Source: Times of India
Link: http://www.idiva.com/bin/idiva/Whats-wrong-with-being-a-girl
With her play, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Lives of Girls Around the World scheduled to premiere on November 12, 2009 at NCPA Tata Theatre in Mumbai, playwright Eve Ensler talks about her inspiration for this script, being a feminist, dealing with abuse and finding her identity in a man's world.
Broken, beaten but alive!
The Vagina Monologues has been performed in several countries over the past 11 years and during this time I have seen so many young girls of varying nationalities. I have been greatly disturbed by how women are sold, beaten, destroyed, killed and undone across the globe but I am also greatly amazed at the power and resiliency in these girls!
So about five years ago I began to write the monologues of these women based on true stories that I heard, people I've interacted with and stories that I wish would happen. Then I began to envision the pieces coming together for this play.
Telling every girl's story
I believe girls are trained to please and serve rather than to provoke, challenge, dare and create.
I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Lives of Girls Around the World tells the stories of young girls in all kinds of horrific circumstances who dare to stand up or who are unable to resist but wish they could. These are different stories from different countries – a girl with an eating disorder from the US, a girl sold as a sex slave in the Congo, a Chinese girl making Barbie’s heads in a factory, a Palestinian suicide bomber who dared to turn back.
Defining our own identities
Whether it's being obsessed with attaining a particular body image and disappearing in the bargain or being in a relationship with a boy just to be popular, child labour or trafficking, genital mutilation or abuse, the play is a call to all girls to step up and be the emotional creatures they are.
I want girls not to be afraid of who they are and have their own authentic voice. Why should girls be afraid of their intensity, their passion, their emotions? Why should they be afraid of being too smart? Why should they be what someone else tells them to be?
Proud to be a girl
I think our patriarchal world has taught girls to be subservient to men and taught boys how to not be girls. We need to ask ourselves why we do that. What's wrong with being a girl? What's wrong with being empathetic, emotional, passionate and alive? All of us are emotional creatures and we need to find the 'girl' in us.
To me, girls are the greatest resource on the planet and have been denied the right to be who they really are by society. I believe if this energy is freed, we will unleash a brilliance you cannot even imagine. It's like unlocking a force like that of wind.
Breaking free from my father's house
I use 'father's house' as a metaphor for what girls settle for. They cling on to the bare minimal that they are given instead of creating a world of their own.
When I was 18 years old, I stood up to my abusive father and told him for the first time in my entire life that he could never touch me again. That was the turning point in my life. I had had enough and I couldn't deal with it anymore.
I had been away to college for a year and by the time I got back I had developed my own support system, a community of people who I knew loved me. I was political and active. I was a feminist creating a new world for myself. I was not afraid to be alone even if my family rejected me. That's what every girl needs – a support system, someone to talk to, to know her rights and not allow people to hurt her.
Breaking the silence
I have been privileged to travel to places like the Congo where economic war had ravaged women's lives and watch these women march against violence and break the silence.
We shouldn't spend our lives reacting to violence or overcoming abuse. We can't devote our lives to recovering when in fact we should be thriving. I believe when you can stop focusing on yourself and help someone else get out of their situation and give them the exact thing you want the most, it will empower you and heal you of your grief, pain and rage.
Being a feminist in a man's world
Most women I speak to want equal rights, equal pay, respect, a voice and not to be abused yet they don't want to be called a feminist! To me feminism is wanting to be treated equal and knowing you deserve it. It is showing solidarity to resilient women around the world who are rising up instead of feeling powerless.
Broken, beaten but alive!
The Vagina Monologues has been performed in several countries over the past 11 years and during this time I have seen so many young girls of varying nationalities. I have been greatly disturbed by how women are sold, beaten, destroyed, killed and undone across the globe but I am also greatly amazed at the power and resiliency in these girls!
So about five years ago I began to write the monologues of these women based on true stories that I heard, people I've interacted with and stories that I wish would happen. Then I began to envision the pieces coming together for this play.
Telling every girl's story
I believe girls are trained to please and serve rather than to provoke, challenge, dare and create.
I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Lives of Girls Around the World tells the stories of young girls in all kinds of horrific circumstances who dare to stand up or who are unable to resist but wish they could. These are different stories from different countries – a girl with an eating disorder from the US, a girl sold as a sex slave in the Congo, a Chinese girl making Barbie’s heads in a factory, a Palestinian suicide bomber who dared to turn back.
Defining our own identities
Whether it's being obsessed with attaining a particular body image and disappearing in the bargain or being in a relationship with a boy just to be popular, child labour or trafficking, genital mutilation or abuse, the play is a call to all girls to step up and be the emotional creatures they are.
I want girls not to be afraid of who they are and have their own authentic voice. Why should girls be afraid of their intensity, their passion, their emotions? Why should they be afraid of being too smart? Why should they be what someone else tells them to be?
Proud to be a girl
I think our patriarchal world has taught girls to be subservient to men and taught boys how to not be girls. We need to ask ourselves why we do that. What's wrong with being a girl? What's wrong with being empathetic, emotional, passionate and alive? All of us are emotional creatures and we need to find the 'girl' in us.
To me, girls are the greatest resource on the planet and have been denied the right to be who they really are by society. I believe if this energy is freed, we will unleash a brilliance you cannot even imagine. It's like unlocking a force like that of wind.
Breaking free from my father's house
I use 'father's house' as a metaphor for what girls settle for. They cling on to the bare minimal that they are given instead of creating a world of their own.
When I was 18 years old, I stood up to my abusive father and told him for the first time in my entire life that he could never touch me again. That was the turning point in my life. I had had enough and I couldn't deal with it anymore.
I had been away to college for a year and by the time I got back I had developed my own support system, a community of people who I knew loved me. I was political and active. I was a feminist creating a new world for myself. I was not afraid to be alone even if my family rejected me. That's what every girl needs – a support system, someone to talk to, to know her rights and not allow people to hurt her.
Breaking the silence
I have been privileged to travel to places like the Congo where economic war had ravaged women's lives and watch these women march against violence and break the silence.
We shouldn't spend our lives reacting to violence or overcoming abuse. We can't devote our lives to recovering when in fact we should be thriving. I believe when you can stop focusing on yourself and help someone else get out of their situation and give them the exact thing you want the most, it will empower you and heal you of your grief, pain and rage.
Being a feminist in a man's world
Most women I speak to want equal rights, equal pay, respect, a voice and not to be abused yet they don't want to be called a feminist! To me feminism is wanting to be treated equal and knowing you deserve it. It is showing solidarity to resilient women around the world who are rising up instead of feeling powerless.
No comments:
Post a Comment