EVE ENSLER’S VISION OF THE BODY IN THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
EVE ENSLER’S
VISION OF THE BODY IN THE VAGINA
MONOLOGUES
-- Mohini
Dubey* & Ram Krishna Singh**
Abstract
The
paper makes an attempt to analyse and interpret Eve Ensler’s perception and vision of women’s sex and
sexuality, centred round the metaphor of the vagina. It seeks to understand the
playwright’s unique feminist view point via the issued related to sexual
violence, exploitation, and organized crime against women from America and Europe to Asia and Africa, and her own
political, social and literary activism, as nuanced in The Good Body (2005), The
Vagina Monologues (2008), Insecure At
Last (2008), and In the Body of the
World (2013). She endeavours to create and shape a female discourse of
resistance to the violence and brutality that permeates the world today,
threatening women’s existence and identity every now and then. However, it is her vision of women as
microcosm of the cosmic energy that makes her different from other feminists.
She sensitizes women everywhere to be in harmony with men, nature, society,
world, and the universe.
The writer of the Obie award-winning
play, The Vagina Monologues (2008),
is a feminist activist, who has been advocating the rights of women and girls
and making efforts to end the sexual violence, domestic abuse, genital
mutilation, and other forms of oppression, perpetrated against the female. Eve Ensler
has been raising voice against various parochial bigotries and assault on the
female body in the name of race, clan, religion, community, and nationality
just as she has been critical of the insular habits and prejudices, as far as the
women’s reproductive choices, sexual needs, ostracization, or stigmatization in
various parts of the world is concerned.In fact, awareness of women as the
hardest hit in various conflict/war zones such as Congo, Bosnia, Croatia,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq etc
is crucial to her aesthetic vision, especially as the stories of war
sound the same everywhere; only the locations differ, as do the identities of
the victims and the aggressors.
In
her memoir In The Body
Of The World and the play The Vagina
Monologues, she speaks as a woman
for many women. As
she discovers herself, she
feels she is one of
many, a vaginal
symbol. Her worldview integrates
selves in sexual
encounters of woman
and man, as part
of feminine wholeness, or
Prakriti. Like Anais Nin
she suffers cancer
and undergoes an
inner struggle. Despite immense
physical pain and
suffering, her spirit remains
serene and positive, enabling her to reveal
the mystery of
womanhood.
Body and
Self
In many
literatures and cultures
of the world the
body has
been given prime importance. The Bible says
‘Know thyself’. Knowing includes
seeing the body
naturally, as it
is, with respect
for its outer
and inner structures
and features, knowing the
physicality itself. Thus, the body
becomes a tool
to unravel the
self and the
being of women.
Ensler through
her oeuvre indicates
that the concrete, tactile body
is the only
means to realize
and acknowledge existence
of a woman. In
the preface to
the play The Good
Body Ensler quotes
Marion Woodman, a great
Jungian analyst, saying, “instead of
transcending ourselves, we must
move into ourselves.”1
Emphasizing the
importance of the body in her
memoir In The Body
Of The World, Ensler notes, “a mother’s
body against a
child’s body makes
a place. It says
you are here…”2 She
also points out
that the female
body is the
very cause of
creation and if
treated badly it can
turn into the
destruction and collapse
of humanity. In her view, the
female body is sacrosanct.
She emphasizes
different facets and
dimensions of womanhood
which includes woman’s
physical self, consciousness,
and being, their relationship
with other beings
which does not
exclude men, nature, society,
and world at
large.
The
body is
divine. It is the gateway to
know the truth
about the world. Knowing includes
the innermost physicality
and divinity within. Ensler addresses
herself to this
vital aspect and
contemplates that whatever
wrong that happens
to the women’s lot
is the result
of their own
failings. She narrates
personal experiences of
women around the
world and concludes that
there is among
women much shame, secrecy, and mystery
surrounding their physicality.
Women do
not know themselves. They do
not know their
own hidden body
parts. Knowing the body
is to become
aware of it
all the time, entering into
its complexities and
demystifying the wrong
notions and prejudices
that are attached
to it. In the
preface to the
play The Good Body Ensler rejects
female objectification and
says:
Tell the
image makers and
magazine sellers and
the plastic surgeons
that you are not
afraid. That what you
fear the most
is the death
of imagination and
originality and metaphor and passion. Then
be bold and
LOVE YOUR BODY. STOP
FIXING IT. It was never
broken.3
One should
rely on one’s
own experiences of the body, truth about
sex and sexuality, thereby shedding
inhibition and becoming
free, realizing the significance
and beauty of
the body, that it
is not sacrilege. To
know the body
is to know
the reality of
the world. It is the search
of a hermit
for God, or the Ultimate Truth.
