The Clothesline Project, hanging out America’s dirty laundry, is a program that started in Cape Cod, MA to raise awareness and combat violence against women. It started in 1990, by women who had experienced some type of personal violence. Having women write their thoughts & stories on T-shirts, is an “in-your-face” approach raising awareness about violence against women.* 

The above project, one of 500 nationally, is hanging in front of Jackson Library at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It seems fitting to have the project at an institution of higher education that was historically a women’s college. The messages range from one that said something along the lines of “my mother was raped when she was 14 and she has never spoken up, because she still blames herself.” Another, written to her attacker starts out, “you took my innocense….” And another: “My name is Annie Connors & I was abused by a man I loved for years. Scars, nightmares, and memories will no longer be my captor.” As students go back to college or begin their freshman year, they need to understand the seriousness of violating others. They need to understand that if they have had terrible things happen to them already, there are many helpful resouces and support groups on campus. One cannot walk past this “airing of the laundry” without taking note. Here’s to decreasing the need for shirts by preventing bad situtions from happening in the first place.  

*read the history of the movement, here.