America Faces An Emergency, Patriarchy Is Raising Its Ugly Head, Says Eve Ensler

Emma Watson interviewed Eve Ensler for “Elle UK” and it's an interview worth every bit. Published in 4-parts, Emma talks to Eve about her work and her activism and the continued relevance of the famed play ‘The Vagina Monologue’ in today’s political climate, almost after two decades of its release and on living in Trump’s America.

Emma and Eve make a deadly duo that lives and breathes feminism. A must read conversation for every woman; here are some excerpts from the conversion.

THE JOURNEY

On her journey so far with “The Vagina Monologues” she says, “Well, when I started The Vagina Monologues, no one could say the word vagina. They did a ten-minute CNN piece on the play and they never mentioned the word. To see how much it's become part of the discourse now is pretty incredible.” Eve says that what moves her most that even till date many women come up to her and say that the play was the moment in their lives “when they came into their activism when they found their voice”.

THE THREAT OF PATRIARCHY

Eve feels patriarchy still continues to pose a threat to the American society, “It is sad that the men in power still don't understand that the liberation of women is their liberation as well because they're still hungering for domination.” And adds that there is still a “predatory mind” which prevails.

AMERICA FACES AN EMERGENCY

She thinks that America is in a state of profound emergency. And the society has to hit rock bottom, but for Eve the silver lining is that this provides them with an opportunity to deal with “all the things that haven't ever been dealt with.”

Smack in the middle of the word emergency is the word emerge.

She thinks it is tortuous for boys to be raised in a patriarchy because from very early on they are “taught not to cry, feel, and show weakness and not to ever let anyone know you have doubts, and so your heart is cut off.” They are severed from it from a very early age. As they are not allowed to feel their vulnerability or their tenderness, they become hard and uncompassionate.

VIOLENCE AT HOME

What Eve said in the current interview hits close to home. We have an appalling record of violence against women and in the past few years have been caught in debates on, intolerance, nationalism and censorship on freedom of expression and so on.

MAHABANOO KOTWAL

Some time back SheThePeople.TV had interviewed Mahabanoo Kotwal, a forerunner of feminism in India and the person who got “The Vagina Monologues” to India. This is what is she had to say: “when I started performing the Vagina Monologues in India, may people said that  should change the name to ‘V-Monologues.’”

She believes that “Feminism is the radical notion that women are human.”And she says people don’t hate men they hate what they do, the policies they make, and the stigmas they have attached to women’s actions.”

Pic Credit: wbur.org