The Author (Eve Ensler)

Eve Ensler is a New York-based actor, playwright, and social activist. Her performance of the original Vagina Monologues in 1998 was, at the time, perceived as brave, ground-breaking, and in the eyes of many conservatives, inappropriate, to say the least. Both the author and her play, however, without originally intending to do so, have become the flagship components of an expanding, world-wide movement known as V-Day, a social activist organization dedicated to ending violence against women in all its forms all over the world.

Throughout the book, the author comes across as both strong willed and humble, determined to fulfill what she evidently perceives as an important mission, which is to empower women both as individuals and as participants in society and, at the same time, willing to acknowledge gaps in her own understanding and experience. This last aspect of her character and work is particularly...