Synopses & Reviews
A poignant and hilarious tour of the last frontier, the ultimate forbidden zone,
The Vagina Monologues is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery. In this stunning phenomenon that has swept the nation, Eve Ensler gives us real women's stories of intimacy, vulnerability, and sexual self-discovery.
Celebrated as the bible for a new generation of women, The Vagina Monologues has been performed in cities all across America and at hundreds of college campuses. It has inspired a dynamic grassroots movementV-Dayto stop violence against women. Witty and irreverent, compassionate and wise, Eve Ensler's Obie Award-winning masterpiece gives voice to women's deepest fantasies and fears, guaranteeing that no one who reads it will ever look at a woman's body, or think of sex, in quite the same way again.
Included in this special edition are testimonialsboth joyous and heartbreakingfrom young women who have performed The Vagina Monologues at their colleges for V-Day, February 14, to raise money for organizations fighting to protect women.
Review
"Often wrenching, frequently riotous....Ensler is an impassioned wit." Los Angeles Times
Review
"Spellbinding, funny, and almost unbearably moving... it is both a work of art and an incisive piece of cultural history, a poem and a polemic, a performance and a balm and a benediction." Variety
Review
"Women have entrusted Eve with their most intimate experiences, from sex to birthing....I think readers, men as well as women, will emerge from these pages feeling more free within themselves and about each other." Gloria Steinem
Review
"Ensler shapes her findings into a series of compelling, highly characterized portraits of the refugees and a pair of well-meaning, sometimes misguided American women who come to help them. Ensler's portrayals avoid the easy cliches of quick-hit news stories and convey human experience in all its painful complexity." Jack Helbig, Booklist
Review
"Women have entrusted Eve with their most intimate experiences, from sex to birthing....I think readers, men as well as women, will emerge from these pages feeling more free within themselves and about each other." Gloria Steinem
Synopsis
A poignant and hilarious tour of the last frontier, the ultimate forbidden zone, The Vagina Monologues is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery. Hailed as the bible for a new generation of women, it has been performed in cities all across America and at hundreds of college campuses, and has inspired a dynamic grassroots movement V-Day to stop violence against women. Witty and irreverent, compassionate and wise, Eve Ensler's Obie Award-winning masterpiece gives voice to real women's deepest fantasies and fears, guaranteeing that no one who reads it will ever look at a woman's body, or think of sex, in quite the same way again.
About the Author
Eve Ensler's Obie Award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, currently enjoying a sold-out run at Off-Broadway's Westside Theatre and playing in theaters all over the world, initiated V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women. Ensler's performance of The Vagina Monologues will be seen on HBO in 2001. Her play Necessary Targets has had benefit performances on Broadway, at the National Theater in Sarajevo, and at the Kennedy Center, and will open in New York this year. Other plays include Lemonade, The Depot, Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man, Extraordinary Measures, Ladies, and Scooncat. She is working on a new book and play, The Good Body. Ensler received a 1999 Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting. She lives in New York City with her partner, Ariel Orr Jordan.
Reading Group Guide
1.
The Vagina Monologues is based on interviews that Eve Ensler did with hundreds of real women. Is there a particular monologue or part of a monologue that you feel is relevant to your OWN life or experience?
2. Despite the fact that The Vagina Monologues is rooted in real people's experiences, are there any aspects of the "characters'" stories that don't ring true to you? Do you think the play reads more like fiction or non-fiction?
3. Which is your favorite monologue and why?
4. In her introduction to The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler writes "Vagina. There, I've said it. Vagina said it again." The word "vagina" is used more than 100 times in The Vagina Monologues. How comfortable do you feel saying the word? Would you be willing to have "a vagina interview?" Do you think most women are comfortable talking about their vaginas?
5. The Vagina Monologues has been presented as a commercial production in many cities in the United States and abroad, sometimes with Eve Ensler as the performer, sometimes with trios of well-known actresses and personalities as the performers, and sometimes with more than a dozen female performers. Which manifestation of the play as a performance do you think would serve it best? And are there places in the world where you think the play would NOT be well-received? If so, why?
6. The Vagina Monologues has also been the centerpiece of hundreds of non-commercial events worldwide through its use in V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women. For example, for three years, the V-Day College Initiative has been inviting colleges and universities to mount productions of The Vagina Monologues on their campuses on V-Day (Valentine's Day). Almost 500 schools around the world have participated in this project to date. ALL V-Day events use The Vagina Monologues as a tool to raise money and awareness to stop sexual violence. Proceeds from the events go to local, national and international organizations already working to stop violence against women. Do you think this is an effective use of the play? Where in the world do you believe such a production would be welcomed? Needed? Criticized?
7. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' 1996 National Crime Victimization Survey, somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes. Campus Outreach Services reports that every 21 hours on each college campus in the United States there is a rape. Morocco's Penal Code states that murder, injury and beating are excusable if they are committed by a husband on his wife (as well as the accomplice at the moment) if he catches them in the act of adultery. The Feminist Majority describes the inhumane situation for women in Afghanistan: Upon seizing power in Afghanistan in 1996, the Taliban, an extremist militia, instituted a system of "gender apartheid" that stripped women and girls of their basic human rights and effectively thrust them into a state of virtual house arrest. Women are prohibited from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative. And they are forced to wear burqas, garments that cover their bodies from head to toe with only a small opening through which to see. These are just two of many such humiliations and horrors that women suffer in Afghanistan. Women are beaten and often killed for failing to adhere to the rules that govern them. How aware are you of the problem of violence against women in your community? In your state? In your country? In the world? How aware do think others are?
8. Numerous organizations offer information and support to educate people about and to fight violence against women, including V-Day, the Feminist Majority, Equality Now and Planned Parenthood, among many others. Do you think people are aware that such resources exist and do you think they are utilized?
9. How do you think both men and women would benefit from reading or seeing the play? What reactions do you think people of each sex have to it?
10. Do you think the play is relevant to people of all ages and ethnicities?
Reading Group Guide
For "The Vagina Monologues" and issues of violence against women