The Media

The Clothesline Project commits to helping survivors with the healing process, educate the public on violence against women, and provide concrete suggestions of how individuals can work to prevent violence. The Clothesline Project remains an intense and personal experience of survivor's stories reflecting the women's pain, despair, terror, sadness, courage, strength, and empowerment.

We consider the shirts priceless. The privacy of women survivors and families/friends of women victims of violence must be protected and respected at all times.

Warning!

Under no circumstances will you be allowed to film, photograph or interview any woman who is making a shirt at a display. At this point in her healing a woman is very vulnerable. The Clothesline Project is committed to providing a physically safe and emotionally safe space in which she can make her shirt.

Women survivors of violence can be in very real physical danger as the result of the abuser's behavior. For example, the most dangerous (Lethal) time for a woman is when she leaves her abuser. For this reason, we expect the media to think first of the survivor's safety during any interactions.

• Do remember you are dealing with the women's lives and stories. The Clothesline Project is not a show. We do not encourage, and actively discourage, any pandering, sensationalizing, or exploitation of survivors
• Do ask permission of organizers before entering the display area.
• Do provide The Clothesline Project representative with contact name, address, fax, e-mail, phone number of the organization, publication or station you represent.
• Do send copies of articles, photographs, and videotapes to our office so that they may be included in our file.
• Do ask permission of organizing staff if you wish to conduct interviews, photograph, or videotape during a display. The organizers will seek out people willing to participate.
• Do be explicit with your request if someone has come forward to speak to the press. Be clear how this information or material will be used. Please give anyone you are interviewing time to carefully consider your request and give you an answer before proceeding. We insist on this prodigal for the safety of the woman survivors.
• Do be quiet, respectful, and sensitive to the emotional nature of this display and the pain it may trigger for participants. Participants may be women survivors who designed shirts, family/friends of a woman victim of violence who designed a shirt, viewers, or media staff people.

• Local organizations (e.g., hospitals, sororities, universities, libraries, shelters, churches, synagogues, theaters, art galleries, special interest groups) invite The Clothesline Project to display shirts. Often the displays are in conjunction with workshops or symposiums (e.g., Domestic Violence Workshops). Many times display dates coincide with months calling attention to violence (e.g., Women's History Month, Domestic Violence Month, Crime Victim Awareness Month).
• At each display there will be a designated private, protected space for women survivors to create their own shirts. Our focus is not on how many shirts are made - our focus is on providing women an opportunity to tell her story by designing and displaying her shirt. For that reason, women survivors are free to utilize the shirt making session as they see fit. Some women will decide to make a shirt the day of the display, some women will take home a shirt to design in the privacy of their home (or with the help of a friend or therapist). Some women will design a shirt in a short time period, other women may take months or years. Some women will send their shirt in to the project, and others may keep their shirts. Whatever is most helpful for her healing, is what the project strives to support.
• Audio sound tape is incorporated into many of the displays to symbolize the violence women experience in the United States every day. Every 15 minutes a whistle blows to symbolize that 4 women a day are murdered in the United States by men who supposedly loved them, every minute a bell chimes to symbolize that about every minute a woman is raped in the United States, and every 10 seconds a gong sounds to symbolize that about every 10 seconds a woman is battered in the United States.
• The Clothesline Video Tape may be shown at the display. The tape explains the process of the project, the history of the project, and features women survivors who have made shirts. Viewers at the display share their thoughts and feelings about the display.
• Informational tables are set up throughout the display area with educational brochures and lists of local services for survivors. Since The Clothesline Project strives to educate the larger community, community leaders and specialists in the field are often invited to speak at events. Our project provides lists of topics and speakers. Suggestions for activist activities (e.g., letter writing, support for legislative activity supporting violence prevention) are often available for viewers.
• The Clothesline Project finances our work from donations received from display sponsors, viewers, supporters of the project, and the sales of buttons, shirts, and other related materials. All moneys are used directly for the work of the project.

• Women Survivors - women who are alive and have survived rape, incest, sexual abuse, physical, emotional, verbal, mental, financial, sexual abuse, or women who have survived an act of violence because of their sexual orientation.
• Women Victims - women who have been murdered by the partner who supposedly loved her
• Shirts Messages - inspiration, courage, pain, terror, sadness, joy, hope, despair, hopelessness, power, empowerment, strength, unprotected by systems that should have protected them
• The Reason for the Display - to "Break the Silence ... .. To Air Society's Dirty Laundry," "To Demand Recognition of Violence Against Women and Restitution," to help with the healing process for survivors and families/friends of victims of violence, to call attention to violence against women, to demand changes in our society to prevent violence, to educate the public, to identify women as women of courage.

• Every nine seconds a woman is battered in the United States.
• Every minute a woman is raped in the United States.
• Every day  four women are murdered in the United States.
• Three out of ten women raped are under the age of 11.
• Six out of ten women raped are under the age of 18
• The American Medical Association has declared domestic violence an epidemic.
• The March of Dimes names battery as the number one cause of birth defects.
• During the Vietnam War 58,000 men were killed. In the same period of time, 51,000 women were killed in the United States by their supposed loved ones.

The significance of the color of the shirts are as follows:

• White - for women victims who died because of violence.
• Red/Pink - for women survivors of rape or sexual assault.
• Beige/Yellow - for women survivors of battery or abuse (verbal, physical, emotional, sexual, financial, harassment or psychological)
• Green/Blue - for women survivors of child sexual abuse or incest.
• Lavender/Purple - for women attacked because of their sexual orientation.

While the color code is not rigid, it does provide visual clarity of the extent and types of crimes committed against women.

The Clothesline Project Chicagoland & Suburbs™
12627 West 143rd Street ~ Homer Glen, IL 60441