Most new college students are worried about making new friends, passing challenging classes, or paying for school, right? Well, those were some of the things that crossed my mind when I went away to college. I was six hours away from home with no close friends or family. By the time I graduated I made lots of new friends and I passed all of my classes. I had nothing to worry about after all! Or was I just worried about the wrong thing? Now that I am a college graduate and more aware of sexual assault and violence against women on campus, I realize that student loans should’ve been the least of my worries.
Emma Sulkowicz, a senior in the class of 2015 at Columbia University’s undergraduate school, Columbia College, was a new college freshman just like I was four years ago when she was raped. Her assault happened in her dorm room on her twin-size mattress. When her university’s police didn’t help her, and the university didn’t punish the perpetrator, she decided to try something a bit different. Today she uses her mattress to symbolize the weight that she carries every day due to her rape. Sulkowicz plans to carry her mattress with her everywhere she goes until her school expels her rapist.
Yes, she is carrying her mattress everywhere to get attention. 1 in 5 women in American will face sexual assault while attending college, a big problem that Sulkowocz hopes to shed light on. The mattress symbolizes the weight that every woman or man who has been raped or sexually assaulted has to carry. Nothing has been done to Sulkowocz’s rapist while Sulkowocz has to spend the rest of her college career in fear, worrying about what will happen the next time she sees her rapist. Not all women cope with their assault the way Sulkowicz does.Healing comes in all shapes and sizes. Some read, some go into hiding, some like to push the memory into the back of their mind to try and forget about it. But each and every victim of assault has a right to cope in whatever way feels best for them.
AyanaJessica 