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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] -1 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

I do not. Nor am I now.

Here are the 13 possible meaning of the word “push”

  1. to apply steady force to (something) in order to move it

  2. to thrust (one's way) through something, such as a crowd, by force

  3. to apply oneself vigorously (to achieving a task, plan, etc)

  4. (tr) to encourage or urge (a person) to some action, decision, etc

  5. to be an advocate or promoter (of)

    to push for acceptance of one's theories

  6. (tr) to use one's influence to help (a person)

    to push one's own candidate

  7. to bear upon (oneself or another person) in order to achieve more effort, better results, etc

    she was a woman who liked to push her husband

    1. (tr) to take undue risks, esp through overconfidence, thus risking failure

      to push one's luck

    2. (intr) to act overconfidently

  8. sport to hit (a ball) with a stiff pushing stroke

  9. informal (tr) to sell (narcotic drugs) illegally

  10. (intr; foll by out, into, etc) (esp of geographical features) to reach or extend

    the cliffs pushed out to the sea

  11. (tr) to overdevelop (a photographic film), usually by the equivalent of up to two stops, to compensate for underexposure or increase contrast

  12. slang to be dead and buried

Now I comprehend that you don’t mean that I was pushing a boulder or pushing drugs, and your anger makes it obvious you don’t think I was trying to help you, so I’m thinking more along the lines of #3 or #5. Now both of these, as I comprehend them, mean you take your task or theory quite seriously.

Now I don’t want to push your buttons any further and English isn’t my first language, nor my second, but I do think I have a valid point here.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments