One of my favorite books I read this past summer, The Vagina Monologues is a collection of interview fragments. The author, Eve Ensler, questioned women of various ages, sexualities, and backgrounds about their femininity and plucked out the parts that highlighted best what it means for them to be a woman. Subjects touched on by the interviewees range from rape to birth to their ignorance about their own anatomy. The text is broken up into different styles that help accentuate the points being communicated: interview dialogue, narrative, facts, lists, and poems. This exploration of femininity was performed at college campuses across the U.S. and was met with relief by loads of women who felt alone in their struggles and conflicted emotions about being a woman.
This text is based on a play that Eve Ensler performed for the first time in 1996. The play’s impact launched V-Day, a movement to end violence against women funded by proceeds from shows.
Ensler keeps the reader turning pages for more, and the length insures you’ll easily finish this insightful compilation in less than a day. The contents are sometimes considered taboo but are necessary to discuss openly. There is something within these pages that will strike a chord in all women and which offers something you may not get from any other book. After the first story I was ready to tear down the patriarchy, and after the last page, I yearned to give every woman an enveloping hug.
Happy reading folks! Remember to vote!
-MP