If you were outside in the absolutely wonderful summerlike weather on Wednesday, you would have seen the same picture I did: a veritable forest of cotton tees, propped up by rusting steel fenceposts, taking up the entire view of the Alumni Green for much of the afternoon. Each shirt displaying a message against violence toward women, they spoke out in chorus and caught our attention.
But their message is misled. In past years, I have seen t-shirts ranging from “You raped me and now I want to kill you” to “I hope you die.” Granted, I did not see a single shirt this year that said any of those things, but then again, I didn’t get to look at all of the shirts this year, either.
If the idea is really to raise awareness toward violence toward women, is it really proper to do it by turning the violence toward men instead? Well, perhaps not turning the actual violence toward the men, but at the very least, the idea of violence is being directed at men. How can one be so hypocritical as to say that, once again, it’s the man’s fault for everything? I suppose it’s not too difficult to understand, considering the fact that the Clothesline Project is headed up and supported directly by the National Organization for Women, a feminist group known for its man-hating history—or should that be herstory?
Am I detracting from the individual messages by grouping them all into a single category like this? Perhaps. And I should say that some of the messages were quite positive—well, as positive as they could be, in such circumstances. Messages written out about how proud these women were of making it to where they had, and of overcoming hardships such as rapes and killings. They were truly uplifting, and it made me think that some of these women had really made steps on the road to recovery, so to speak, and that is an extremely positive thing. These women were writing their feelings down, and I will never be against that; this isn’t the issue I have with this day.
My issue is that, once again, it’s all about the women’s fight for freedom against violence. It’s about the violence caused by men toward women, and that just isn’t right. The burden is put upon the man’s shoulder to change, and, as usual, we get very little say in the matter. We need to focus on more positive methods to accomplish our goals, and when we can all work together toward equality for all, I will dance for joy.