Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, has worked around the world to improve the lives of women and girls. On February 17, she urged the women of Scripps College to do the same.
Before her speech in Garrison Theater on the Scripps campus, President Nancy Y. Bekavac introduced Ensler as a woman who “envisions a planet where women and girls can thrive.” In her speech, Ensler explained her hopeful vision and how she and other “Vagina Warriors” were working to that end.
Ensler’s Vagina Monologues have generated both praise and protests around the world. Although at first she didn’t intend to write a play about female genitalia, Ensler soon realized that most women had never been asked about their vaginas. The realization inspired her to write the play and begin performing it. “After every show, women would line up to tell me their stories,” she said. Sadly, 90 to 95% of the women told her how they had been beaten or raped. It was then that Ensler knew she had to use the play to somehow help women. Because of her own violent personal history and the stories of these women, she imagined February 14 as V-Day-standing for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina-the day that would be dedicated to stopping violence against women. In collaboration with V-Day, she has given permission to perform The Vagina Monologuesto any group who donates its profits to local organizations dedicated to helping women.
Ensler expressed hope that the play will not only raise money to change the world, but will also change people’s attitudes. “I have such faith in art, in theatre, because I think it has the potential to enter your body,” she said. “It gets us to rest in the ambiguous space that is the mess of life.” This year, more than 700 college campuses performed the production, including The Claremont Colleges; in addition, performances have been staged in Pakistan, Cairo, and other places around the world.
In collaboration with V-Day, Ensler has spoken at schools around the country. Some groups have protested her casual use of the word “vagina,” but she defends it rigorously. “If you don’t say it, then it doesn’t exist,” she said. For too long, violence has been ignored because women haven’t talked about it, she argued. “I believe when you name things, you change things.”
She ended by talking about her latest work, The Good Body, a play that explores a problem that women all over the world deal with: body image. In her interviews, Ensler discovered that 90% of women hated at least one part of their body, and this feeling consumed their consciousness and their lives. She talked to teenage girls who “weren’t thinking about their education, weren’t thinking about how much money they were going to ask for in their first job, but only thought of having a flat, pierced stomach. And somehow, if they just had that, everything would be okay.” Instead of being productive and changing the world, women are consumed by self-hatred of their bodies, she explained.
Ensler expressed outrage at television shows that feel the need to “make women over” and shared anecdotes on how women can begin to see themselves as beautiful just the way they are. She concluded with some advice from the play: “Love your body. Stop fixing it. It was never broken.”