Early March 10 appeared to be a typical Monday morning at Hunter. Waves of students flowed along the crosswalk of the West and North buildings, and by 11 a.m., as usual, the tides had merged into a human tsunami. However, unlike other first days of the week, something unfamiliar beckoned, demanding a disruption of the tidal routine of the College’s third-floor overpass. On the tall glass windows lining the crosswalk, dozens of customized T-shirts called out their messages of pain and angst and, yes, redemption.
They were designed by Hunter students for the Clothesline Project, its objective to raise awareness about violence against women.
The office of Wellness Education organized this exhibit of shirts whose visual expressions were transmitted via a variety of different colors, art and messages, hung on a clothes line. The shirts were donated by Hunterites for students to engage their craft. According to a flyer, the Clothesline Project allows each student to tell her story of abuse in a unique way. Through designing and display, the shirts can help promote solidarity, awareness and hope among victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
Director of Wellness Education, Kristina Testa-Buzzee who has been working at Hunter for close to 15 years, said she regarded the project as a form of individual activism, “allowing different forms of activism is important.” Victims who normally could not speak out candidly can instead design a shirt and find solace in that, she said as she sat at her desk. It was also anticipated that this “individual activism” would exert an effect on students flowing in the human tsunami along the third floor bridge. I was molested at 7-years-old/by speaking about it, one shirt read. I can spread awareness, and so can you!-Tell ur (sic) Truth!
Andrea Dhanraj, 18, said the T-shirts were upsetting especially since she knew women who have been battered and abused. Sitting directly underneath a few T-shirts, as she reclined against one of the big bay windows on the corridor, Dhanraj, a freshman, said the shirts may make people feel depressed because of their content. Tzivia Margolis, a media studies major with plans of graduating in the fall, expressed a different point of view. Sitting at a table at the juncture of the north/west corridor, her hands crossed on her lap, Margolis, who lives in Brooklyn, said the Clothesline Project was a good thing. “I’m hoping that it’s going to send a message, especially to women who are in abusive relationships,” she said.
Margolis, whose bracelets jangled with every hand gesture, said she designed a shirt for last year’s display and that there needs to be more programs like this project because it helps to educate the public by creating more awareness about the violence against and the inequality of women.
With a grimace on her face, Margolis said, “Women are silenced” because of the traditional male and female roles that breed gender inequality in society. For this reason, she said, she hoped for men to achieve awareness and learn that violence against women – their moms, sisters, daughters, aunts and girlfriends – is wrong.
Tabling at the 3rd floor for the Clothesline Project was another feature of the presentation. At these “stations,” students were able to design a shirt for exhibit. The Wellness Education staff sat with an array of flyers, pamphlets and free condoms for distribution. Corinn Dembkowski, a health educator, sat within a few feet of a T-shirt that read, I was sexually assaulted by a ‘friend’ I’ve known for seven years. The bruises and cuts are still visible on my skin. My hand hasn’t stopped shaking since. It’s his shame, NOT mine. This is what a SURVIVOR looks like.
Asked what Hunter students could obtain from this event, “A voice,” Dembkowski responded.
Mike Akke, a health educator for the Wellness Education, said the project was doing well. “We ran out of shirts on the first day,” he said. And yet, in spite of Wellness Education’s efforts to promote the event with flyers and tabling, an air of indifference and a lack of awareness was also evident. Some interviewees didn’t care or expressed indifference. Dhanraj did not know about the exhibit until it was explained to her; that included the actual T-shirts in sight and the ideas they represented. If she did stop to look at a shirt, she said, she wouldn’t dwell on it.
Nevertheless, other students like Gretchen Kittel, 23, said it was a worthy cause but she hadn’t taken the time to stop and read a shirt. “It’s not necessarily out there enough,” she said with a doubting expression on her face as she sat on the West Bridge. She believed the exhibit wasn’t being promoted enough. Kittel, wearing an olive green jacket over blue jeans, was not aware that the Clothesline project was actually a yearly event. Testa-Buzzee said that more informational posters should have been put up around the campus. She said she “wasn’t around” at the time when the exhibit was being assembled and this may have accounted for the absent posters, she said.
Regardless, however, Testa-Buzzee said the project did achieve its goal of generating awareness. Asked about several students’ perceived nonchalance to the project and its ideas, she said that everyone has a right to be indifferent. Testa-Buzzee also said that no matter the negative reaction of a student, whether indifference or obliviousness, the Clothesline Project still made an impression on the Hunter community
the WORD’s Jamie Adorno can be reached at jadorno@hunter.cuny.edu.