Metaphors of Sex and
Sexuality
Ensler is
a pro-sex feminist
with a spiritual
bent of mind. She
is not against
conjugal relationship, which
means she does
not decry sex. In
one of the
monologues she emphasizes that “vagina is
nude. It does not
want to wear
anything anymore”.Sex is
natural. It should be
taken as it is.
She does
not like any
kind of distortion
to it. It already
carries life and
beauty. There is no
need for any
kind of embellishment or
affectation. In the preface
to the play The
Good Body Ensler
says, “I am stepping
off the capitalist
treadmill. I am going to
take a deep breath
and find a
way to survive
not being flat
or perfect, …or better. I
am inviting you
to join me, to
stop trying to be
anything, anyone other than
who you are…”4
She offers
a non-moral view of
sex, one can have
sex with or without marriage.
But, one should know
its consequences. So one
should not mistreat
one’s body, or
sex. Knowing the intricacies
of sex means
entering into it, exploring
it, experiencing it, and
being aware of
the attached notions
of sex and
sexuality, saying what happens
to the body
when it undergoes
sensory experiences, to
its response to all
that.
She explores
how physicality leads
to creativity and
divinity at the
end; how female stands
in relation to
male; how they become
the balance point
of each other; and
how this harmony
between the two
ultimately brings harmony
to the universe. In her feminist belief, sex is
not bad; talking about
it and knowing
it is basically
broadening one’s understanding
of life. Talking
and knowing about
sex and sexuality
is not something
to be ashamed
of. It is rather the most
pious reality and
truth to be
explored about the
world, culture, civilization, and
humanity.
She
stresses the need for making women
shun all the
wrong notions ( like
looking down upon
one’s body parts, and
to have hesitation,
shame or inhibitions
about one’s sexuality) about physicality, sex and
sexuality. One has to
rely on one’s
own observations and
experiences about life. In
the play The Vagina
Monologues Ensler reveals
the fact about
female nature of
seeking pleasure in
coition:
The clitoris
is pure in
purpose. It is the
only organ in
the body designed
purely for pleasure. The clitoris
is simply a
bundle of nerves: 8,000
nerve fibres, to be precise. That’s a
higher concentration of
nerve fibres than
is found anywhere
else in the body, including the
fingertips, lips, and tongue,
and it
is twice…twice…twice the
number in the
penis. Who needs a
handgun when you’ve
got a Semiautomatic.5
The
monologues are vignettes, glimpses into the secrets and pleasures of
women-types. Each one explores one specific aspect of the vagina,
metaphorically, one specific issue
related to women’s
sexuality. She talks about
hair, adrenalin, menstruation, sex, incest, female genital
mutilation, masturbation, rape,
pleasure, discovery, moans, female power, derision against
objectification of female
body, lesbian experiences,
sex outside of
marriage, redeeming the word
‘Cunt’ of its derogatory
designation through reclaiming
it as an
emblem of female
power and energy, and
the difficult experience
of parturition. The monologues
also offer comic descriptions of what we call vaginas, such as what they would
wear if they got dressed, and what they would say if they talked.
Her
focus is not
only to address women’s
self-hatred and fear of their bodies but also
to break through the American culture’s taboo about discussing vaginas.
Ensler was inspired by a conversation with a friend who was in menopause, and
made self-loathing comments about her
vagina. In her own New Age feminist style, she crusades to erase the shame
surrounding female genitals. She deserves credit for presenting female
sexuality and the vagina in a more vocal way than has been done before,
especially in mainstream theatre performance.
Philosophy
Ensler’s
exploration of sex, which is the
investigation of everything, is akin
to the Chinese
philosophy of Yin-Yang:She stresses how apparently
opposite or contrary
forces are actually
complementary, interconnected, and
interdependent in the
natural world, and how
they give rise
to each other
as they interrelate
to one another. Male
and female are
thought of as
physical manifestations of
the duality of
Yin-Yang; the feminine and
masculine principles are
the two opposing
cosmic forces into
which creative energy
divides and whose
fusion in physical
matter brings the
phenomenal world into
being. Thus, men and women
together create new
generations that allow
the race they
mutually create, and
come from, to
survive. They transform each
other as they interact.
