Emma Sulkowicz: Columbia University Rape Activist Releases Graphic Sex Video As New Art Project


Emma Sulkowicz has released a video featuring violent sex that the Columbia University activist said matches the alleged rape she claims to have suffered as a student.

Sulkowicz made national headlines last year when she decided to carry a mattress around campus both as a protest and an art project after what she said was a rape that the university failed to properly investigate.

Now she has taken the protest a step further with an art project drawing criticism online. The video, titled “Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol” or “This is not a rape,” showed Emma Sulkowicz engaged in violent sex acts.

“The following text contains allusions to rape,” she wrote. “Everything that takes place in the following video is consensual but may resemble rape. It is not a reenactment but may seem like one.”

Sulkowicz’s case has been controversial from the outset. The university launched an investigation against fellow student Paul Nungesser but ultimately decided he was “not responsible.” Sulkowicz vowed to carry her mattress until Nungesser was either expelled or until her graduation.

Sulkowicz graduated from Columbia last month and carried her mattress across the stage. When she crossed the stage, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger appeared to turn his back to Sulkowicz and refuse dto shake her hand.

“I even tried to smile at him or look him in the eye, and he completely turned away,” she said. “So that was surprising, because I thought he was supposed to shake all of our hands.”

Many people have blasted Sulkowicz’s new sex video, calling it pornography and accusing her of seeking more attention for herself.

“She was sooo traumatized that she had to reenact it with the cameras rolling. Sounds legit,” another commenter said. “This is an attention w—e whose 15 minutes were rapidly coming to a close. Desperate and pathetic.”

“People would have respected you a lot more if you would have just become a porn star. At least then you would have been being honest with yourself and everyone else,” another commenter said. “No rape victim would do this, especially not one who claims to be as traumatized as you claim to be.”

Emma Sulkowicz defended the project, saying that she wanted to make herself vulnerable and adding, “Look — I want to change the world, and that begins with you, seeing yourself.”

But it appears that the video has been taken down from the site.

[Image via Getty Images/Andrew Burton]

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