The Clothesline Project illustrates violence and hope

Abby Van Buren

October 24, 2017

Junior in HS, Wants to study film, First time coming to the clothesline project and was really moved. She says she didnt realizes how many sexual harrasment cases there were in Utah Valley.
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Photos by Sammie Raymond

 

Violence against women, men and children was addressed during the Clothesline Project hosted by the Women’s Success Center Oct. 24-25 in the Grande Ballroom.

Since 1998, this event has been held at UVU to help survivors in the healing process, show honor to the survivors and to serve as a memorial to those who have lost their lives.  

Those affected by violence have the opportunity to share their emotions by illustrating a t-shirt that is then hung on display.

Senior studying social work. This is her third year coming to this project and she really loves it. She says it’s extremly powerful and has even come with some of the girls she works with in the past.

The t-shirt color represents the type of violence that occurred. White represent someone who died because of the violence, yellow is for a survivor of physical assault or domestic violence, red, pink or orange represent a survivor of rape or sexual assault, blue or green represent a survivor of incest or childhood sexual abuse, purple is for someone attacked because of their sexual orientation, brown or gray represent survivors of emotional, spiritual or verbal abuse and black is for a survivor disabled from an attack or for someone assaulted because of a disability.

“It is really eye opening to see that this is so big in our community and worldwide, too,” Brianna Huntington, senior in psychology said. “There are people that are probably walking around us all day and in our classes and we have no idea that they could be suffering.”

According to the Clothesline Project website, 58,000 soldiers died in the Vietnam war while in that same time period, 51,000 women were killed by mostly men “who who supposedly loved them.” This statistic inspired the coalition of women’s groups to break the silence and talk about the issue of violence against women.

Other organizations attended the event that specialize in violence prevention and awareness. Some of the organizations that were present were Bikers Against Child Abuse, Center for Women and Children in Crisis, representatives from the Title IX office and Utah Domestic Violence Coalition.