Mississippi State University’s Department of Health Promotion and Wellness hosted the annual Clothesline Project Sept. 18-20 on the Drill Field.
This nation-wide event used colorful t-shirts hung on clotheslines to raise awareness for different types of violence. Any individual who has experienced or knows someone who has experienced violence could anonymously create a t-shirt. Also, an individual could send a message to the perpetrator or share their experiences through the use of art.
Takia Netterville, a senior kinesiology major and intern with the Health Promotion and Wellness organization, described the event.
“We have these tables set up with various colors of paint, markers and brushes for (anyone) to design or to put any type of message related to the type of violence,” Netterville said.
There is no limit to what a person can decorate on the shirt, Netterville said.
“You can basically put anything you want, any message you want to get out,” Netterville said. “Some people don’t know what to put on the shirt, but you can put something so simple as ‘stop.’”
Many people participated in this year’s project. On the first day, 151 shirts were made. On day two, 257 shirts were made.
“A lot of people stop by and (say) that they’re glad that we’re even doing this,” Netterville said.
Participants did not have to be affected by violence to create a shirt. Anyone was welcome to rally against violence. Creating a shirt let others know they are not alone, nor should they feel as if they should not speak about their experiences.
The different colored shirts each represented a different type of violence. Purple represented violence associated with sexual orientation; black represented political injustice; blue and green represented incest or child sexual abuse; red, pink and orange represented rape or sexual assault; white represented a loved one lost to violence; grey represented cyber violence; and yellow represented physical violence, such as battery or domestic assault.
The decorating tables were set underneath shady trees to provide comfort when painting the shirts. Kristin Tadlock, a senior psychology major, created a yellow shirt to help her express her emotions from her experiences of family violence and childhood bullying. She said painting was an “emotional outlet.”
Art can be used as a therapeutic method to release emotions, but this event was more than that, Tadlock said.
“This whole thing is to promote awareness for violence, but is also to create unity in that,” Tadlock said.
Lindsey Donald, a graduate assistant studying counselor education, helped coordinate this event and described the idea behind it as a process of airing out dirty laundry.
“A lot of people would hang up clothes to dry, and at that point in time, a lot of women were stay-at-home moms. Whenever they would go out and put their clothes out to dry, that was when the women would share their secrets,” Donald said.
Donald said not many people want to talk about this issue because of the fear of repercussions, not knowing what to do or the tolerance built due to repeated violence.
“A lot of times, these topics are taboo and people don’t want to talk about these things,” Donald said. “It was once a private matter, but now it’s becoming a public matter and it needs to be…I think the first step in making a change is bringing awareness.”

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