Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz, 21, says she was raped in her own bed at the beginning of her sophomore year. This week, two years after the alleged assault, Sulkowicz, a visual-arts major, has made a promise to carry her mattress around campus every day as part of her senior thesis. It is, she says, a symbol of the burden sexual-assault survivors carry with them every day.
“The act of carrying the mattress from inside my room out into the light has mirrored the way my life has changed, as I’ve brought my personal story out into the light,” Sulkowicz told TIME. “This project is a way to heal one of the most difficult things that happened to me. As I will build muscle and get stronger, hopefully I will also build emotional strength.”
Sulkowicz started the performance-art project on Tuesday, and she said she is determined to continue carrying the mattress wherever she goes — to class, the library, the gym — as long as her alleged rapist is still on campus. That means her project could last until graduation day in May 2015 — unless her alleged assailant is either expelled or chooses to leave the school. Last year, Sulkowicz and two other women reported the same person to the university. All three cases were dismissed.
Wikipedia article about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_rape_accusation_controversy
God, the internet was fucking horrible when this happened. I remember constant comments about how she was lying for attention or just regretted it. Pre-MeToo era was a hellhole.
That era was the beginning of my disillusionment with the internet. It’s like every guy was angry for the rapist. Are they afraid for themselves… What are they hiding?
Oh don’t worry, the internet is continuing to be horrible about this and the Cornell rape. It never really went away unfortunately and we’re in the middle of a huge misogyny resurgence.
Absolutely the shitheads are still here and being loud, but to me the overall culture has shifted enough that they’re at least recognized as shitheads and not just treated as a normal opinion that some men have. I’m sure that’s not the case everywhere, but that’s been how it’s shifted in the past 10-15 years where I’ve seen.
Yeah where I am in the US, we literally elected a rapist as president. The misogyny hasn’t really shifted much from my perspective after Me Too. Like…there’s more lip service paid to it, but like with the Cornell situation, there’s still no real consequences for most rapists and younger generations are demonstrably more misogynistic.
I get where you’re coming from and you’re probably right that some of the general sentiments have shifted enough that we can talk about these things more openly, but overall not much has changed.
I only heard about it when she put out a full nudity and penetration reinacment video. The reactions to that were certainly interesting.
Was? It’s only gotten worse.
I’d say different rather than worse. The normal person:misogynist shithead ratio of people online is higher than it’s ever been, which means there are a lot more people are calling it out instead of it just being flung everywhere like feces.
I hope you’re right!
All she had to do was trick him into saying ‘Free Palestine’ and Columbia not only would have expelled him but they would also ensure he never got a job in any top firm
The president of Columbia at the time refused to shake her hand when she crossed the stage at graduation.
Good. She’s better than him and he doesn’t deserve to shake her hand. Fuck him.
I’m sure Socrates and Plato turning over in their graves looking at MBAs running educational institutions.
Probably should have picked two philosophers who didn’t have significant portions of their works dedicated to defending slavery and the literal Greek patriarchy.
Slavery then was very different from the horrors that are chattel slavery. From my reading Socrates and Plato both reject the Greek patriarchy, but if you have writings of Plato’s that shows otherwise I’d love to see them.
You’re a trash person who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and even if you were right, you’d still be a garbage heap for thinking “but it wasn’t about race” or “but their children wouldn’t always be slaves as well, unless of course they fell into debt while their slave parents died in the mines” is a defense.
Just straight up LMAO at them not defending Greek patriarchy btw.
Shit, you ignorant fucking ape, they had chattel slavery too, and what the Spartans did to their helot class was as bad or worse than anything the South did.
Woah buddy everything is alright man. Take a chill pill.
How about you know one goddamn thing about ancient slavery systems before you defend it based on shit you’ve seen fascist adjacent redditors who unironically want to bring those systems back say and then I’ll chill?
Did she carry the mattress on stage?
Yes. He hadn’t been expelled at that point.
This article is from 2014
Yes it is. We’re in the TIL community.
I’m not judging, just thought it was useful information to add.
Turns out nothing much has changed when it comes to treating rape like the serious crime that it is.
I don’t think that is entirely true. The metoo movement has caused a lot of public awareness and outcry, which is still effective today. Even now, more women speak about their experience, which keeps the conversation going and keeps opening people’s eyes. Because it is easier (in a public sense) to talk about rape, ther is less judgement and more support.
