s Title IX were also in attendance, and the event was catered by Rita’s Italian Ice in order to bring some comfort to an otherwise heavy yet empowering event.
“[The Clothesline Project] allows us to give people the platform to share their experiences in a way that also promotes resources and education regarding sexual assault awareness,” Violence Intervention Peer Brooke Newland said.
The project credits its creation to “a member of the Cape Cod’s Women’s Defense Agenda” who “learned that during the same time 58,000 soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War, 51,000 U.S. women were killed by the men who claimed to love them.”
Her discovery led to a group of women wanting to showcase these harrowing statistics, and the display has been up and running since 1998 at Utah Valley University. An estimated 2,000 shirts have been made, with 30–50 “added to [the] collection annually.”
Each color of t-shirt has its own meaning in regards to the means of assault — yellow represents a survivor of physical assault or domestic violence, whereas purple represents a survivor who was attacked because of their sexual orientation.
At OVP’s display, students were encouraged to write strong, positive and supportive messages on their shirts. “We support, we believe, we listen,” one said. “Your voice matters,” read Newland’s.
Marie-Danielle Attis, assistant director for the Center for Student Involvement and coordinator of the OVP, spoke to The Ramapo News about what the event means to her. As a survivor of sexual violence herself, she noted, “it’s especially important to hear other folks who are survivors, or even allies to people who are victims of sexual violence, come out and talk words of empowerment.”
For OVP as a whole, Attis said that the event “reaffirms what [their] mission is…to educate and bring awareness to any form of interpersonal violence.”
Sophomore student Sarah Glisson stopped by the alumni lounges to take a look at the shirts that were proudly hung around the room and show her support.
“To me, the Clothesline Project is all about showing that there’s a positive campus culture here that does not just reject violence, but actively works to maintain a safe and educated environment,” she said in an interview with The Ramapo News. “Showing up to events like these is one small action contributing to something much larger than any of us, individually.”
OVP’s final event to commemorate Sexual Assault Awareness Month will be the Denim Day Fashion Show, hosted on April 23 from 7-9 p.m. in Friends Hall. Make sure to wear denim in support of sexual assault victims and survivors.
“There are times where you feel like a victim and times where you feel like a survivor,” Attis said. “Today, I feel like a survivor.”
ajones11@ramapo.edu
Featured photo by Amanda Jones
