NOW Calls Girl Who Falsely Cried Rape an ‘Inspiration’ to Real Rape Victims

ashley.rae | June 28, 2016
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Emma Sulkowicz, the performing artist best known for falsely accusing a man of rape and then turning her experience into art projects, received the National Organization for Women’s “Woman of Courage Award” for being an “inspiration” to rape victims.

Sulkowicz, also known as “Mattress Girl,” was made famous after she accused a fellow Columbia University student of rape. In order to protest the school’s alleged mishandling of her case, Sulkowicz promised to “Carry That Weight”—by carrying a mattress around campus—as a performance art piece until her alleged rapist was expelled or pressured to leave. The school eventually found the student Sulkowicz accused “not responsible.”

Sulkowicz’s plight gained support from self-proclaimed anti-rape activists, including New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who invited Sulkowicz to be her guest at the 2015 State of the Union.

A few months after attending the State of the Union, Sulkowicz made her public pornography debut. In the “art piece” titled “Ceci N’Est Pas Un Viol” (“This is Not a Rape”), Sulkowicz depicted a situation which very closely resembles her proclaimed rape. In her description of the video, Sulkowicz argued anyone who watches the video she posted online without her consent was raping her.

Despite the lack of evidence showing Sulkowicz was ever raped and Sulkowicz using her alleged rape as a way to promote her career, NOW is praising Sulkowicz for being an “inspiration” to real rape victims.

At NOW’s 2016 “Forward Feminism” conference, which took place on June 24-26Sulkowicz received the “Woman of Courage Award.”

In a statement to art News, NOW president Terry O’Neill said, “Sulkowicz did what many rape victims cannot do; she channeled her fear into a public demonstration and brought attention to her rapist’s despicable act and highly inadequate punishment.”

O’Neill concluded, “Emma is an inspiration to all of us.”

Sulkowicz used the award as an opportunity to attack feminist scholar Camille Paglia.

In her post on Instagram, Sulkowicz wrote, “Camille Paglia has publicly called my artwork a ‘masochistic exercise’ in which I neither ‘evolve’ nor ‘move-on.’ She speaks as if she, a white woman, knew what was best for me, a woman of color she’s never met.”

Sulkowicz also accused the healing process of being “violence.”

She said, “Many people ask me how I've ‘healed’ from my assault, as if healing were another word for ‘forgetting about it,’ ‘getting over it,’ or even ‘shutting up about it.’ To expect me to move on is to equate courage with self-censorship. The phrases--suck it up, move on, and get over it--are violence. People who say these phrases equate what is right with what is expected.”

Sulkowicz, who has made various art projects all based on her supposed rape, dedicated her award to people who have not told her to “get over it” four years later.

“I dedicate this award to everyone who has not told me to get over it. Thank you for validating my fear and my way of handling it. Thank you for creating a world in which we can tackle the things that terrify us by doing the unexpected right thing.”

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