“My sister went to Steubenville, OH and all I got was this lousy shirt”: Composing Feminist Activism with The Clothesline Project

Abstract

This research extends the prevailing notion that “the personal is political,” and demonstrates how activists balance personal investment in social change with public arguments that may influence such change. Additionally, this work accounts for how the researcher’s own experiences of trauma mediate research. Finally, it shows how paradoxes like ‘“silence speaks’” allow for subversive communication in material, visual, textual, ‘“spoken’” and ‘“unspoken’” forms. More specifically, these dynamics are examined in the context of the international activist event, The Clothesline Project, which invites survivors of sexual violence (and those remembering victims) to communicate their experiences via text and illustrations on tee shirts that are then hung on a clothesline in a public space. In doing so, the Project addresses politics surrounding violence against women, especially on college campuses.