The Cornell Seven is more than an atrocity that happened to one woman. The pseudonym given to the victim, “Jane Doe,” is part of what has allowed the case to take on a larger meaning. For once, there is no face for the public to immediately judge, criticize, or blame. Instead, people are left with the facts of what happened.
I believe part of the horror and fascination surrounding this case comes from realizing that it is not the first case like this, and sadly, it will not be the last. The absence of Jane Doe’s real identity creates a blank space that allows people to place themselves, or someone they love, in her position.
The victim can be seen as a person before she is picked apart or blamed. Her anonymity reinforces the frightening reality that this could have happened to anyone. It could have been your neighbor, your sister, your classmates, your roommate, your mother, or your aunt. That is what makes the case feel like an attack on humanity as a whole, rather than an isolated tragedy.
What is especially disturbing is the failure of basic human empathy. When the instinct to protect or help another person is ignored, cruelty is allowed to take its place. The consequences suffered by one person expose a much larger problem in the way sexual violence has repeatedly appeared throughout history.
We can also consider Emma Sulkowicz, who carried a mattress around Columbia University as part of a Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight), protesting the university’s handling of her sexual assault complaint. Her story received widespread attention because she publicly attached her identity and physical presence to her experience. Jane Doe represents almost the opposite. She has no public face, yet her anonymity gives the story a different power.
Together, these cases show that there is no single way a survivor becomes visible. One woman carried a physical representation of her experience across campus, while another remains known only through a pseudonym. Yet both force the public to confront the same uncomfortable reality: sexual violence should not require a recognizable face, a perfect victim, or a public performance of suffering for people to care. The real question should never be who the victim was, but how such violence was allowed to happen and what it says about the society surrounding it.