Voices from the Line: The Clothesline Project as Healing Text

When my PopPop passed away, everyone in the family got to sort through all his clothes and pick something they wanted. I have a green sweater and one of his basic white tee-shirts. Whenever I put either on, I feel like he’s hugging me. His scent still lingers in the threads. 

In a sense, clothes are like ghosts of the self. The Clothesline Project not only addresses domestic violence and assault, but it also captures the body, shape, and spirit of the woman that once was, will be, and aspires to be. At first I thought it would make more sense if the text written on the shirts were published in a book. The writing was deep and poetic To be honest, I was shocked that pretty much every shirt had so much substance and depth. It was haunting. 

Julier explains this type of writing and healing as a “multivoiced witness to a shared cultural experience.” (359) It’s a communal, global, even historical, gathering of women. It’s crazy to think that since the dawn of civilization woman have been treated with such torment and disrespect. To this day, women are still abused. Some don’t even have the opportunity to voice their story and heal due to culture barriers. 

Even thought it’s considered a stereotype these days, woman are often portrayed as the domestic dame hanging up the laundry on a clothesline in the backyard. I think that taps into the project. Women are the caretakers of the world. Julia pulls several tee-shirts as examples of how they produced various methods of reading. Some address the perpetrator directly, others bask in their bravery and ultimately change. 

I like how Julier claims that “space is precisely its its power to heal.” (360) I think this might be interesting to discuss in class—this notion of space and what it provides in terms of writing and healing. Does it refer to the event? The blank canvas on the tee-shirt? A particular woman sense of self?