On October 29th, faculty, students and staff of several colleges and universities around the world carried mattresses around their campuses to bring awareness and to support victims of domestic and sexual violence.
University of Michigan
University of Tampa
Central European University – Budapest, Hungary
This campaign started with Emma Sulkowicz, a senior at Columbia University, who as a sophomore was raped in her own dorm room. She attempted to seek justice with her university’s administration against her rapist, who had also raped two other women in the campus, but with no success to punish the abuser and expel him from the university as he was concluded “not responsible”. As a Visual Arts major, she did an art project for her senior thesis called “Mattress Performance: Carry That Weight” in which she has been carrying a dorm mattress everywhere as long as her rapist is still on campus.
Emma Sulkowicz carrying her mattress as part of her art project at Columbia University.
Emma’s silent but bold protest against the mishandling of sexual assault at her university caught the attention of millions around the world, inspiring many victims of sexual assault on college campuses to speak out as well. With so many stories rising up in the media of mishandling cases of sexual assaults on campuses, Emma’s protest serves as a reminder that something must be done to change that reality and to make college campuses a safer environment for all students.
Her story has been featured on several platforms, such as NY Magazine, TIME, Huffington Post and The New York Times. Under the Twitter hashtag #carrythatweight, pictures of the October 29th campaign have been posted and many supporters, such as the U.S. Senator from New York Kirsten Gillibrand have been showing their support for the cause.
Despite all of the protests and attempts made by Emma and other victims, it seems as she may be carrying her mattress up until graduation day as there seems to be no signs of her rapist leaving Columbia until graduation. Although on the day she gets her diploma Emma will be able to put down her mattress, she will never be able to fully put down the memories of her assault. But the fight to make the administrations of universities take sexual assault seriously will continue through other survivors strong enough to take a stand like Emma.
Photo Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/carryingtheweighttogether
https://twitter.com/DarianRazzz/status/527511121293758465
https://www.facebook.com/HerCampusUT
https://twitter.com/CarryTogether/status/527462990996856832/photo/1
https://twitter.com/indie1activist/status/527387843040407552/photo/1