The sounds of sexism
What does sexism sound like in America? Well, according to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), on audio tape, "... a gong sounds every 10 seconds for a woman being battered in the US, a whistle blows every three minutes for a woman being raped and a bell tolls every 15 minutes for a woman being killed".
I would think that such a tape being played in homes around the world would serve to increase the general awareness regarding how often women are subjected to violence and even death for no other reason than their being women. The tape is only one of the many vehicles the Clothesline Project uses in a concerted effort to inform the public. Quoting from its newsletter:
"The Clothesline Project weaves itself into the universal movement of emotional health and personal empowerment for women.
"We ask women to send shirts with personalised messages to be hung on the clothesline, preferably with the following colour codes: white for women who have died violently; yellow or beige for women who have been battered or assaulted; red, pink or orange for women who have been raped or sexually assaulted; blue or green for women survivors of incest or child sexual abuse; purple or lavender for women attacked because they are lesbian."
Recently the Women's Network and Shelter held a Clothesline Project display in Rutland, Vermont. It is said that most people "cannot view the 'Clothesline' without an intense emotional reaction". I can well imagine the intensity of emotions that victims and their supporters must feel in the presence of such a display.
Evidence suggests that the number of US women killed by men — men who claimed to have loved them — was almost as many as the number of US soldiers killed in Vietnam during the same period.
"Another purpose of the Clothesline Project is to serve to connect women around the country and eventually around the globe ... It is vitally important in the healing process for women to break the silence and to share their pain and develop a sense of trust within themselves and within one another.
"One of the other primary strengths of the project is that it is so simple — line, pins and imagination. It is the first national movement that has established the importance of understanding the cycles of violence women experience and how it impacts on the quality of life that women experience ... and our society as a whole. In addition, we make the connection between this violence and violences that are perpetrated against the 'other'. Whether the 'other' is defined as people of colour, lesbians and gays, the physically challenged, the environment."
We need more of these kind of aware and caring people in this world. If you would like more information about the much-needed work the Clothesline Project is doing, or if you wish to organise a similar project in Australia, or want a copy of the tape, Sounds of Sexism, please write to the National Network at PO Box 727, East Dennis, Massachusetts 02641, USA.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]