Women's History Month - Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler tackles the big issues, sometimes with a sledge hammer, sometimes with a feather. It's easy to label her as a woman writer, a feminst, and thereby categorize her subject matter to a single note. This makes it easy to determine where her work fits in relation to our interests, beliefs, values; for corporations to figure out how to sell, and booksellers which part of the bookstore and on what shelf her work belongs.

Woman, feminist, especially feminist has become synonymous with anti-male. How? Why? dictionary.com defines feminist as the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. Not more rights, not taking anything away, just equal.

Despite the negative connotations of the word, I believe that if you love a woman, and especially if you have a daughter, or love a little girl, you really do want the world to value her, want her to thrive, want her to be safe, want her to become, and that this makes you a feminist.

"Gendercide" is the focus ofThe Economist March 4th, 2010 issue. Last year a I became friends with a woman from China who was part of an exchange program with my work. Once we got to know each other, she wanted to know why I hadn't had more children, especially since I only had one child, a daughter. The only answer I had was that I really only wanted one child and I was perfectly happy with her. She also had one daughter, and wished for a son, but more than one child is not allowed.

I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World

If you're asking yourself, why would anyone write about the secret life of girls? or thinking, who cares? Think about this: females are 53 percent of the world's population. That's the majority. So, why wouldn't you be interested in over half the world's population, especially in light of the fact that throughout history, almost every social or economic reform the world over has had its beginning with women.

I know I'm beyond lucky to live in this century, in this country, even in this state. If I'd been born a hundred years ago in the same circumstances, I'd have had zero rights under the law, and I mean zero. I wouldn't be allowed to speak in public, vote, keep wages I earned, and I'd be a wife in a gaggle of sister wives, all married to the same man. I'd be legal property. So would my children. The only birth control I'd have access to would be herbs like black cohosh and blue cohosh.

All the rights my daughter takes as her due, were in the nascent stage when I was in grade school. I got the message very early about which gender was valued more in my religion and family. Now that I'm an adult woman, things have changed, dramatically, but the foundation, the received messages, the fire in which you were forged, is at the core of your being, no matter how fast or far you run.


I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World Written in the same format as her watershed work, The Vagina Monologues (1998), Ensler’s latest mélange of dramatic voices continues the mission of her philanthropic organization, V-Day, to stop violence against women. Published for adults but aimed straight at young adults, this volume provides a searing look at the inner lives of young females today in entries that explore sex, violence, love, body image, materialism, identity, family, friends, and the future. “You Tell Me How to Be a Girl in 2010” begins the collection with a furious catalog of the state of a girl’s world, from global war to everyday heartbreak: “Girls younger than me are giving blowjobs / in homeroom / and they don’t even know it’s sex.” The sobering international voices include child soldiers, young sex slaves, girls whose boyfriends hit them, and girls who starve and cut themselves. Other girls speak of honesty, tenderness, freedom, accomplishment, self-love, and defiance: “My short skirt / is not an invitation / a provocation / an indication / that I want it / or give it / or that I hook. . . . My short skirt is happiness. / I can feel myself on the ground. I am here. And I am hot.” With moving forewords by Carol Gilligan and Ensler, this powerful title, interspersed with shocking “Girl Facts,” serves as a potent call to girls to honor their emotions and to readers of all ages to uphold human rights at every level, from the boardroom to the bedroom. from Booklist by Gillian Engberg