University Student Drags Her Mattress Around Campus Until Her Rapist Is Expelled (PHOTO)
Category: Campus News
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Emma Sulkowicz is a senior visual arts student at Columbia University.
On the first day of her sophomore year, she says, she was raped by a
classmate on her mattress.
"Rape
can happen anywhere," she explains in the video above. "For me, I was
raped in my own dorm bed. Since then, it has basically become fraught
for me, and I feel like I've carried the weight of what happened there
with me everywhere since then."
Sulkowicz' senior thesis, titled "Mattress Performance" or "Carry That Weight,"
is a literal expression of that emotional weight. In what she calls an
endurance art piece, she will drag her mattress everywhere she goes on
campus until her rapist is expelled or leaves. The project, she says,
could extend for one day or for the entire remainder of her time at
Columbia.
"The past year or so of my life has been really marked by telling
people what happened in that most intimate private space and bringing it
out into the light," she says. "So I think the act of carrying
something that is normally found in our bedroom out into the light is
supposed to mirror the way I've talked to the media and
talked to
different news channels, etc."
When Sulkowicz's case made it to a
university hearing seven months after the actual incident occurred,
administrators were confused about how anal rape could happen and she
had to draw a diagram. The experience left her feeling physically ill.
Two other women came forward to say they had been assaulted by the same
student, but all believe their cases were mishandled, in part by
mistake-riddled record-keeping
on the part of university authorities (note: aliases were used in early
reporting on the case to protect the identity of those involved).
Their alleged attacker was found not responsible by the university, and remains at the school.
"I
was so naive that I guess I thought they would just believe me because I
was telling the truth," Sulkowicz told The Huffington Post in February.
"I didn't expect the school was going to try to not take my side."
Sulkowicz was one of 23 students who filed a federal complaint against
Columbia for mishandling sexual assault cases, in violation of the
gender equity law Title IX. The U.S. Department of Education has yet to
determine whether it will investigate the university.
"Carry That
Weight" is especially powerful protest against injustice, while also
forcing her community to face the emotional and physical trauma of
sexual assault. While one of her rules for the performance is that she
can't ask for help carrying it around, Sulkowicz said others are allowed
to offer their help.
"I'm hoping that not only do I get better
at carrying the mattress, but... I'm very interested in seeing where
this piece goes and what sort of life it takes on," she says.
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