What matters is the balance between
Yin and Yang
qualities within oneself
that is necessary
to retain inner
peace and harmony. If
Yin and Yang
become imbalanced, one
of the qualities
is considered deficient
or has vacuity.”6
So, the
quintessential truth about
sex is that
both male and
female are part
of a whole
and their sole
aim is to create.
Both of
them are prominent
and essential as
they lead toward
creation and sustenance
of human civilization. They have
to be in
balance with each
other, in balance with
other beings, and in
balance with the
universe. In fact, etymologically
the word Vagina
has its origin
from a word
meaning sheath and
sword. It upholds the
male and creates, and
there will be imbalance
if they are
bifurcated because it
is the union
of the two
energies or forces
both the male
and the female
that was there
since the inception
of humanity and
is the very
cause of creation.
Women’s
Consciousness and the
World
What Ensler’s
point is that
women stand in
relation to the
world in which
they live. Whatever wrong
that happens outside
affects women at
domestic level. Since the US and
its allies decided that Iraqis needed a regime change, for instance, women there
have had to contend with abductions,
death, torture, forced marriages, rape, and sexual violence of all sorts. Sexual violence
against women is
pervasive in places
like Congo, Bosnia, Shabunda,
Bunyakiri, Goma, Bukavu, Afghanistan, and
Iraq. As a social
activist Ensler believes in social
reform. She is
pro-poor and seeks to
transform the world
to a better
and safer place
for women, particularly the down
trodden oneswho work as
labourers and are
being physically and sexually exploited
and raped, women who are
underpaid for their
services and deprived
of civic amenities.
Ensler cherishes
the dream when
these underpaid people
would be paid the
most and would be free
from sexual slavery. In
her Memoir In The
Body Of The
World she shows a Leftist
leaning. While lying
in the hospital
bed she comes across
a nurse named
Cindy who is
not paid for
the services that
she provides to the
patients. Ensler broods over
this injustice and
wishes that when
the world is
right then these
people will be on
the top. She waits
for the day
when women will
indulge in social
and political affairs
and will drift
away from all that
limits their inner
and outer growth. In
the preface to the play The
Good Body Ensler
says:
This play
is my prayer, my
attempt to analyse
the mechanisms of our
imprisonment, to break free
so that we
may spend more
time running the world
than running away
from it; so that
we may be
consumed by the sorrow
of the world
rather than consuming
to avoid that
sorrow and suffering…. 7
Upliftment of
humanity lies in the
upliftment of the
soul of an individual.
In the
introduction to the
play The Vagina Monologues
Ensler says, “the trick
has been to
live in the
contradictions while maintaining
principles, beliefs, and
purposes…”8 Thus,
she indicates to
women to never
let themselves down
or feel disheartened
while surrounded with
problems.Rather one should
have the courage
to surpass everything
that least matters
and is harmful
in achieving full
growth of one’s
personality and evolution
of one’s spirit.
Ensler believes
in human goodness
and meaningful existence. Compassion and
hard work are
the keys through
which the society and
world would become
a better place
to live and
grow. In the Memoir
In
The Body Of
The World she
cites the example
of Muhammad Ali and
says:
I put
on my signed Muhammad Ali gloves. I
box with myself
in the mirror. I watch When We Were
Kings for the
sixth time. Kinshasa. Ali and
Foreman. The Rumble in the
Jungle. Biggest upset in
history. That’s what I’m
going for. It was Ali’s
staying power. Foreman was
young. He gave
him everything he
had in the
first round, just like
this infection. Ali stayed
on the ropes
absorbing the hundreds of
blows to his
body. Even Ali’s greatest
supporters had their money on
Foreman. But he was
fighting for other
things, bigger things. He dropped
Foreman in the Eighth
round.9
Thus Ali
through his perseverance
and endurance won
the battle against
Foreman. Ali outlived
hundreds of blows of
bad fortune because
he was fighting
for other things, bigger things.
Reality has
to be accepted
as it is.
One should not
be passive or
inactive. One should make efforts to transform ones
situation, to flourish, to
grow as oneself.
