Columbia student carrying mattress until school expels her rapist

[Admiral Yi]

You were carrying a mattress in a cocktail bar, when I met you.

The meter is wrong though.

[Berkut]

Yeah most people have better shit to do / don't feel like making it all about a crime that happened to them.

Plus they wouldn't be accepting that the crime didn't happen but rather accepting that the police couldn't be bothered to care.

I suspect that people who have been raped tend regard that as rather important.

And yet oddly all the time rape victims don't actually report what has been happened to them or get cold feet. To say those individuals are accepting that a crime didn't actually occur is...well mind-boggling.

I find the idea that this is important enough to her to carry a mattress around all the time, but not important enough to her to actually go through the legal process rather puzzling.

I can understand the idea that pursuing legal sanction might not be worth the stress, given the low odds of any actual effect from that.

But the idea that the alternative is to carry your mattress around as an *easier* or less stressful means of handling the problem is pretty ridiculous. If she had fully exhausted her legal options, and THEN decided on this radical action as a last resort, I would have much more respect for what she is trying to accomplish.

As it is, I don't believe that this has anything to do with her desire for justice, it looks like it is about her desire for attention.

[LaCroix]

the problem is it can be hard to prove rape, and that's what this girl doesn't seem to understand. had she visited the hospital the next day or found another way to document the physical injuries she received, or done anything, it would have been easier to prove the rape occurred. she went about this in a very immature fashion. her story shouldn't be "look at me, the victim attacked by authorities who refuse to stand up to rape culture," but more "look at me, i decided too late to try to get my rapist punished for what he did."

a lot of women do hesitate about whether to approach authorities, and many think there is a prejudice against them. in many instances there are, but i suspect it's the minority of cases where actual (and not perceived) prejudice exists. rather than convincing women to take a stand against rapists by confronting him immediately and getting evidence it occurred, the message sulkowicz offers to future rape victims just adds to the fear of prejudice.

[Jacob]

As an art piece, what she's doing is very successful. I'm guessing it's also a whole lot more satisfying than being grilled by NYPD's finest, including the guy whose base premise is that he deals with 20 fake rape cases for every real one and it's his job to ferret that out by being abrasive.

So to me it makes perfect sense for her to have taken the course of action that she did.

[grumbler]

From her interview, it seems her beef is that she wasn't allowed to continually appeal the verdict at the administrative hearing until they agreed with her.

I think you protest too much. Making one appeal that denied is hardly "continually".

I think you misunderstand her argument.  She had the one appeal that is currently allowed.  That appeal was denied.  She wants a new process that allows her to appeal as many times as she wants until she gets the verdict she desires.

Can you point me to where she has stated this?

"In my case, the biggest problem is there is no retroactive motion to open closed cases and to get our rapists off campus, which would be admitting that they've done wrong, which is what they need to do right now."

What she wants is to reopen cases with the outcome that the accused get kicked out of school.  Reopening cases with any other result comes back to reopening the case until the desired outcome is achieved.

[Razgovory]

Yeah most people have better shit to do / don't feel like making it all about a crime that happened to them.

Plus they wouldn't be accepting that the crime didn't happen but rather accepting that the police couldn't be bothered to care.

I suspect that people who have been raped tend regard that as rather important.

And yet oddly all the time rape victims don't actually report what has been happened to them or get cold feet. To say those individuals are accepting that a crime didn't actually occur is...well mind-boggling.

I'm sorry your mind is boggled.

[Admiral Yi]

As an art piece, what she's doing is very successful. I'm guessing it's also a whole lot more satisfying than being grilled by NYPD's finest, including the guy whose base premise is that he deals with 20 fake rape cases for every real one and it's his job to ferret that out by being abrasive.

So to me it makes perfect sense for her to have taken the course of action that she did.

I don't think anyone would contest that she took the course of action she found more satisfying. Rather the issue is what inferences we can draw from her actions about the validity of her case.

[garbon]

Yeah most people have better shit to do / don't feel like making it all about a crime that happened to them.

Plus they wouldn't be accepting that the crime didn't happen but rather accepting that the police couldn't be bothered to care.

I suspect that people who have been raped tend regard that as rather important.

And yet oddly all the time rape victims don't actually report what has been happened to them or get cold feet. To say those individuals are accepting that a crime didn't actually occur is...well mind-boggling.

I'm sorry your mind is boggled.

Mine isn't really.

[garbon]

Rather the issue is what inferences we can draw from her actions about the validity of her case.

I'm not really sure the exact circumstances of her case are all that important.

[Razgovory]

I imagine they would be if a crime was committed.

[garbon]

I imagine they would be if a crime was committed.

That's nice.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm not really sure the exact circumstances of her case are all that important.

Is whether or not she was raped not that important?

[Razgovory]

I'm not really sure the exact circumstances of her case are all that important.

Is whether or not she was raped not that important?

If she was raped, the exact circumstances are not important.  If she was, then they are.

[Admiral Yi]

If she was raped, the exact circumstances are not important.  If she was, then they are.

[Razgovory]

Well I screwed that one up.