for getting me out of wordprocessing predicaments, especially when fatigue got the better of my memory and X imagination and I couldn't maneuver even the easiest of formatting instructions. IH bring in the chocolate-covered cherries next week. To Rehan Mullick, for not one, not two, but three lessons in using the scanning equipment needed to transfer my photographs to computer disk. I think I've finally gotten the hang of it. To Sine Anahlta, for sharing in my agitation and for not abandoning me when things took longer than anticipated. Your moral support, not to mention the "power of your personality," uplifted me. To Denlse Rothschild, who not only introduced me to the sanity-saving "soft return," but did so with patience and levity on a day when throngs of stressed-out graduate students awaited their time with her, each wanting and receiving the thoughtful attention she gave me. To Jim Orr, computer wizard extraordinaire, who supplied me with great tools to accomplish the formatting of the dissertation and who surrendered a drizzly Sunday afternoon to help me print the photographs that don these pages. Thank you for your patience and good humor. To Janet Huggard, for understanding how important this was to me and letting me obsess with her about every detail. You kept me well supplied with coffee and cream; I couldn't have done it without you or the caffeine. To my playmates in Des Moines, especially the women from my Wednesday night volleyball team, who provided stress-relief through much laughter, if llttie exercise. You nurtured, nourished, and encouraged me. Now, if you could only teach me how to set the ball! To the women of the Clothesline Project to whom this dissertation is dedicated, especially those on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, and In Des Moines, Marshalltown, Iowa City, and the Quad Cities. You tiiisted me with your shirts and your stories. I feel honored and beholden. And to Su Zanna Kay Prophet, bibliographer supreme and absolutely the most devoted "research assistant" any woman could have. What can I say? Thank you for periodically kidnapping me for rides in the country to clear my head. Thank you for your unflagging support and encouragement, and for quelling my anxieties. But most of all, thank you for being proud of me. I can't wait to wear that magnificent graduation cowl! xi

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Through a case study of The Clothesline Project, the author demonstrates how shirts are strategically deployed to resist gender domination, particularly gendered violence, by articulating an alternative political discourse that refutes official and popular notions about violence against women and female subordination.

No abstract