She believes in
losing everything to
achieve ones own
identity and self. Suffering least
matters:“ …it’s one of
those almost impossible
photographs where time
has stopped.Ali is
standing, Foreman is on the ground.
Ali has clearly
won, but it’s
not the glory
that hits you, it’s
the shock and
the stagger of
the struggle…”10
Likewise Ensler
ponders over death
and love. She
suggests not to
be afraid of
anything and to
abandon everything for
the greater love,
that is, love
for the entire
humanity, and particularly
women. She quotes, “Live as
if you were
already dead.’ Zen admonition.”11
Further she insists, “ Your dying,
my dying is
necessary and irrelevant
and inevitable. Do
not be afraid, no, death will not
be our end.
Indifference will be, dissociation
will be…”12
Ensler’s belief
about love is
also idiosyncratic. She loves
humanity and especially
women. It is just
an elevation of
love to higher
plane and greater
ends. She says:
Now I
see my fear
was not about
sex. It was about
being caught, determined, lined
up. It was about
being cornered in
the love stall. It
was about packaged
love, couple love,
dead-and-done-with-permanently-in-the-house-with-the-children love. About
love that screamed
isolation and church
and control. That screamed,”care about your
own, protect your lot.”
About parsed-out love
and regulated love
and prevented love.13
All her
values are aimed
at social good
and benevolence toward
women. One can trace
strong influence of
Oriental Philosophy and
Religion on Eve
Ensler’s consciousness. She
believes in the principles of
Buddhist Philosophy and
Hinduism. She refers to
Hindu Goddess Kali
and Buddhist Goddess
Tara. “Tara who came
through Buddha’s heart
and appeared in
a woman’s body.” Kali
stands for female
sexual power which
controls the creation and
destruction of humanity.
In
Foreword to the
play The Vagina Monologues, Gloria
Steinem mentions that in
Hindu Religious Culture
in ancient times
women were being
worshipped as a
vaginal symbol in
temples. The oval shaped
structure that holds
Lingam half inside
and half outside
is the Vagina.
It is because
of patriarchal domination
over matriarchy that
made it shift
to the Tantric
practice and Occultism
which is again
not included in
the mainstream Hindu
Religion. Then she goes
on explaining how
several religious temples
around the world
resemble female anatomy
and modelled vagina
in their texture
and sculpture.
The basic
agenda and strategy
of the playwright
in writing and
performing the play The
Vagina Monologues has
been to awaken people by giving
them a shock.. On being
asked how she had
been working to
overcome objections to
the play by
religious communities in order
to move V-Day
forward, Eve Ensler responded to
the questioner, “ well, the people who
seem to be
opposed to the
play, in my experience, are usually
people who haven’t
been to it. So, part
of what we
have been working
on is inviting
people to come
before they have
objections….”14
The
playwright’s aim is
to make people
aware of the
issues related to
women and expose
their perception about
female sex and sexuality, as also
to make
them accept a
new belief and
value. She is not
against religion. Her aim is to
make one think.In an interview with Carolyn Roark,
Ensler defends Vagina monologues saying, “Part of what we are trying to do here
is that the vagina is sacred, is honoured, is to be cherished and is to be
protected, and so in some ways, we are not at all at odds with the Church or
any church. I think that our differences are that we believe in speaking about
it openly and it is important because where things remain hidden, and dark, and
isolated, usually abuse occurs and usually some forms of perversion occur.”
Ensler
as a social activist visited
university dormitories and
pleaded to turn
those places Rape
Free Zones. As she believes, “ the task
of all Christians
is to work
toward the end
of violence because
all of us as
God’s children deserve
to live in
a safer world….”15 Ensler looks
forward to greater tolerance
and acceptance of differences
of thoughts.
Social Concerns
Ensler condemns
rich people, industrialists,
corrupt politicians, and corporations
that pillage African nations
of their oil, gold, minerals, and
crops and that
are indifferent toward
native people’s suffering. Instead super powers send
militaries to rape
women there, as in Congo.
She decries
the monopoly of a
powerful section that has access to and
privilege over wealth
and the rest of
the people are condemned to
suffer perpetual poverty
and hunger. Ensler draws
attention to the
issues related to
women where one
out of three
women will be
raped and beaten
up around the
planet.
She
thinks that change
is necessary. In fury
she envisages uprising, bloodshed and
revolution. But this is
against her humanitarian
values. So, she wants transformation in
the situation of
women with change in mind and attitude.
