2008 Woodie Awards
Will our Bodies Ever Be Good?
Briana Visone
Issue date: 11/24/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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I have a flabby tummy. I have a big butt. I have large thighs. My breasts are too small. My breasts are too big. These are some of the thoughts women have everyday when they look in the mirror. This is the topic of Eve Ensler's new show The Good Body.
Ms. Ensler is best known for her previous work as creator of The Vagina Monologue. This time around, Eve looks at the rest of the female body. Yet again she uses interviews with people she met in her travels as well as using her own experience to show how women view their own body.
Eve Ensler herself has trouble with her stomach. As she has aged it has become more and more difficult to keep her belly flat, rather than flabby. When visiting in other countries, after eating too many carbohydrates, Ensler would spend days on the treadmill or doing sit-ups.
Many of the stories that people told Ensler were extremely sad. For example, a girl in Italy told Eve about her childhood. She was a tomboy her entire childhood, until she went through puberty. When she grew breasts at an early age, she hated them. When the girl's mother's boyfriend began molesting and having sex with her, she wanted nothing more than to get rid of her large breasts. The girl's mother agreed, and she had surgery to remove them. Yet again she could run and play like a boy, however the boyfriend did not stop leaving her alone. She was not able to stop things from happening to her just by changing her body.
Other women had surgery in order to make themselves more beautiful or more desirable to men and husbands. In the end, these same women were no happier. In fact, the women were more miserable than before the surgery. On her trip, the last country that Ensler went to visit was Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, the women snuck Eve to a restaurant late one night. The women went in the kitchen. The owner of the restaurant was very nervous. The women sat on the floor around a tub. It was there that Eve saw a tub of vanilla ice cream. In Afghanistan women are not allowed to eat ice cream. If the government found out the women were eating ice cream they could possibly be put to death. There was no possible way for Ensler to not eat the ice cream. So she ate it, and enjoyed eating the ice cream without worrying about the calories going to her stomach.
Ms. Ensler is best known for her previous work as creator of The Vagina Monologue. This time around, Eve looks at the rest of the female body. Yet again she uses interviews with people she met in her travels as well as using her own experience to show how women view their own body.
Eve Ensler herself has trouble with her stomach. As she has aged it has become more and more difficult to keep her belly flat, rather than flabby. When visiting in other countries, after eating too many carbohydrates, Ensler would spend days on the treadmill or doing sit-ups.
Many of the stories that people told Ensler were extremely sad. For example, a girl in Italy told Eve about her childhood. She was a tomboy her entire childhood, until she went through puberty. When she grew breasts at an early age, she hated them. When the girl's mother's boyfriend began molesting and having sex with her, she wanted nothing more than to get rid of her large breasts. The girl's mother agreed, and she had surgery to remove them. Yet again she could run and play like a boy, however the boyfriend did not stop leaving her alone. She was not able to stop things from happening to her just by changing her body.
Other women had surgery in order to make themselves more beautiful or more desirable to men and husbands. In the end, these same women were no happier. In fact, the women were more miserable than before the surgery. On her trip, the last country that Ensler went to visit was Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, the women snuck Eve to a restaurant late one night. The women went in the kitchen. The owner of the restaurant was very nervous. The women sat on the floor around a tub. It was there that Eve saw a tub of vanilla ice cream. In Afghanistan women are not allowed to eat ice cream. If the government found out the women were eating ice cream they could possibly be put to death. There was no possible way for Ensler to not eat the ice cream. So she ate it, and enjoyed eating the ice cream without worrying about the calories going to her stomach.