In the memoir, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip and Jay Wurts, discusses the childhood of Ly Hayslip during the Vietnam War, his escape to the United States, and what it was like returning to Vietnam after 16 years. Throughout the story, the discussion of sexual violence and prostitution comes up several times. Alongside sexual violence and prostitution, there is debate over whether sexual violence and prostitution are seen as victimization of women or empowerment of women, or both. After reading the memoir, I believe that sexual assault is a victimization of women and that prostitution is a means of female empowerment. This memoir explains why sexual violence is seen as victimization and prostitution is seen as emancipation as Le Ly goes through both sexual violence and prostitution during her life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Sexual violence refers to crimes such as rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse. This is when someone forces someone else to engage in unwanted sexual activity without their consent. In Le Ly's case, she was the victim of sexual violence several times throughout the story. An example of this would be when she was arrested to be sentenced to death, but the Viet Cong soldiers decided to rape her instead. " I was raped. I now knew the horror that all women fear. What had been kept for my husband's life was taken away in less time than it takes to say it. This quote is when Le Ly says she was raped and how she felt when she was raped. Hayslip uses vivid description to describe what happened when she was raped. She explains how she felt dead after the incident. She says: “The force of Loi's twisted soul had entered me and killed me as surely as her knife. He could shoot me with a bullet now – I wouldn’t even feel the bullet.” She uses a lot of descriptive words to explain what she is feeling or what is happening to her. This incident is what I would describe as a female victim because Hayslip had no choice in what happened to her. Rape can be seen as victimization of women. Victimization occurs when someone is treated in a cruel or harmful way, such as sexual assault or rape. Therefore, sexual violence is considered victimization of women because it is not a choice and no consent is obtained. Prostitution refers to engaging in sexual activity with someone while being paid. Prostitution is seen as a means of empowering women because it is considered that women have a choice and that they are the ones who make the choice to have sexual activity with someone else and that they are also paid . An example of this is when Le Ly uses prostitution in her favor to survive and take care of her family. “I had another pitch exactly like that from second. I told them clean poops would be expensive. They even paid me in advance.” This quote is about when she sold drugs and began prostituting herself to survive. “I looked at money like a thirsty prisoner looks at water. Four hundred dollars would support my mother, me, and Hung for over a year – a year that would help me finda better job and building relationships.” It was then that Hayslip was offered four hundred dollars to sell his body, known as prostitution. Since she had the choice to accept or decline the offer, prostitution is seen as a means of female empowerment. I believe that prostitution is a means of empowerment because Le Ly had the power to choose whether or not to accept the offer. Empowerment is having the authority and power to do something that, in these memories, was prostitution. Therefore, I view prostitution as empowerment rather than victimization. Wartime rape and prostitution were topics that came up often. Rape is forcible sexual assault. Rape during war happens because military men want sexual pleasure, so they tend to rape. Another reason why soldiers commit rape is the fear they have for the villagers who live in the villages involved in the war. They rape to scare villagers, which can cause them to move, meaning soldiers don't have to waste time killing or evicting villagers from war zones. Throughout the many wars that have taken place, rape has been considered a weapon of war. Indeed, rape occurs where wars break out and contributes to the total destruction of communities. In Le Ly's case, rape is a weapon of war and prostitution is a way to survive war as a woman. Hayslip's rape experiences would be considered victimization, meaning that Le Ly was a victim of rape. Another case where she gets raped even though the guy didn't want to rape her. The guy who didn't really want to rape Le Ly but ended up raping her was Mau. Mau appeared to have been forced to rape Le Ly. "'I'm... I'm sorry, Miss Ly' - her voice shook more than mine - 'this is something I have to do'." The reason I believe he didn't want to rape her is because he apologized before doing it and said it was something he had to do. The way she hides what happened to her interests me. "'What happened to you?' » Thum asked looking at the leaves in my hair and the dirt on my freshly washed face 'Nothing 'I didn't even do her the courtesy of a decent lie...'. told Thum what happened to her. Maybe Le Ly was afraid that someone would criticize her and pursue her because she wasn't dead, because the Viet Cong soldiers' original plan was that they would. kill her, but they decided to rape her instead of killing her I find Le Ly very courageous and powerful as a person because even though she was in so much pain, she cared about her family and how her family could be. considered or targeted if the news of her rape was revealed, so she decided to hide the truth. This rape incident effectively victimized Le Ly, but she was able to use her strength as a poor village girl, as she describes herself. to have the power to hide one's pain Overall, rape in any form is victimization of women because they have no choice and are forced. In the memoirs, there is a case where sexual activity was practiced in the form of lovemaking. The only instance I remember where love was involved was the night Anh and Le Ly shared intimate moments with each other. “I went to my room but as tired as I was. . . Even though at the age of fifteen I had been threatened, beaten, shot, assaulted and raped by men, I had never been kissed by one...". This quote explains how she didn't know what to feel when someone kissed her with..