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.
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.
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:
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.