Content Warning: This story contains mentions of sexual assault and violence.
1-800-656-4673. This, the number for the National Sexual Assault Hotline, was the only thing etched into the plaque standing before the Old Well last month. Behind it, hundreds of pairs of women’s underwear hung from the trees, barely rustling in the breeze.
On Tuesday, March 28, the same day as Give UNC (UNC Chapel Hill’s community-wide giving day), students from ART 490: Art as Social Action arrived on campus in the early morning to string up underwear of all colors, sizes and styles as part of their group project. The display, entitled “Low-Hanging Fruit,” was meant to bring awareness to sexual violence on campus — a known, and growing, epidemic on campuses across the nation.
“Anybody who works on or near college campuses knows that yes, college campuses are a hotbed for sexual activity, generally, and sexually coercive activity,” said Rachel Valentine, executive director for the Orange County Rape Crisis Center. “A lot of that has to do with not necessarily just the congregate setting but also the way the institution is set up to protect harm-doers, such as fraternal organizations and inconsistent or opaque processes for getting justice and support.”
Through the course of examining and explaining research data, Valentine points out UNC is not unique in the way it is fraught with conduits for sexual violence on campus.
“We know, based on both the sociological research and the data, that institutions that have strong fraternity systems tend to have higher rates of sexual assault,” said Valentine. “Fraternal organizations like fraternities, but also like the ROTC, the law enforcement, the military, the legislature, these are all examples of fraternal organizations that are often set up to protect harm-doers.”
According to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Carolina has 50 fraternity and sorority organizations and 28 varsity athletic teams on campus — two sectors of campus life infamous for aiding sexually coercive behavior.
However, even though college campuses are widely recognized as epicenters for assault, research shows the age group commonly found in the university environment (about 16 to 22 years-old) has a larger risk for sexual assault – regardless whether they are in any university environment.
“We know what’s happening on college campuses and we know that the rates are increasing,” Valentine said. “The drinking and party culture and hookup culture are not causes of sexual violence but they do provide a convenient cover for bad behavior.”
In addition to the rise in reported numbers of sexual assault among this age group, women’s rights are under attack in North Carolina. The day after UNC students hung the underwear from the trees above the Old Well, North Carolina Republican Legislators filed House Bill 533 — the “Human Life Protection Act of 2023” — “an act to prohibit abortion after conception except when necessary to preserve the life of the mother,” with no exceptions for cases involving rape or incest according to the bill draft.
“The first level is the on-the-ground practical level of what this is going to mean for survivors who experience pregnancy and that is that it’s devastating,” Valentine said. “Even if a bill includes an exception for rape, that then requires disclosure for somebody that disclosure should really not be required in order to receive medical care. It requires disclosure to people who are not trained in trauma-informed response and are not set up and ready to have an appropriate and compassionate response to survivors of rape.”
These facts are real possibilities for women in the Carolina community, especially for those in the age group dealing with an increased risk for sexual violence. So present that, when deciding the logistics of their project, the members of the all-woman-identifying student group who created “Low-Hanging Fruit” were concerned someone would stumble across their project and think it was a crime scene, rather than an art exhibit.
“We were to basically intervene with a public space in some way in order to draw attention to something that was important to us,” said Molly English, a graduate student at UNC. “One of the students’ intervention projects was to create little situations across campus where underwear was involved in the surrounding area, either put on a bush or a tree or various other locations on campus.”
The ultimate decision to put their final display at the Old Well was two-fold: both to draw the administration’s attention to the project, as it faced their offices, and also to intertwine the message of the project with an iconic piece of campus.
“I thought it was really a great opportunity for a lot of the undergraduate students to take participation in a kind of public comment or public display of antagonism towards the university’s silence on some of these things that are really important and present in their lives,” English said. “I do remember when I was in undergrad and hearing the stories that they would tell about their friends and things that have happened to them – I felt very excited to help them realize that they can do things like this and that it hopefully gives them a bit more courage to try things in the future.”
Many of the students involved were cautious when they began the project, according to Professor Hong-An Truong, as they didn’t know what actions the university would take in response to their project.
“There’s a kind of fear and trepidation because this kind of practice of making art in this way is really risky,” said Truong. “One, engaging in public space in ways that aren’t really “authorized” kind of toes that line on what’s acceptable and what’s even legal sometimes. What can we get away with and what are the ethics of those boundaries of your action?”
As a class, they weighed the risk and decided the impact was far greater than any of the possible repercussions.
“We talked about what that means to take risks and when you are taking risks as an artist, you start to understand how art can have an impact because you feel that risk in your body,” she continued. “When you’re doing something and you’re like oh my gosh this is kind of scary, that ups the ante on what’s the meaningful repercussions of what I’m doing?”
The project – installed in the early morning at around 4 a.m. –was taken down only a few hours later by a campus grounds crew. But still, the class took immense pride in their activism. Risk is present across all kinds of activism, protesting and social change, but is a historic cornerstone for progress.
“Find each other, build community with each other because it is a relentless fight,” Valentine said. “Most of us are in it because we have personal skin in the game and that is a source of power and also a source of vulnerability. The tide turns toward power more when we are able to care for each other in our activism work. So find each other, care for each other.”
Resources for survivors and for activists are available at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center. Please visit https://ocrcc.org for more information.
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