There is now a culture around consent and how important that is. There is now also attention for power inbalace, like a boss and a employee. This even lead to a massive jiurnalist investigation in 2022 in my country (netherlands), where a few key figures in “The Voice Holland” were exposed as rapists. Two were taken to court, one got convicted.
I’m a simple white man, but from what I hear and see, there are a few things better than it was in 2014.
My country has also adopted a law in 2024 that broadens the spectrum of what can be classified as rape. Now you don’t have to prove force or violence, but things like coercion or online behaviour also counts as evidence. It is also easier to press charges.
There is still plenty of problems surrounding the treatment of rape a a serious crime, but I think it is better than in 2014. What is still definitely a problem, is that that the law requires hard evidence and rape is hard to prove with hard evidence. In that case it will always be your word against their’s. That has still not been solved, and is the reason why many rape cases don’t make it to court (because they don’t have the evidence and there no chance). But this is actually a hard problem to solve.
This post was probably in response to the recent Cornell 7 situation.
A former Cornell student was drugged and gang-raped in a frat house for 7 hours in 2024. When she reported it, two of the rapists were expelled, and five more had to write an essay about why rape is bad. No criminal charges were brought against any of them, even the two who were expelled. Zero arrests. The entire frat house knew about it, and even the ones who refused to participate in the gang-rape chose to do nothing.
The case recently went viral because she is suing the seven men and the college. And now that it has gone viral, investigators have said they’re going to reopen the criminal investigation that they previously closed. But they’re only doing that because it quickly became apparent that the police intentionally refused to do anything about it, and now they have egg on their face.
And this isn’t just a he-said-she-said situation where there is some ambiguity about whether or not the attack happened. We have text messages from the frat members, telling each other about the free pussy in the bedroom, and to just walk in and whip it out. She had been repeatedly drugged with ketamine and liquor throughout the 7 hour long gang rape, and all 7 knew she was completely out of it and unable to consent. Those are direct quotes, by the way. This photo was entered as evidence in New York’s court:
Additionally, in 2025, Cornell reported that 35% of undergraduate women respondents said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact during their Cornell careers, compared with 23% in 2023. That is a staggering increase.
Things definitely haven’t gotten better.
Additionally, in 2025, Cornell reported that 35% of undergraduate women respondents said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact during their Cornell careers, compared with 23% in 2023. that is a staggering increase.
Ugh I hadn’t seen this stat yet. Abysmal. I feel so terrible for our young women in this country. It was supposed to be better, not worse.
I’m in the US and we have such long backlogs of rape kits that are never even tested:
In 2022, at least 25,000 untested rape kits sat in law enforcement agencies and crime labs across the country. This figure only accounts for data reported by 30 states and Washington, DC; the total backlog number is unknown.
So when you say that the reason it’s difficult to solve rape cases is because there isn’t any evidence, I don’t believe that.
I think that our authorities don’t investigate rape hardly ever. 98% of perpetrators never seen the inside of a courtroom. Our president is a literal child rapist.
I’m glad that you’ve seen improvement in your country.
There will come a time when even the US will be a good place to live. Until then, I wish you all the luck.
Your name is abbadon420! Since it seems we’re just stating things…
I missed when the story was originally published, so I appreciate their comment even if they could have explained their intent a little better
Thanks, I’ve saved your comment for future reference
It’s also turned out to not be true.
Wow, fuck that article.
We can debate why sexual misconduct and rape have become such pressing problems (spoiler alert: it has everything to do with the sexual revolution and hook-up culture)…
Also fuck the author for, among other things, that quote. Victim blaming bullshit.
It’s pointless to argue. These people will never believe a man over a woman.
Who says RamRabbit is a man?
Brother, of all the sources you could’ve shared, you went with the National Review? Are you joking?
I’m giving you a do-over to find something better. This is your mulligan.
Yeah linking a conservative opinion piece is iron-clad proof that Columbia took this rape allegation seriously. /s
Just got done reading the Wikipedia article on the matter. NYPD and the DA declined to pursue charges and the guy ended up suing Colombia for how they handled the proceedings on title IX gender discrimination violations. That lawsuit was settled.
WaPo is cited in there, it was bought by Bezos in '13.
The details of the settlement are sealed and it doesn’t prove that the rape didn’t happen, only that charges were never pressed against him for rape.
Considering the lengths that these Universities routinely go through to bury these stories, hide evidence, and not give evidence over to the DA and police departments, I have significant doubts that Columbia did the right thing here.
