Analysis Of Carry That Weight By Emma Sulkowicz

“Carry That Weight” - Artifact 3

The performance art “Carry That Weight” is the thesis project of a Columbia University senior, Emma Sulkowicz. Her performance is a superb artifact because it displays colleges’ lack of protection for rape victims, the need for better laws against rape, and the detrimental effects of letting an accused walk free.

Emma Sulkowicz was allegedly raped in 2012 and reported it in 2013. Her alleged rape has lead to national attention because of her thesis project “Carry That Weight”. In this project Emma Sulkowicz carries the mattress as symbolic of her shouldering the burden of her rape and carrying it throughout society. Ms. Sulkowicz has vowed to carry her mattress until she graduated or until her alleged rapist was expelled. As a result, she did carry her mattress even onto

the stage for her diploma.

Her project displays the need for better protection for sexual assault victims, it is because of her project that her rape is getting any attention at all, otherwise it would have been swept under the rug like all the other college rapes. This brings to light the need for colleges to enforce stricter rules against rape. Many victims have had to live and be around their sexual assault offender on campus because colleges do not expel them, and other times the victims are the ones expelled. All of it reeks of unfairness and needs to be fixed one way or another. Luckily, some universities have become to realize this need and are trying to improve their policies. The New York Times has reported on Sulkowicz and her project, “As universities scramble to improve their disciplinary processes, it’s hard to know how much things are changing on the ground; the cases remain shrouded in secrecy. There are good reasons to protect student privacy, not to mention a

federal law requiring institutions to do so. But the utter lack of transparency also imposes a cost. The smattering of cases that blow up in the press may well present a distorted view, lowering public confidence” (Bazelon 2). This shows that although the universities are trying they still have a more to change before justice is received by these victims.
In addition to better rules on campus, there also needs to be improved laws for victims in the United States. Only with the help of improved laws, will colleges be able to truly improve their handlings of sexual assault cases.
Sulkowicz case is the epitome of the reason why rapists should not be allowed to walk free. Allowing rapists to go free damages the victim because they have to see their assaulter day after day. Victims of sexual assault often have PTSD and forcing them to worry about seeing their assaulter could cause them to relive their experiences. As a result, there could be a traumatizing effect and a deeper fear set in their minds.
Despite questions of the legitimacy of Sulkowicz’s alleged rape, her thesis project performs its intended purpose of exhibiting the need for improved rules and regulations for rapists and the need for more punishment against sexual assault offenders.