In the play The
Vagina Monologues she
expresses her concern for
women, finding it
bizarre that they
were being raped
and mutilated in
Bosnia in the Middle
of Europe in
1993 through a
systematic tactic of
war and none
of the institutions, people, organizations, and nations
paid any attention to their insuperable
plight. She spent two
months in Croatia
and Pakistan in
1994, interviewing Bosnian
women refugees and
rape survivors of
1993. She says:
When I
returned to New
York after my
first trip, I was in a
state of outrage. Outraged that
20,000 to 70,000
women were being
raped in the
middle of Europe in
1993, as a systematic
tactic of war, and
no one was
doing anything to stop
it. I couldn’t understand
it. A friend asked
me why I
was surprised. She said that
over 500,000 women
were raped every
year in this
country, and in theory we
were not at
war.16
Ensler seeks to free women
of sexual slavery which is possible with each
woman’s personal growth.Women
should be
actively involved in
public affairs rather
than sitting back
at home. They
have to actively contribute to the processes of social change as independent
individuals, rather than be satisfied
with marriage and
parturition.
Wherever war
occurs it harms
women to a
great extent. Women are
being physically and
sexually exploited in countries
of Eastern Europe, West Asia, Africa, and Middle
East due to
war. It is
not only that
their bodies and sex organs are
being mutilated or distorted.
Distortion extends to
the level of
their self and
being. Their body
is dislocated and
their soul splits
off. Ensler interviewed Bosnian
rape survivors and was in
awe of their
spirit and strength, “
My vagina a
live wet water
village. They invaded it. Butchered
it and burned
it down. I do
not touch now.
Do not visit. I
live someplace else
now. I don’t know
where that is.”17
Sexual and
physical abuse splinters
their psyche. She believes that women’s emancipation
lies in their
self- empowerment. They have to
be self- reliant and
have to shun
self-pity and self-hatred. They have
to overcome their
victimhood and have
to struggle for
their survival. Women have
to come out
of the shell of
propaganda and accept
reality as it
is. Through their
own efforts they
have to undo
the wrong that
happens to them.
Ensler also understands that violence leads
to spiritual degeneration
of both the
perpetrator and the
victim. In order to
live with the
guilt of the
wrong that is
done to harm
someone’s person, the
perpetrator has to
turn into “the
other”. In the same
way to bear the
pain being inflicted
, the victim’s personality
splits off. Violence degrades
the self and
harms both of
them.18
Yet, Ensler envisions
a better future
for women. She has
established sanctuaries to
save female species
from extinction. She
has established City
Of Joy in
the Congo for
empowering women. She
says:
We are
the people of
the second wind. We, who
have been undermined, reduced, and minimized, we
know who we
are. Let us be
taken. Let us turn
our pain to power, our
victimhood to fire, our
self-hatred to action, our
self-obsession to service, to
fire,, to wind. Wind. Wind. Be
transparent as wind, be
as possible and
relentless and dangerous, be what
moves things forward
without needing to
leave a mark, be part
of this collection of
molecules that begins
somewhere unknown and
can’t help but keep
rising. Rising. Rising. Rising.19
The second
wind is symbolic
of recuperation and
revival of the
self to transmute
bad into good, worse
into better and
beautiful, and ultimately
to change society
for the common
good, to transform
the world seeking
welfare of all
humans, including women.
Ensler’s Vision
WaThiong’ONgugi, one
of the most
prominent Kenyan writers
of contemporary African
Literature, in his book Decolonising
The Mind, mentions that
all human beings
are born in
a situation that
to a great
extent determines their
being. One faces nature
and other humans
as two forces
that influence one’s
understanding of human
situation. These two forces in
turn are responsible
for the making
and unmaking of the self
of an individual. It is
encountering these two
forces and evolving
out to be
oneself that determines
one’s being and
self into the
world.20
Ensler focuses her
attention on everything
including human relations, nature, society, and the world
at large. That is
how one discovers
one’s own worth
as an evolving
entity. It is in
relation to the
other that one
defines oneself, and connects.A tree
by the hospital
window where she
was being treated
for cancer turned
out to be
the point of
connection and meditation as
mentioned in her memoir.
She associates infection
in her liver with
the gulf oil
spill of Mexico
destroying sea life. She
says:
As Michaela
washes my naked
head, I realize this
water holds the
best and the worst
of us. The greed, and
the recklessness that
led to the
drilling explosion, and all
the lies that
got told before
and after. It’s the
gulf that I
swam in at the
age of sixteen
reciting T.S.Eliot’s “The Love
Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock.” The gulf where both
my parents died, their
last gaze directed
out on that
horizon. It’s the gulf, the wide
hole, between my mother
and me. The gulf
dividing tribes, Families, continents, and colours. The
gulf washing over
my head, melting in Michaela’s lap, suddenly indistinguishable from
my salty tears.21
She
goes on reflecting
human relations. Her relationship
with her father , Arthur, who molested
her; her relationship with
her mother, Chris, who
made her feel
alienated; her relationship with
Laura, her sister, who
did not undergo
childhood abuse like
Ensler did; her relationship with
her brother, Curtis, her stepson Dylan, her daughter-in-law Shiva, and
her granddaughter, Coco. Ensler
reflects her relationship
with Coco and
says, “ she once
told me I was
“her person” and
she was mine”….not
merged so much, but
joined in affinity, in
worldview, in energy, in lifetime
of connections…”22
She
extends this relationship
to the women
of Congo, Shabunda, Bunyakiri,
Kosova, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Goma, considers them
as her own
tribe, wants to
save them from
sexual violence, and
make them sexually
free.
Spiritual
influence
Stressing her essentially spiritual
being, she observes: “What I believe is that we have this extraordinary spirit
inside ourselves, which for me is our Buddha nature. I believe we are in the
process of opening and getting closer and closer to our Buddha nature and
stripping away all that is covering it….I think to be honest, that being is
inside.” She refers to
the five elements,
namely Earth, Water, Air, Fire,
Spiritual Sky or Akash and how these
fractions of molecules
are the catalyst
to form the
matter, or Rupa. They
uphold this very
Body, Soul, Self,
Being, and Consciousness
of every human
being.
In
Buddhist philosophy it
has incorporated all
these elements as
the basis for
understanding that leads
one through unbinding
of ‘Rupa’ or materiality
to the supreme
state of pure
emptiness or ‘Nirvana.’ Our body
or any solid
material is the
physical manifestation or
‘Rupa’ born out
of these great
elements. The result of
these qualities are
the inputs to
our five senses, colour, smell, taste, and sensations
of body. The matter
that is perceived
in the mind
is just a
mental interpretation of
these qualities.
But the matter
is not something
that is constitutive
of external mind-independent reality.
It is how
one perceives or
meditates through mindfulness.
“just as
if a skilled butcher
or his assistant,
having slaughtered a cow,
were to
sit at a
crossroads with the
carcass divided into
portions, so a monk
reviews this very
body…in terms of
the elements: ‘ there are
in this body
the earth element, the
water element, the fire
element, the air element’, so
he abides contemplating
in body internally…”23
Not only one
body but all
the other bodies
and creatures and
living beings are
born out of
the synthesis of
these great elements. Ensler indicates
these elements as
the energy that
propels her around
the planet looking
for human connections. The Body is
not something derogatory. It should
not be desecrated. Rather it is
the means to
attain spirituality and
to know the
truths of life.
It
is the centre
of women’s existence
and the way
home for them. She
juxtaposes the deadly disease
cancer that has
invaded her body
with all the wrong
and horrendous acts
of violence that
is perpetrated against
women in the
Congo and around
the world. She elevates
this crisis of
the female body
to the spiritual
plane . The cancer of the
body and the acute
danger surrounding female
existence work as
a talisman for
Ensler. Throughout this process of
love and care
she realizes that
millions of women
are in dire
need of cure, love
and respect. Women are
in need to be rescued
and conserved.
However, there
has to be
radical change in
women’s attitude and
perspective to view
themselves in relation
to their body
and the world
outside. They will have to
view their body
as important, not
bad. They are in
need of company
of other self –conscious women. It is
basically seeking a way home
as one is
comfortable with one’s
own body and
being.
There are
innumerable possibilities awaiting. This harmony
within female community
will bring other
beings in harmony
and finally will culminate in a balanced
human existence, balanced
world, and a
balanced universe.
