Posters Go Up Around Columbia Calling Mattress Rape Protester A "Pretty Little Liar"

Early this morning, an anonymous person or persons put up posters around Columbia University—in the 116th Street subway station, outside of Tom's Restaurant, on stoplights and construction walls—emblazoned with the image of student Emma Sulkowicz and her now-iconic mattress. Since September 2014, Sulkowicz has been dragging the mattress around campus as a protest against the school's handling of her rape allegations against another student. (That student, Paul Nungesser, has since sued the university.) This morning's posters accuse Sulkowicz of making it all up, dismissing her as "Pretty Little Liar" with the caption "Emma Sulkowitz" [sic] and "RapeHoax."

A new Twitter account, @FakeRape, has been tweeting pictures of the posters for the last five hours. Another poster, picturing Lena Dunham sticking her tongue out, is clearly part of the series, emblazoned "Big Fat Liar," with the same #RapeHoax hashtag.

Today's stunt coincides with Columbia's commencement ceremony, and follows on the heels of yesterday's College Class Day ceremony, during which Sulkowicz carried her dorm room mattress across the stage. The NY Times reports that President Lee C. Bollinger refused to shake her hand when she passed, as he had done with all the other students—including Nungesser, who crossed the stage minutes before her.

During her junior year, Sulkowicz reported to the Columbia administration that Nungesser had beaten, strangled, and raped her. After an investigation, Columbia deemed him "not responsible," prompting Sulkowicz to take her case to the NYPD that summer. But the NYPD declined to charge him, and Nungesser remained on campus. As part of her senior thesis project, Sulkowicz vowed to carry the mattress until Nungesser was expelled, or until her graduation—hence yesterday's action.

The Columbia Spectator reports that yesterday's action, which prompted a huge round of applause from Sulkowicz's classmates, also got a nod of approval from the Class Day speaker. Before Sulkowicz took the stage, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke from the podium: "You've held contrary opinions, held die-ins and sit-ins, carried mattresses. It is the the responsibility of an active citizen to engage with one another… Never stop being academics, and never stop being activists.”

This semester the Columbia administration rolled out a mandatory sexual respect education program for undergraduate and graduate students. They're also instating a new Office of University Life to handle sexual assault cases, among other issues, and recently revised their gender-based misconduct policy.

The Times reports that Sulkowicz has deemed her project complete, and will not be carrying the mattress while she graduates today. However, many students have chosen to wear red tape on their caps in solidarity. And as @FakeRape continues to document its posters around town, others are determined to remove them.

UPDATE: There has been some speculation on Twitter that the individual responsible for the posters is Charles C. Johnson, based off of his recent tweets. However, reached via Twitter, Johnson denied responsibility.

Jezebel notes that the posters recall the work of Sabo, a right-wing graffiti artist who tweeted about the posters this morning. We have reached out to Sabo for comment, and will update accordingly.

UPDATE: We spoke with a rising Columbia senior about the incident. A student activist and survivor of sexual assault, she preferred to speak anonymously. She is already home for summer break, and came across the posters online. She said, "The posters were shocking to me, because I'm used to being around people who are supportive of Emma and what she's been doing. But I also wasn't surprised, because there are a lot of people out there who don't support her."

As for how this incident compares to other criticism directed at Sulkowicz this year, "I've seen people saying terrible things in anonymous comments on our school newspaper, but I've never seen such a public, misogynistic act towards her. It feels very different from people sitting at their computer screens. This seems a lot more dangerous."

She added, "The school did a terrible job handling this case, and if they had handled the case justly, this wouldn't be happening. I don't think Emma would have had to deal with such public animosity."

This afternoon, the person or persons behind the posters told am New York via Twitter, "We want to educate people about fake rape claims & how damaging they are. From UVA to Columbia to UMiami, due process matters."