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On Friday, Paul Nungesser, the alleged rapist of “Mattress Girl” Emma Sulkowicz, had his discrimination lawsuit against Columbia University dismissed. In 2014, Emma Sulkowicz launched her art-protest piece “Carry That Weight,” in which she carried her mattress with her everywhere (including to commencement), as a condemnation of Columbia's handling of her rape complaint. Though the University cleared him of wrongdoing and allowed him to continue with school, Nungesser's name was eventually made public. Last year, he filed a discrimination suit against the school under Title IX (the statute under which victims of sexual assault often bring their claims). In the...

Given that there are so many legitimate incidents to choose from, why have so many high-profile cases ultimately fallen apart? If you were to ask an average person today to name a prominent story about rape on college campuses, odds are pretty good that among the top four or five replies would be the Duke lacrosse case, the Rolling Stone cover story about Jackie and the University of Virginia, Columbia University "mattress girl" Emma Sulkowicz and one of the stories from "The Hunting Ground." Yet in all of these stories, either the accusations were later shown to be a complete...

Artnet has confirmed that Emma Sulkowicz, the former Columbia University student known for “Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight),” is behind the website “Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol .” The site hosts an artist’s statement from Sulkowicz, who graduated from Columbia in May of this year, and a video she filmed with director Ted Lawson several months ago over the university’s winter break. The eight-minute video features Sulkowicz and a man, his face blurred, engaging in what appears to be consensual sex that turns violent. The unidentified man open-palm slaps Sulkowicz, chokes her, removes the condom, then continues to have very...

have to admit, I used to be skeptical about Emma Sulkowicz, AKA Mattress Girl. It seemed odd that the Columbia University student was protesting an alleged rape by carrying a mattress around campus. Things became even stranger when it turned out there was no proof whatsoever of any rape, and even weirder still when voluminous evidence surfaced that she remained friends with her alleged rapist. Sure, Sulkowicz became a media darling, and she even attended this year’s State of the Union address at the invitation of Kirsten Gillibrand. But despite this compelling evidence, I was unwilling to accept that an...

Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia graduate famous across the country as “Mattress Girl” after she hauled a mattress around campus for a year to protest the school’s handling of her alleged rape, has apparently released a sex tape recreating her alleged rape. Titled Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol (‘This Is Not A Rape’), the video shows two people, one of whom appears to be Sulkowicz, entering a dorm room and proceeding to have sex from four different camera angles. Timestamps in the upper corner of each camera are used to make the video appear dated to August 27, 2012, the date...

Emma Sulkowicz, known for carrying a mattress around campus for what she claims is a protest of Columbia University's failure to punish her rapist, is hoping to cash in on her alleged art project. Sulkowicz told the New York Times after her graduation on Tuesday — where she carried her mattress across the stage — that she would sell the mattress if offered. "If some sort of museum wants to buy it, then I'm open to that," she said, "but I'm not going to just throw it away." Sulkowicz has for the past year carried her mattress around for course...

Student activist Emma Sulkowicz made headlines last fall, pledging to carry her mattress around Columbia University’s campus until the administration expelled her alleged rapist, Paul Nungesser. That didn’t happen. Tuesday, both students were scheduled to graduate. So Sulkowicz, with the help of her friends, carried her mattress in the processional, continuing her protest. According to The Columbia Daily Spectator, the school’s administration emailed seniors on Monday saying, “Graduates should not bring into the ceremonial area large objects which could interfere with the proceedings or create discomfort to others in close, crowded spaces shared by thousands of people.” Sulkowicz disregarded this...

Paul Nungesser was found “not responsible” for sexually assaulting another student at Columbia University. The student who accused him, Emma Sulkowicz, has since began carrying a mattress around the university as part of an art project to protest a finding she claims was unfair. Sulkowicz’s activism earned her an invitation to President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. When Nungesser heard of the invitation, he blasted the senator for rewarding Sulkowicz’s attacks against him. “I am shocked to learn that Sen. Gillibrand is actively supporting Ms. Sulkowicz’s defamation campaign against me by providing...