A girl picks up a yellow T-shirt and holds it gently. She stares at it as if it will speak to her. It waits patiently in her trembling hands, expecting to be spoken to. She looks around, uneasily, afraid of judgment, pity and conversation. Clutching the paintbrush, she realizes it is time to tell her story, to mark the shirt just as she has been marked by the abuse.
This story is one like the hundreds that can be found and told at The Clothesline Project through Thursday. The Mississippi State Sexual Assault Services will host the free event on the Drill Field from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The Clothesline Project is an opportunity for people affected by abuse to express thoughts and feelings through the decorating of T-shirts displayed on the clotheslines set up on the Drill Field.
LaWanda Swan, Sexual Assault Services event coordinator, said she has both worked and participated in the project.
“I’m coming at it from both angles. I have two different aspects, and I didn’t plan on that. I did a T-shirt my second year,” she said. “I know how rewarding it is as a worker. It’s amazing to see how people react so strongly. As a participant, it is totally different. It’s so emotional.”
Swan, whose mother is a domestic violence survivor, said the most affected are the people who spend the most time on their T-shirts.
“I was one of those people; I was very aware of everything around me – the sounds, the people. I had to calm myself down because there was no one looking at me,” she said. “For me, it was tough because there was no one staring. It’s a battle with yourself.”
Color-coded T-shirts specify the form of abuse and whether the victim survived: white represents victims who died of violence; yellow and beige represent survivors of battery or assault, whether verbally, physically, emotionally or sexually; red, pink and orange represent survivors of rape and sexual abuse; blue and green represent survivors of incest or sexual abuse; purple and lavender represent survivors of attacks because of sexual orientation and black represents survivors of attacks for political reasons.
Beatrice Tatem, coordinator of Sexual Assault Services and director of Student Counseling Services, said each shirt represents someone’s experience.
“As a counselor, it’s powerful to give them an opportunity, an outlet to communicate what has happened to them,” she said. “It’s quite powerful to know many are done by your peers.”
Assistant director for student life Cedric Gathings said this is a way to see the effect assault has on students.
“It’s a way for me to get to know students and understand what they’re going through,” he said.
Swan said the shirts tell stories of individuals directly and indirectly affected.
“You have the opportunity to get snippets of people’s lives – people you know and people you don’t know that have been impacted; people brave enough to share those memories and scars,” Swan said. “It’s beautiful to me. It’s just amazing.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 20 to 25 percent of college women in the U.S. experience attempted or complete rape during their college career. In the U.S., one in six women and one in 33 men reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape at some time in their lives.
“I’ve worked with a lot of survivors. A lot of people that do the T-shirts may not have been assaulted here at the university, but it may have happened before they reached campus,” Tatem said. “A lot of men are beginning to take part, and we’re really excited about that.”
Tatem said if anyone is not comfortable or ready to paint a shirt on the Drill Field, participants are allowed to make shirts in private.
“It’s what they want to do. Some people will do theirs outside. Some will do theirs behind closed doors,” she said. “There are some people that didn’t survive their attack and their families have flown their T-shirts in to us.”
Tatem said volunteers are always welcome to help put the shirts up and take them down.
“There will be men out there about 5:30 to put the clotheslines up, and they look forward to that. Each shirt must be taken down and folded in a certain way. We’ve also had people donate T-shirts,” she said.
Swan said she encourages people to not be afraid to come to the clothesline.
“We aren’t going to make you do a T-shirt. Come and read. It’s a mixture of exhibition art and therapy,” she said. “It’s absolutely free. We don’t turn anyone away. We want to see everyone. The more we educate, the better.”
Tatem said the project’s purpose is to educate the community about sexual assault.
“Awareness plus education equals, to me, power,” Tatem said. “We want to empower people with knowledge – knowledge that this is happening and knowledge that people can survive and can move on.”
Though this is one of the Sexual Assault Services’ more visible programs, Tatem said she wants students to know there is counseling available throughout the year. Student Counseling Services is located in room 101 of Lee Hall.