The Closeline Project shares laundry

“I couldn’t say the word ‘rape’ for a long time,” said Larisa Storisteanu, a volunteer with the Clothesline Project (CLP) at Ryerson, which took place from May 1 to 4.

Hosted by the V-Day group at Ryerson, the project allowed women who have experienced abuse to share their stories, emotions and messages of hope on donated t-shirts. The t-shirts were then displayed publicly. According to the CLP, making and hanging that laundry can be part of the healing process.

Storisteanu, a former part-time visual arts student at Ryerson, first heard about CLP a few years ago. She was raped by a former employer and wanted to participate in an event she felt was a positive way of reconciling her experience with violence. Storisteanu is also assistant director of Canadian Artists Against Sexual Assault, a student group that has raised funds for the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre by auctioning artwork created by women who have survived violence.

“It’s definitely hard opening up about it but its harder keeping silent,” she said, sitting beside the growing clothesline, her mint colour eyes emphasized by wavy auburn hair.

Decorated t-shirts were strung between four trees alongside Kerr Hall South as women sat at tables and sketched out stories with markers. Traffic on the sidewalk stopped to converse with volunteers about the workshop and across the street more shirts swung in the breeze beside Lake Devo.

The first CLP event took place in 1990 as part of the “Take Back the Night” march and rally in Massachusetts. The founding group felt that hanging laundry, long seen as women’s work, would be a natural medium to express provocative, educational and constructive art. The project has now spread worldwide.

Virginia and Ashley Tran, who started V-Day at Ryerson, chose to organize CLP as a way of providing a supportive, artistic and activist workshop for the Ryerson community. In partnership with Ryerson’s Women’s Centre, they started collecting donated shirts for the clothesline in December.

Virginia, a freelance artist better known as “V”, sat beside the growing clothesline in a billowy white shirt and silver hoop earrings. She said that many women who participated or approached the tables of t-shirts had stories to tell, and V-Day volunteers were there to listen.One woman’s story stood out for Tran: “A lot of times women don’t know it’s abuse until it’s too late.”

For many women, name-calling by partners can seem like a silly or insignificant reaction. “It’s about noticing and identifying the early stages of it, and how it escalates into an abusive situation,” said Tran, who has experienced violence with men in the past.

“Not only are we acknowledging the victims, but we’re building them up as well,” said project coordinator Rehana Hirjee, in grey tights and jean shorts, who sat alongside the clothesline with Tran.
She feels that women lack the outlets to express their experiences with violence and can remain silent out of fear that an abusive significant other will discover their disclosure. The Clothesline provides a safe place to tell those stories.

“It’s a silent protest, I think. Once you read it, it has such an impact,” said Hirjee, with long dark curls framing her face.

Each shirt was colour-coded to symbolize the form of abuse and whether the victim survived.
“He spat on my face and he hit me…he called me a bitch and he kicked me…one black eye and a bleeding head…I vow never to go back and not to listen to what he says,” read a lime green shirt, representing a survivor of incest and sexual abuse, which hung near Lake Devo.

But women aren’t the only survivors of violence. Earlier in the afternoon a man who had been abused by two of his former wives asked Hirjee if there was room for men who were victims. “Why not?” replied Hirjee.

“I want men to know, ‘listen we’re in this together,’” said Tran, her hair pulled back in a low ponytail. “V-day isn’t a pro-woman, anti-men group. We’re pro-human.”

Jeff Perera, a social work student currently organizing Ryerson’s White Ribbon Campaign (RWRC), came out to support the CLP workshop on Saturday, and hopes to work with V-Day in the future. The RWRC is an organization of students, staff and faculty dedicated to ending men’s violence against women through awareness and education.

Perera’s aim is to create a space for Ryerson’s male population to discuss its role in violence without blaming. “It’s not the ‘oppressor, you are the enemy’ discussion. Let’s find how we can be part of the solution,” says Perera.

Perera’s mother was a victim of violence. He believes that remaining silent about the issue allows it to fester and grow. “You’re part of the problem or part of the solution,” he says.

V-Day also sold “I (heart) vagina” t-shirts and buttons and received donations for future campaigns, as well as for the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children, an organization that provides community education, justice and safety programs.None of the stories that were written on shirts will be lost, said Tran.

V-day intends to hold another CLP on campus in September and will reuse shirts created during their first workshop. She wants to spread the message that anyone can start a CLP, and hopes to collaborate with other projects across Toronto.

