New ‘Mattress Girl’ Lawsuit: Obscene Drawing of Cleared Man ‘Displayed on Campus’

Article here. Excerpt:

'While Columbia University’s “mattress girl” Emma Sulkowicz—who carried a mattress on campus to protest the non-expulsion of her alleged rapist—is long past her fifteen minutes of fame, the story isn’t over. Now it’s the turn of the accused man, Paul Nungesser, who is pursuing a lawsuit against Columbia.

He claims that, despite being exonerated, his academic experience was ruined because the university enabled Sulkowicz’s protest, effectively denying him equal educational opportunity on the basis of sex. Last month, a federal court dismissed the suit for lack of sufficient evidence. But last Monday, the case was back with an amended complaint which seeks to demonstrate that Nungesser was indeed a victim of anti-male bias—and paints a stark picture of the harassment he says he endured due to Sulkowicz’s campaign.

The lawsuit makes some claims that are likely to invite feminist derision and raise eyebrows in the legal community—for instance, that calling a (presumptively) innocent man a rapist is a “gendered slur,” since the term is almost exclusively directed at males and evokes the stereotype of male sexual brutishness. It’s a radical argument. But if it works, it could be a trailblazing victory for male students suing colleges—most unsuccessfully, so far—over being expelled on what they say are wrongful charges of sexual misconduct.'