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Mattress Girl Discredited
If you haven’t heard of the “mattress girl,” it’s not for lack of trying among liberal opinion shapers. Emma Sulkowicz, who dragged a blue mattress around Columbia University’s campus in 2014 to dramatize her plight as a rape victim, was profiled sympathetically in New York magazine, the New York Times and other publications. Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D., NY) invited her to attend one of President Obama’s State of the Union speeches. Artnet pronounced her mattress stunt (for which Columbia awarded her course credit as an art project) “one of the most important art works of the year,” and she was honored by the Feminist Majority Foundation and other groups.
Her story is this: A consensual sexual encounter with a male student named Paul Nungesser suddenly turned violent. Without warning, he choked her, struck her, and anally penetrated her while she cried out in pain.
Such things do happen. In the course of researching a book due out next year, I’ve spoken to dozens of college students. Every single one knows someone who has been raped. Some know more than one. And the list of colleges that have disciplined or expelled students for rape or sexual assault is long. Some college students have been criminally prosecuted, and rightly so.
We can debate why sexual misconduct and rape have become such pressing problems (spoiler alert: it has everything to do with the sexual revolution and hook-up culture), but facts are stubborn things, and it has become clear that in Sulkowicz’s case, Nungesser, not she, was almost certainly the victim.
Sulkowicz filed charges with the university and the New York police. (She later alleged that the New York police mistreated her.) Both investigated. Both declined to take action against him. It was then that Sulkowicz undertook her mattress performance as an attempt to brand Nungesser a rapist and drive him from Columbia. He was shunned and anathematized. As Cathy Young reported in Reason magazine, Sulkowicz launched a full-on harassment campaign.
In the summer of 2014, other students and a professor pressured Nungesser to drop out of a scholarship-paid class trip to Russia, Mongolia, and China. That October, on a “Day of Action” against sexual assault, several mattress-toting activists showed up in one of his classes, where they stared at him and took his picture. Keyboard warriors in the social media urged making his life “a living hell” and sometimes called for violent retaliation.
Nungesser finished his degree, but he also supplied evidence to Young that undermines the case against him — evidence that was not even admitted to the tribunal that cleared him. Nungesser produced Facebook messages the two exchanged within 48 hours of the alleged rape. In one, Nungesser invited her to a “small shindig” in his room and asked her to “bring cool freshmen.” She replied “lol yussss. i’ll be over w da females soon. Also I feel like we need to have some real time where we can talk about life and thingz because we still haven’t really had a paul-emma chill sesh since summmmerrrr.” Ten days later, she texted him “whatever I want to see yoyououoyou. respond—I’ll get the message on ma phone.” After he sent her an effusive message on her birthday, she responded, “I love you Paul. Where are you?!?!?!?!”
On July 17, Columbia settled a lawsuit Nungesser had filed. While the details are confidential, the university issued a statement acknowledging that “after the conclusion of the [sexual misconduct] investigation, Paul’s remaining time at Columbia became very difficult for him and not what Columbia would want any of its students to experience…. Columbia will continue to review and update its policies toward ensuring that every student — accuser and accused, including those like Paul who are found not responsible — is treated respectfully and as a full member of the Columbia community.” Nungesser’s parents told Newsweek that they felt vindicated after what they described as a “four-year effort” to clear his name.
It has become a feminist catechism that women must be “believed” when they make accusations of rape. As the University of Montana tells incoming freshmen, “almost no one lies.” But of course they do. The woman who spun the lurid tale to Rolling Stone about being gang raped at the University of Virginia invented every detail. The Duke lacrosse players were falsely accused. So were the Scottsboro boys.
Again, this doesn’t mean all accusations are false or malicious, nor is every case of alleged sexual misconduct merely a matter of “regretted sex.” But Sulkowicz has dined out on dubious victimhood for years, and it’s high time she was discredited.
Published in Education
Also I feel like we need to have some real time where we can talk about life and thingz
Yes, this is the next step of a relationship after sex, a sign of real intimacy. You could even ask him what his last name is.
That’s how people at Ivy League institutions talk these days? I weep for the future.
I hope he got a bundle. I make a point of talking about this case in a particular class that I teach.
The last time that I looked, a case Nungesser had filed was dismissed because he no longer had standing to claim damages since he was awarded his degree. He graduated, btw, at the same time as the girl, and she had her mattress with her at the ceremony. The boy’s parents talked about how horrible that was for their family there to celebrate this big milestone and having that lie thrown in their face.
I thought the girl had discredited herself when she did some public sex tape that was predicated on violence as more “performance art.” But Columbia did not protect one of its students. They are culpable for his treatment as well.
I question how either you, or the students to whom you have spoken, can know this. You, and they, can know that they know someone who claims to have been raped. I don’t know how you, or they, can be certain of the truth of the accusation.
The really troubling part is a campus culture that seems go revel in, and reward, rape allegations, with little or no regard to truth or even plausibility. I hope that you will address this in your book.
Does anyone know if Mr. Nungesser brought a defamation claim against his accuser?
That’s a good question. They might have gone after Columbia because Emma was such a good liar, was lifted up by feminists, and was invited by a politician to a state of the union. (I would not have wanted to give her another platform.)
It would be easier to attack the impersonal university and probably help more young men in future.
Nice to see. Thanks for the update.
They also probably sued Columbia because it was a deep pocket.
The Conservative Disclaimer™.
Every time we highlight the flimflam of the race hustlers, the vindictive vagina set and other members of The Professional Grievance Mongers, we feel compelled to add some acknowledgement of legitimacy. It is knee jerk and sickening. It perpetuates the narrative and undermines the presumption of innocence in all cases. If justice is our primary aim then the burden has to placed back on the accuser.
Sure. Totally doesn’t bother me though. They were taking a couple hundred grand from him and allowing a very hostile environment.
That’s a fun way to phrase that. However, I don’t think a soft nod to women who are actually raped is wrong. This does happen. It’s not an easy thing to get over. And the truth is that girls like Emma make it a million times harder for those who have really experienced this sort of abuse.
A lot of things actually happen. But this “soft nod” perpetuates the presumption of guilt, advances the leftist narrative that all men are rapists just looking for their opportunity. It’s destructive.
I disagree.
I raised a son, so I promise I understand the seriousness of false accusations. I abhor women like Emma who was not credible from the very moment she did that art project.
However, I am a woman, and I was once a co-ed.
To acknowledge that there is rape is not to say that men are all rapists.
Perfectly played and an example of how you’ve purchased into the progressive narrative.
Proclaim the protected status: “… I am a woman and was once a coed.”
Add the disclaimer: “I raised a son, so…”
Wow.
Perfectly played and an example of how you don’t understand how you’ve purchased into the empathy of a Neanderthal.
Proclaim the superior wisdom of not buying into “the progressive narrative.” (Allowing that rape exists is to buy into a conspiracy, I say! Conspiracy!!!!)
Add the disclaimer: I don’t care about basic civility when talking about a difficult topic with which I’ve most likely never engaged.
Not cool, man. Not cool at all.
It’s not a lack of empathy. I’ve got a vested interest in all sides. I have a daughter and three sons. Thanks to our Marine, the girl has recently learned to handle a .9mm. Two of my three boys are in college.
Presumption of innocence, due process and the right to face your accuser are the keystones to justice. If refusing to play along is Neanderthal, so be it. This is just going to have to be an acknowledgment of permanent disagreement.
Look. This is one of those places in which you have to think a little more about whether or not I’m your opposition.
I think I made it clear per my comments here that I abhor how the Title IX legislation has been twisted into something that oppresses young men… sends them to a Star Court where vindictiveness is rewarded.
Long before that was an issue, I actually sent my son to an all boys’ school for a while because I think that there’s been a shift in the name of “gender equality” towards a female learning style that is prejudicial in elementary school. The rates of boys put on drugs because they are being… boys… is crazy. They are labeled bad long before college, and they are given mixed messages from our culture that would make just about anyone go into a tailspin.
Once in college, it goes without saying that I believe people are innocent before proven guilty. I think all the college tribunals should be completely disbanded as I feel they perpetuate clear civil rights violations.
Colleges should be subjected to lawsuits from young men, and they should be punished every single time they proclaim a young man a “rapist” and penalize him in some way without law enforcement first proving a case. (If a girl is legitimately raped, a group of college administrators shouldn’t be meting out punishment. The criminal justice system should.)
We are on the same page for all of that.
When I say tear down that system–and I mean tear down that system–but I also acknowledge that there are young women who have been raped on college campuses, I am not changing “the mission” or buying into an agenda. There are young women who have been raped on college campuses.
The numbers are grossly exaggerated because of stupid stunts like mattress girl’s, but we can look at actual convictions in courts of law and find some co-eds who have, indeed, had reason to accuse men of rape. (They were raped.)
I care about boys who have been falsely accused of rape. I care about girls who have been raped.
I don’t mention the latter because I’ve been hoodwinked into following anyone’s agenda.
I say it because I know it’s true.
The current system hurts both these groups.
The system should be fixed.
Also, I can handle any handgun. My father taught me, but my mother is as good a shot as he is.
I’m glad your Marine is helping his sister learn to look out for herself. ;)
It doesn’t sound like this young lady will ever be worth any money, sadly. Cuz Nungesser should sue the crap outta her, so that any money she ever does make ( and I hear she’s filming porn now) goes straight into his pocket.
That would be fine with me, but I think his targeting of Columbia is more effective at cutting the head off the snake.
The other problem with suing Mattress Girl is that it comes down to “he said, she said.”
The college should have presumed innocence in the boy’s case. When there was no evidence of his wrong doing, the campus should have remained a receptive environment. It didn’t.
This is easier to prove than Mattress Girl’s mendacity, hence a main reason I think she wasn’t sued for liable.
Agree. Didn’t mean to suggest it was wrong to do. Just figured the “victim” was not worth suing.
No, it acknowledges that rape victims exist. It also acknowledges that our legal system will let guilty people go free when the prosecution has not met its high burden of proof on every element of the crime charged. Think the prosecution presented clear and convincing evidence of guilt, but maybe not quite beyond a reasonable doubt on a single element? Acquittal time. Doesn’t mean that the alleged victim was a vicious man-eating liar; in fact, she could have been entirely truthful.
I will also point out that falsely accusing someone of a crime is also a crime. The “soft nod” you so abhor is a necessary part of not assuming that each and every accuser is herself a criminal.
It’s almost like you didn’t think this one through….
Is it possible that this is because the meaning of the word “rape” has been stretched almost beyond recognition in some cases?
I thought the highlighted comment made an interesting juxtaposition with this later on:
I read that sentence as being ambiguous as to how important the fact they were college students was. Most, if not all, women college grads or not will have known a rape victim at some point in their lives. Knowing one who was raped at college, presumably by a fellow student, would be less common. I also wondered how significant “dozens” is. 24? 84?
That’s fair.
Now you are impugning a species that doesn’t even exist any more – how do you know how much empathy a Neanderthal had?
True and I also care about boys who have been raped – both figuratively and literally.
I read Clan of the Cave Bear. Plus, I dated a few one-off survivors of this species that have blended into the general population. ;)
We all know what can happen if your sample size is too small (as I am certain that it is).