Emma Sulkowicz, better known as the “Mattress Girl” of Columbia University, has pledged the maximum campaign contribution allowed to Democratic congressional candidate Brian Flynn. Sulkowicz made waves in the media by walking around with a dirty mattress she claimed to have been raped on by a classmate.
More recently, Sulkowicz has been expressing her “resistance” to Donald Trump in a series of “artistic” BDSM performances where she is tied up and beaten in public.
According to federal election filings uncovered by the Washington Free Beacon, Sulkowicz contributed $5,400 to Flynn’s campaign for New York Congressional District 19. Emma’s father, Kerry Sulkowicz, who practices as a psychoanalyst in New York City, also maxed out his contribution to the Democrat.
Flynn’s office said that the candidate was close to Sulkowicz’s family, and that the candidate himself supported the Mattress Girl’s “artistic” endeavors.
“Brian has known Emma and her family for years,” said a Flynn spokesperson. “Her parents are longtime friends. They all donated online as soon as they heard he was running. Like all artists, Brian supports Emma’s freedom of expression.”
Emma Sulkowicz entered the public spotlight after she accused a college classmate of raping her in 2013 and walked around campus with a filthy mattress as her senior art thesis. She even brought the mattress to a State of the Union address presented by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, while being invited as a guest.
Even though the young man she accused of rape, Paul Nungrasser, was cleared of the allegations by the school, Sulkowicz continued to make the allegations against him with the release of a pornographic performance intended to depict her rape.
Brian Flynn entered the congressional race by donating $500,000 to jumpstart his own campaign, which focuses on a variety of issues—one of which involves women’s rights. The Democrat claims that “the attacks on women’s rights are the result of a disturbing culture of misogyny in our country today.” He partially plans to address the issue by supporting the controversial Paycheck Fairness Act, was criticized by Christina Hoff Sommers of the American Enterprise Institute for being based on the myth of the wage gap.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter.