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Campus Campaigns to Combat Rape
by ShaTara Drummond with Photos by Kristalyn Bunyan
Hanging out some cleansing washing
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Colorful T-shirts hung in the sunlight in the Mars Hill College Quad as men and women lined up to sign pledges to end rape.
They pledged to "speak out about my anger about rape," "interrupt sexist rape jokes," and "pay attention to cries for help."
They signed "because than one woman is raped very minute in this country," and they recognized that "women and men will not be equal until rape ends."
The pledges and T-shirts appeared in the quad and in Pittman Dining Hall on March 22 as part of the annual Clothesline Project, hosted by the Women's Studies program.
The T-shirts were made by students on campus in the past and present. Painted on one T-shirt were the words, "Speak out…for others if not for yourself". "Stop the Silence"
Mars Hill does a lot for the victim of rape after the rape has occurred, "but we need to do more to prevent rape in the first place," said Associate Professor of Religion Marc Mullinax, "This is one of the few things that happen on campus to help prevent a culture of acceptance of rape."
Both men and women, he said, need to think about these things before they get into a bad situation.
The clothes line project was started in 1990 by a woman named Rachel Carey-Harper. Why clothesline? Well laundry was considered a woman's work and women often in earlier times would exchange information over their backyard fences while hanging their laundry to dry.
She wanted to let women tell their stories in a unique "in your face" way, in this case by writing or drawing artwork on T-shirts and hanging them on a clothesline. People would come and view this, and it would be a healing tool for those who made the shirts. It has now grown into a nationwide healing process for women who have survived abuse.
Click for Men's Pledge and Women's Pledge
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