The Sophian

Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Features

Strains of classic rock filled the cozy, studio-like room. Several students sat making T-shirts on the floor, the wooden boards of which bore the marks of similar artistic projects of the past. 

The Women's Resource Center in Davis had the atmosphere of a secret attic room set aside for the purpose of activism, as those present wrote thoughts, emotions and testimonies related to sexual assault on their T-shirt canvasses last Thursday night.

The shirts will be displayed Nov. 1 through Nov. 8 on Seelye Lawn as a part of the Clothesline Project, sponsored by Students Against Sexual Assault, a reincarnation of the group previously known as AWARE.

"The objective of the Clothesline Project is to provide people with a way to fully express their feelings about sexual assault. Basically, it's to provide people with an outlet and other people with awareness," said Elana Bloom '10, co-chair of SASA, during the T-shirt making last Thursday.

According to its Web site, the Clothesline Project began in the summer of 1990 when a group of Cape Cod women were appalled to discover that 51,000 women had been killed as a result of domestic violence during the Vietnam War.

"This small, core group of women, many of whom had experienced some form of personal violence, wanted to find a unique way to take staggering, mind-numbing statistics and turn them into a provocative, 'in-your-face' educational and healing tool."

Artist Rachel Carey-Harper, inspired in part by the female tradition of sharing information over fences while hanging laundry out to dry, developed the concept of creating and hanging T-shirts bearing messages meant to raise awareness about violence against women. An article in Ms. Magazine propelled the campaign forward, and the project is now conducted across the country and internationally. 

At Smith, in addition to the T-shirt display, there has traditionally been a table with information and resources about sexual assault. Members of SASA provide information and are available to talk with anyone affected by the project. There will also be a briefing session on Sunday in the Campus Center Room 103/104 from 1 to 3 p.m.

"Because Smith is traditionally a women's school, people tend to think 'we're all women, what could happen?' But sexual assault can happen between any two people. And Smithies leave campus. Smithies go out into the world," said Bloom, reflecting on the impact of sexual assault in the Smith community.

Bloom said that an earlier T-shirt making session produced a significant turnout. "The amount of T-shirts shows how many Smithies have been affected by sexual assault, and that's pretty powerful," Bloom added.

Smith students came and went throughout the night, making T-shirts and conversing for as long as a weeknight allowed. Kayla Ginsburg '13 saw the time sacrifice as a worthwhile one.

"It's an important cleansing process, to make the T-shirt. The fact that it's going to be seen is especially important so that we can be educators. I'm really excited to see what the reactions are going to be."

Education and raising awareness are the primary objectives of the newly minted SASA. According to Bloom, the group is engaging in several other projects, including the production of a zine on the subject of sexual assault.

There was an atmosphere of healing in the Women's Center last Thursday with an undertone of anxiety at the highly charged and emotional nature of assault as a topic. "We need to take some time for ourselves next week," one SASA member was heard to say. "Everyone's going to be talking about it."

The group has provided a safe space where emotional processing and personal healing can occur. Simultaneously, SASA is bringing its cause out from the safety of the secret, attic-like atmosphere of the Women's Resource Center and into the greater Smith community. 

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