Welcome to another Tuesday with TED. Today we are watching writer and activist Eve Ensler who 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 intimate conversations with friends, Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues. The play recounts tender, funny, gripping, and horrifying stories she gathered from hundreds of women about their bodies, their sexual experiences, and yes, their vaginas. Since its first staging in 1996, it has been translated into more than 45 languages, performed in more than 120 countries, and re-created as an HBO film.

The Vagina Monologues‘ success allowed Ensler to create V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, which has so far raised $85 million to prevent violence and protect abused women. In February 2011, Ensler received the Isabelle Stephenson Tony Award for her philanthropic work.

This is a fascinating talk that provides not only the backstory to The Vagina Monologues but also what happened after. Eve Ensler is such an inspiration. Please watch this. You won’t regret it.

If you haven’t seen The Vagina Monologues, you should. I’ve seen it several times and each time it speaks to a very deep part of me, my feminine core. It’s something I truly believe every woman should experience, as uncomfortable as it might be to talk about vaginas (and sex) in public. But really and truly, the show is about the female experience — both good and bad — and these stories need to be told and shared with the world. These stories matter.

So if you haven’t seen it, go see it. And even if you have, go see it again when you get the chance. As I said, these stories matter.

Anyone else love the concept of a vagina warrior?

Until next time,
Cynthia Patton