Contact: Georgia Clarke
STARKVILLE, Miss.—As part of its annual National Campus Safety Awareness Month observance, Mississippi State is sponsoring the Clothesline Project through Thursday [Sept. l7] on the Drill Field.
The 9 a.m.-3 p.m. display of more than 1,800 multi-colored t-shirts has been organized by the university’s health promotion and wellness department to help increase awareness of the many acts of sexual violence experienced nationally by both women and men.
Each shirt color has a specific meaning:
—Yellow, men and women who have been battered or assaulted;
—Red, pink or orange, persons raped or sexually assaulted;
—White, those who died because of violence;
—Blue and green, survivors of incest or child sexual abuse;
—Purple, individuals attacked because of their sexual orientation; and
—Black, persons attacked for political reasons.
The display also encourages MSU students and others “to create a shirt as a way to express themselves,” said Leah Pylate, assistant director of the campus health promotion and wellness and sexual assault program.
“It can help in the healing process and empower individuals who have experienced these crimes personally,” she continued. “Shirts can also be created as a way to honor friends and loved ones who have experienced these crimes.”
For more on the national Clothesline Project, visit www.clotheslineproject.org.
In coordination with the display, the department of health promotion and wellness is providing a series of daily messages via Instagram @msuhealthpromo, Twitter @MSUHEW and Facebook at facebook.com/healthedatmsstate.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.