Given how quickly Columbia capitulated to Trump as well as its abysmal treatment of protestors it is almost certain the administration didn’t do the right thing.
Link contains evidence and other sources. You are free to ignore them if you want.
It’s the National Review
Two things can be “almost true”. Wiki
See the references for more reputable sources.
This dude is referring to the fact that the carrying of the mattress was, indeed, performance art. That said, she did this performance art because she had been assaulted and hadn’t received justice.
@kaitco @RamRabbit This got very gross when she was a sex performer with a gray-haired dude who probably looked like the father of the dude who raped her.
If you don’t want a rapist on campus, do, then process, and make sure nobody finds the body.
Due process isn’t a thing.
If you don’t want a rapist on campus, do, then process, and make sure nobody finds the body.
What? I can’t quite make out what you’re saying here.
@velma A Gen X solution that was quite effective at one local college.
Her family wasn’t playing at all.
He was never found.
Oh…
It would be cooler if authorities took rape allegations seriously.
It would be even cooler if men stopped doing rape.
@velma It certainly would. The immense backlog of untested rape kits in a place like New Orleans (or really any city) is enough to make one very suspicious of those authorities.
You turned out to be a real piece of shit.
Didn’t she also release that performance ‘art’ video where she hired a guy off Craigslist to rape her?
God forbid an artist use a traumatic experience to create art.
Sulkowicz devised Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) in the summer of 2014 as a senior thesis while at Yale University Summer School of Art and Music. Her first effort was a video of herself moving a bed out of a room, accompanied by the audio of her filing the police report, which she had recorded on a cellphone.[24] The mattress later became the focus of the piece.[25] Sulkowicz’s thesis was supervised by artist Jon Kessler, a professor at Columbia. As the idea for Mattress Performance developed, Kessler and Sulkowicz discussed the nature of endurance art and the work of Tehching Hsieh, Marina Abramović, Ulay and Chris Burden.[26] Sulkowicz described the work as “an endurance performance art piece”. Sulkowicz told the Columbia Daily Spectator: “I do think that nowadays art pieces can include whatever the artist desires and in this performance art piece it utilizes the elements of protest …”[27]
Purchased online from Tall Paul’s Tall Mall, the 50-lb (23-kg), dark-blue, extra-long twin mattress is of the kind Columbia places in its dorms, similar to the one on which Sulkowicz said that Nungesser had raped her.[11][24] Sulkowicz spent the summer of 2014 creating the rules of engagement, which defined the parameters of the project. Written on the walls of her studio in the university’s Watson Hall, these included that Sulkowicz had to carry the mattress when on university property; that it had to remain on campus when she was not there; and that she was not allowed to ask for help in carrying it, but could accept if help was offered.[24][28]
In early September 2014 Sulkowicz began carrying the mattress on campus.[29] A homeless man was one of the first to help. Sulkowicz told New York magazine: “He was the first person who helped without some sort of preconstructed belief for why they were going to help. He was like, ‘Oh, look, a struggling girl—let me help her and be a nice human being.’ That was probably the most honest interaction I had.”[30] Sulkowicz kept a diary throughout, amounting to 59,000 words at the end of the work, recording the artist’s experiences as well as the misunderstandings of commentators.[30]
Sulkowicz said the work would end when Nungesser was expelled from or otherwise left Columbia, and that she would take the mattress to her graduation ceremony if necessary.[11][25] In the end Sulkowicz carried it to the graduation ceremony on May 19, 2015,[7] despite a request from the school that students should not bring “large objects which could interfere with the proceedings”.[4] Several women helped carry the mattress on stage. As Sulkowicz approached, university president Lee Bollinger, who had been shaking other graduates’ hands, turned away as if to pick something up, and did not shake her hand; the university said this happened because the mattress was in the way.[10] The next day posters appeared in Morningside Heights near the university calling Sulkowicz a “pretty little liar”.[31]
After graduation Sulkowicz said she had known the university would not expel Nungesser, and had expected to carry the mattress for nine months, the length of a pregnancy, which was an important part of the work: “To me, the piece has very much represented [the fact that] a guy did a horrible thing to me and I tried to make something beautiful out of it.”[30]
Artists are actively standing against Israel’s genocide, a genocide that Columbia supports. It makes sense that people who are so lacking in anything resembling decent values would be scared of those willing and able to highlight Columbia’s shameful behavior.