“We essentially want the CLP to be a Toronto collective that started here at Ryerson, and that’s beautiful. So we’re calling out to people,” says Tran.

Wearing a long, patchwork skirt, with a feather tied in her hair, Storisteanu sat beside the red t-shirt that she decorated the previous day, which symbolized rape.

“It is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy,” the shirt read, which came from the poem “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann, surrounded by a circular design that branched off into curls. Underneath were the words, “I’m working on forgiving you…slowly…taking it day by day.”

Although she feels that many things have contributed to her healing process, Storisteanu says that witnessing the messages of other women was empowering for her. She knows that voicing what she went through potentially helped someone else.

“It doesn’t make you feel so anonymous, sharing your story.”

*Published in the June issue of The Ryerson Free Press

Films for her pleasure

Joanne Loton would love to make her own porn. But for now, the Ryerson graduate student is filming the feminist directors behind the camera.

"These women are sex-rock revolutionaries. They're sick and tired of the status quo and instead of complaining about it they picked up a camera and did something about it," she said with a wide smile.

Loton's unfinished documentary, Women Will Come, is part of her documentary media studies thesis project and a segment will be shown at Good For Her's 2009 feminist porn screenings on Saturday, April 25.

The screening is part of the weekend's fourth annual Feminist Porn Awards, which takes place on Friday, April 24.

Women Will Come focuses on four prominent feminist porn directors who are changing representations of women in porn by filming real bodies, real sex and real orgasms.
Authentic pleasure is one of the criterion that measures the eligibility of films able to win a feminist porn award. Women must also have control of production, direction and creative content in films while challenging conventional pornographic stereotypes in a sexy way.

Shine Louise Houston, a former sex shop owner featured in Loton's film, boasts a 99 per cent authentic climax rate in her films. Considering that mainstream porn tends to highlight the typical male money shot, Loton feels setting a standard for female pleasure in feminist porn is very commendable.

"It's not easy to represent [an orgasm] because unless you squirt, how do you tell? So a lot of it cinematically focuses on the reactions of the woman's face or her body," Loton said.
The screenings will also feature clips from nominated films, followed by a moderated panel discussion with the feminist directors (who will be awarded butt-plug-shaped trophies for their participation).

Alison Lee, organizer of the awards, asked Loton to speak on the panel because her documentary offers a different perspective.

"I don't think we've ever had a documentary film maker on the panel before and it's always good to expand. The more diverse voices we can have, the better the discussion surrounding feminist porn will be," Lee said.

Sexual identities tend to be realistic in feminist porn, instead of slapping together two women who don't identify as queer to perform a cookie cutter girlon- girl scene. Loton has also witnessed a trend of less scripted scenes.

"It's not asking the performers to stop and do doggy and do cow-girl and whatever. It's like we're putting in a tape and we're following you, you're the director of the action. You do exactly what you want on screen," she said.

Returning to Ryerson after graduating from the radio and television arts program in 2001, Loton was able step back from the Canadian television industry. Back at school, she could dedicate herself to making an independent film she is passionate about.

"I've always been interested in women who defy stereotypes of gender roles," Loton said. "That's why I gravitated towards sex-positive feminism. We have autonomy over our own bodies and our minds."

Through her research, Loton knows when a woman picks up a camera it doesn't automatically make her product feminist.

In Loton's documentary, Anna Span, the first female porn director in the U.K., discusses using the "female perspective" as a means of restructuring the power imbalances in porn. Span films an equal amount of female and male oriented camera shots.

A woman can then participate as the gazer instead of constantly being seen as an object, Span said. The 47-minute full length version of her documentary will debut at Documentary Now, the master of fine arts graduating film festival on June 11.

When Loton returned to Canada from filming in L.A., she had to explain to a male border security employee that she had been abroad filming a documentary about feminist porn. He stared at her, confused.

"Feminists, what? I thought feminists were against that?" he asked.

"Not all of us are."

"I don't get it."

"Well that's why you need to watch my film."

*As published in the Eyeopener, Wednesday, April 8 2009

McClung's straight off our backs clothing sale

I just finished up some much needed spring cleaning in my closet to donate to this clothing sale and I hope to find some nifty purchases among the discarded remnants of someone else's wardrobe. Who knows why so many pieces of clothing that I purchase lay forgotten, gathering dust. At least this way someone can reap the benefits while soothing my conscience. Your junk is my treasure right? We all win at a clothing sale. Support Ryerson's feminist magazine, McClung's, so we can keep valuable pro-woman literature alive on campus and find some great bargains too.