The Vagina Monologues: an easy read and a must-read, whether you own a vagina or not. 9/10.
This play was written by Eve Ensler in 1996 and performed in over 140 countries. It deals with topics that women tend to shy away from talking about to even their closest ones. As you flip through the pages, you will go through a journey of emotions wanting to laugh out loud, scream from anger, and throw your fist up while screaming victory.
Eve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, and feminist activist. She has won an incredible amount of awards, not only for her creative initiatives within the arts but also because of her vast contribution to humanitarian causes. She created V-Day, a global activist movement that raises money and educates the public on violence against women and girls. With the money raised thanks to V-day, she has funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt, and Iraq. These safe houses provide shelter to victims of genital mutilation, gender violence, and “honor” killing, which are unfortunately common in many places.
After reading The Vagina Monologues I watched a documentary (available on Netflix and highly recommended) about one of her inspiring humanitarian projects called “City Of Joy” – a community for female survivors of gender violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. In this community, hundreds of Congolese women are provided with self-empowerment tools each year, such as self-defense training, sex education, group therapy, storytelling, theatre, dance, ecology, horticulture, and economic empowerment.
Here’s a link to the trailer of City of Joy:
I truly enjoyed the book and read it within just a couple of hours, but what I particularly liked was learning about the tremendous impact that the V-day movement has had on this collective global movement to build a better world.
Go buy the book, or watch the play! Here’s a small preview of one of the countless performances!
Andrea C. Restrepo 