Eve Ensler On Happiness In Body And Soul

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

This 2004 TED Talk could equally be called "Eve Ensler's Journey To Help Stop Violence Against Women And Girls." Playwright and actress Ensler, who was abused as a child, is a master storyteller with a passion for changing the plight of violated women around the world. Her talk is at once tragic, funny and touching.

Eve Ensler, creator of "The Vagina Monologues," shares how a discussion about menopause with her friends led to talking about all sorts of sexual acts onstage, waging a global campaign to end violence toward women and finding her own happiness.

Inspired by a few intimate conversations with friends about -- gasp! -- their vaginas, Eve Ensler created the Obie Award-winning solo piece Vagina Monologues, in which she recounts tender, funny, gripping and horrifying stories women have told her about their bodies, their sexual experiences, and yes, that (until then at least), secret place the lies between women's thighs.

Since its first staging in 1996 in New York, the play has been translated into more than 45 languages, and performed in more than 120 countries.

Vagina Monologues' success helped Ensler to create V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women and girls, which has so far raised (and donated) more than $60 million for campaigns that raise awareness and take direct action toward preventing violence and protecting abused women (by building safe houses, for example).

Ensler has also drawn praise for The Good Body, a play that cuts to women's obsession with their appearance, and her book Insecure at Last, a scathing look at the measures being taken in the name of safety.