Three ways “Twenty Two ” and “I can speak ”expose the sexual persecution women experienced

                 ——How movies about comfort women reflect the  problem of women in modern society 

Introduction

Comfort women were women and girls forced into being sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during World War Two.Most of the women were from occupied countries, including Korea, China . In the past , most people would believe that the comfort women is the special event which would only happen during the war . Therefore , they would attribute the tragedy of comfort women to the specific war background or the inhumanity of Japanese soldiers .Nevertheless, the documentary “Twenty Two” display the history about comfort women by interviewing with 22 survivors of Chinese comfort women.  And Movie “I can speak “ illustrates a Korean Older who used to be comfort women learns English from a Lawyer and finally makes testimony on American congress for accusing Japanese of  their crime .In that case ,comfort women is the inevitable result from long-term repression towards women and the low statue of them in society and it continues today  .To be more specific , It is no doubt that females always been regarded as the weak group compared to the male counterparts in the society . Throughout the world history , women have experienced lots of  persecutions no matter in what countries . However , as feminism develops and broadcasts around the world , women are able to overcome many of the problems except of the sexual persecution . Therefore , I plan to analyze the extreme example in world war two about the comfort women to illustrate why women always suffered from sexual persecution and what efforts can they make to defend their rights.

1:Comfort women is a result of haunting of imbalanced statue from ancient 

Hundreds of  years ago , women were the belongings to men as women were not allowed to work by themselves and what they can do is to entirely rely on men . Under that circumstance , women were lack of respect and rights which trigger the existence of sex slave .One of the elder in “Twenty Two” told us that women in comfort campus were treated as the goods that only fulfill male’s physical needs .  And the main character of “ I Can Speak ”also mentions that comfort women didn’t have any rights and even freedom . All in all ,  the comfort women is the extreme example of the sex slave.In the modern society , despite  the world changed ,this kind of concept still remains in some group of people’s mind and thus causes women to be the vulnerable group who would easily experience sexually assault . According to research ,plentiful rapists admit the reason they do the crime is to release their pressure and anxiety  . In conclusion , women nowadays suffer from sexual persecution because some people still regard women as the inferior group that do not need right and respect .

2:Society participate in sexual persecution 

According to the documentary “ Twenty Two ” , we would realize that the memory about being comfort women is the life-long trauma for those survivors , many of them couldn’t stop crying as they recall back to that  experience. Dori Laub has mentioned in his article that some memory is too inhumane to witness by oneself . Thus , those elders assure their survival by telling this inhumane event to the public and let us become the witness about their trauma  . In that case , the memory about sexual persecution , just as the scars Japanese carve on comfort women’s body , would stay with them forever and bring about the life-long nightmare to them . If we search the related news online , we would find out that there are plentiful articles reported the serious psychological issue of women who experienced the sexual persecution. But Laub also indicates that it is imperative for victims to tell because they do not only need to survive so that they can tell , they also need to tell their story in order to survive . Nevertheless , victims always fail to have platform to tell . Although comfort women are the victims in that tragedy , their family and society still judge them in an unfair way. More than half of the elders in “ Twenty Two ” didn’t married and even do not have the family after they surviving from the horrible comfort women campus . And Yu Fen , the main character of the movie “ I can speak” , struggles with the relationship with her brother since her brother was reluctant to acknowledge a sister who used to be comfort women . Even in the modern society , those kinds of stereotypes still exist and give rise to the extra harm to victims . As we read news about women bing subjected to sexual assault , we can find lots of comments that blame this tragedy to victims , such as “ why you dressed so sexy ?” However , a museum displayed a series of clothes some victims wore as they were subjected to sexual assault and all of clothes are normal and appropriate . Under that circumstance , fewer victims are willing to tell their stories to others . 

3:Believe Survivors

The term “ Believe Survivors ” which means the voice of survivors need to be heard and taken seriously should be recognized by the whole society  . That’s all because women are vulnerable group of sexual problem and testifying their trauma is a such cruel and difficult way.In term of the case about the comfort women , the whole world take the half century to authenticate the crime of Japan but until  so far Japan still reject to admit their crime . In order to accuse Japan of its inhumanity , elders in the documentary “ twenty two”need to sit in front of the camera and expose their trauma to the whole world. In oder to accuse Japan of its inhumanity , elder in movie “ I can speak ” need to stand in the American “congress ”, undertaking the query from hostile Japanese politicians and even show scars on her body to the whole society for proving she is a part of comfort women who is able to make testimony  .In modern society ,It is no deny that there are plentiful feminist engaging in striving for more rights that could protect women from sexual persecution . However , this is still a difficult and long journey. People who are subjected to sexual persecution won’t willing to recall that experience anymore , but once they intent to accuse the perpetrator, those torment would repeat again and again .Under that circumstance , the society need to create more opportunities for hearing the voice and testimony from victims .  And We should believe their voice as much as possible for avoiding the extra harms to them .

Conclusion

The reason why I plan to discuss this topic is intending to display that it is important for women to fight for more rights in modern society otherwise the tragedy like comfort women would occur again in the future .Despite our society has progressed , women still suffer from the sexual persecution and we should pay more attention on that issue for preventing the event like comfort women .Consequently , let us pay more attention on the sexual harassment of women and try our best to help them fight for their rights .