In the Body of the World: A Memoir by Eve Ensler
2013
Weight:8.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Lending Library
I first read The Vagina Monologues in high school, and I loved it. I walked around reciting "My Angry Vagina" to anyone willing to listen. In college, I had the chance to meet Eve Ensler and Jane Fonda in one of many Vagina Monologue productions I would go to see. Attending an all women;s private school, I also began to see some of the more problematic sides of the Monologues and white western feminism. I would speak to these too and would be guilty of my own mistakes throughout the years.
It did not stop me from going to Charis, our local feminist bookstore, to buy Necessary Targets and have it signed by her at a reading. I was never again enthralled like I was in high school, but I also never completely lost touch.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this book at the Dollar Store of all places. I thought maybe it would be terrible and had been banished to the dollar bin for a reason. I was wrong. I enjoyed it and thought Eve did what she does best. She shows truth no matter how disgusting, vile, negative, hateful, wonderful, idiotic, perfect, exciting, personal it is. She has been accused of being self-involved, but this is exactly what allows her to dig deep. Self-involved walks a fine line with self-aware and is often misidentified. People who attend to themselves, speak powerfully from their own experience, watch their own back, love themselves, care for themselves--particularly women--will be called selfish. Taught that selfish is wrong. Even when discussing their own battle with a very scary, very dirty disease like cancer.
I appreciate watching Eve Ensler grow and change in the world. I may not idolize her in the way I did as a teenager, but I do not really idolize people like that anymore (unless you are Gillian Anderson--kidding, kidding) or think that they must get "it" right all the time and every time. That they are not fallible. Eve shows us she is imperfect and allows us to look closely at our imperfect selves too, but she always asks us to do more and to be more aware. There is nothing wrong with that.
2013
Weight:8.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Lending Library
I first read The Vagina Monologues in high school, and I loved it. I walked around reciting "My Angry Vagina" to anyone willing to listen. In college, I had the chance to meet Eve Ensler and Jane Fonda in one of many Vagina Monologue productions I would go to see. Attending an all women;s private school, I also began to see some of the more problematic sides of the Monologues and white western feminism. I would speak to these too and would be guilty of my own mistakes throughout the years.
It did not stop me from going to Charis, our local feminist bookstore, to buy Necessary Targets and have it signed by her at a reading. I was never again enthralled like I was in high school, but I also never completely lost touch.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this book at the Dollar Store of all places. I thought maybe it would be terrible and had been banished to the dollar bin for a reason. I was wrong. I enjoyed it and thought Eve did what she does best. She shows truth no matter how disgusting, vile, negative, hateful, wonderful, idiotic, perfect, exciting, personal it is. She has been accused of being self-involved, but this is exactly what allows her to dig deep. Self-involved walks a fine line with self-aware and is often misidentified. People who attend to themselves, speak powerfully from their own experience, watch their own back, love themselves, care for themselves--particularly women--will be called selfish. Taught that selfish is wrong. Even when discussing their own battle with a very scary, very dirty disease like cancer.
I appreciate watching Eve Ensler grow and change in the world. I may not idolize her in the way I did as a teenager, but I do not really idolize people like that anymore (unless you are Gillian Anderson--kidding, kidding) or think that they must get "it" right all the time and every time. That they are not fallible. Eve shows us she is imperfect and allows us to look closely at our imperfect selves too, but she always asks us to do more and to be more aware. There is nothing wrong with that.