Eve Ensler is
a feminist in her own
right. She is her own
brand. She seeks sexual
freedom for women. Sex
is biological and
it should not take
one into dark
corners. She talks
about sex in
concrete and clinical
terms to shed
all the taboos
and prejudices. Through several
religious, cultural, and
literary anecdotes she
emphasizes the significance
of female power
and their crucial
role in society.
Women stand in
relation with men,
nature, society, world, and
the universe. They are
the very centre
of creation and
destruction of humanity.
Finally, women
are their own
revolution. They carry inside
them that sparkling
light, that ultimate consciousness
which can vanquish
the hard shell
of the lesser
self and transform
them into a
fully conscious being. This
is what Ensler
believes and she
wants women to
be their own
Messiah. They can change
themselves through realizing
their fully grown
Buddha nature and it
is in the
process of knowing
themselves that they
will surely come to
know the reality
about the world. Thus
Ensler’s approach is
self- emancipatory.
Eve
Ensler speaks with
the voice of
a world citizen
who places her
personal, racial, and national experience
within the context
of the human
experiences as a
whole. She shares her
self-discovery with every
woman who is
persuaded to explore
her inner body, mind, and self
for emancipation from
physical exploitation and
sufferings on the
one hand and
ignorance, prejudices, and
fears on the
other.
Ensler’s apparent
physical agenda is in fact
her spiritual agenda
culminating in the
Buddhist sanctuaries for
empowering women inwardly
with a sense
of pride in
their sex and
sexuality and inner
freedom to view
themselves and the
universe in accordance
with each other ever-expanding, ever-rising, and
ever-evolving.
She understands the truth of her
being by living the questions she raises. Her bodily adventure is to realize
the spiritually illuminating ‘sat-chit-ananda’.
She seeks ‘bliss’ (ananda)
boldly, without fear as it brings her, and every woman, both her consciousness
(chit) and her being (sat). She speaks with awareness of her
‘core’ or ‘centre’, metaphorically ‘vagina’,
which is inside her, and knows when one is on the beam or off the beam,
that is, when one stays in the centre, one has one’s bliss.
Works Cited
1Ensler,
Eve.The
Good Body. United Kingdom: Arrow Books, 2005. p. xiii. Print.
2Ensler,
Eve. In
The Body of
The World. Noida: Random House, 2013. p.1. Print.
3Eve Ensler, op. cit. p. xiii.
4
ibid, p. xiii
5Ensler,
Eve. The
Vagina Monologues. New York: Villard
Books, 2008. p.51. Print.
6Wikipedia
contributors. “Yin and yang.” Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia
the free encyclopedia, last modified on
09/04/2015, at 14:04. Web. accessed
on25/02/2015http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yangretrieved
on 11 Apr. 2015.
7Ensler,
Eve. The
Good Body. United Kingdom: Arrow Books, 2005. p. xii. Print.
8Ensler,
Eve. The
Vagina Monologues. New York: Villard
Books, 2008. p. xiii. Print.
9Ensler,
Eve. In
The Body of
The World. Noida: Random House, 2013. p.73. Print.
10ibid,
p.110.
11ibid,
p.210.
12ibid,
p.212.
13ibid,
p.167.
14Roark,
D.Carolyn.’Interview With Eve
Ensler’, Baylor University: http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/30160.pdf
p. 36. Web. accessed on 12/12/2014
15ibid,
pp. 36, 37.
16Ensler,
Eve. The
Vagina Monologues. New York: Villard
Books, 2008. p.60. Print.
17ibid,
p.63.
18Roark,
D.Carolyn.’Interview With Eve
Ensler’, Baylor University:
http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/30160.pdf p.36. Web. accessed on 12/12/2014
19Ensler,
Eve. In
The Body of
The World. Noida: Random House, 2013. pp.216,217. Print.
20WaThiong'o,
Ngugi. Decolonising The Mind. 2007.
Delhi, India: Worldview Publications, 2007. 114. Print.
21Eve Ensler. op. cit. pp.176, 177.
22ibid,
p.96, 97.
23Wikipedia
contributors. "Mahābhūta." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, accessed
on 28/02/2015, modified on 8 Feb.
2015. Web. Retrieved on 11 Apr. 2015.
*M.Phil Researcher;
**Professor of English, Dept of Humanities &
Social Sciences, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad 826004, IndiaPublished in Modern Research Studies, Vol.2, Issue 2, June 2015, pp. 248-263
posted by Ram Krishna Singh at 10:17 AM
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