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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Good reflection good to read after a few years - Felt at times that she was a little bit self-centered. Did enjoy the perspective looking outside of the US and looking at the waist the US has negatively impacted people around the world. Good to read some of Eve Ensler’s other work. Pretty good!
Though a tad redundant (if you've read other Ensler books), Eve creates tangible emotion with her poignant memoir. She invites readers to understand and empathize with the real women she's met with. Eve does an excellent job sucking readers in and then making them stay. Overall, great book. I'd definitely read it again.
I'm always a fan of Eve Ensler's books. Her writing style is beautiful, and her message is always powerful. This book is no exception, despite the fact that I'm a bit late to the party in reading it, so it's a bit dated at this point. Nonetheless, the sections where Eve discusses her conversations and experiences with women in war-torn (or to put it in the terms of this book, insecure) places are poignant and inspiring. She has encountered such amazing women around the world, doing unbelievable things even in the midst of unspeakable horrors. The only downside I might suggest that these sections have is that they're very short, and hearing more about the work being done would have been nice.
The other major part of this book is Ensler's reflections on her own largely insecure upbringing. Like the horrible conditions she writes about regarding women in Bosnia, Mexico, and Afghanistan (among others), these sections can be difficult to read as well. The pain of her childhood can be felt in the text, and speak of a very extreme case of just not ever being made to feel that you are good enough, something that I think most everyone can relate to at some point in their life. Ensler's experiences with abuse are a particularly horrible example of this, but the message she gets out of it is powerful: "There is a plan to make you feel ugly and powerless, insignificant and insecure. There is a plan to make you feel like someone or something is coming to fix and rescue you... There is no solution. There is no reason to fix it. No one is smarter or better or on top. You are already enough. Enough."
The other major part of this book is Ensler's reflections on her own largely insecure upbringing. Like the horrible conditions she writes about regarding women in Bosnia, Mexico, and Afghanistan (among others), these sections can be difficult to read as well. The pain of her childhood can be felt in the text, and speak of a very extreme case of just not ever being made to feel that you are good enough, something that I think most everyone can relate to at some point in their life. Ensler's experiences with abuse are a particularly horrible example of this, but the message she gets out of it is powerful: "There is a plan to make you feel ugly and powerless, insignificant and insecure. There is a plan to make you feel like someone or something is coming to fix and rescue you... There is no solution. There is no reason to fix it. No one is smarter or better or on top. You are already enough. Enough."
Love Eve Ensler. While this book is emotionally charged, making it difficult to read at times, Ensler makes very important arguments against the emphasis on security in a post 9/11 U.S. The more we try to obtain it, the less we have.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book was more important for me than I expected it to be. Although I don't always love Ensler's phrasings of things, and I do worry a little about her entering other people's spaces and telling their stories for them, she touches on important topics.
The book is about insecurity, but it's a similar idea to privilege - when you have privilege, you can shut out topics that make you feel insecure and kind of just live inside yourself. But when we're open to being insecure, we can grow and change and love and help.
This book really showed me the blind spots I have about some events; there are many events that happened while I was growing up that weren't really discussed at home, and I now need to read more about. But it was also hopeful. There are so many people around the world dedicating their lives to protecting women, and I hope that eventually systems are built to help them.
The book is about insecurity, but it's a similar idea to privilege - when you have privilege, you can shut out topics that make you feel insecure and kind of just live inside yourself. But when we're open to being insecure, we can grow and change and love and help.
This book really showed me the blind spots I have about some events; there are many events that happened while I was growing up that weren't really discussed at home, and I now need to read more about. But it was also hopeful. There are so many people around the world dedicating their lives to protecting women, and I hope that eventually systems are built to help them.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape
One of the most important books I’ve ever read. It touches the intense beating heart of life...these walls we think protect us are the cages we live in.
Quotes:
“All I wanted was to grow up and not be hit or molested. I lived as a survivor. Happy every day not to be screamed at, ridiculed, beaten, terrorized, or thrown out.”
“It has been my denial itself, not the painful things I had been denying, that had been depressing and isolating me. It had been my clinging to what I instinctively knew were lies and illusions that had reduced and imprisoned me.”
“When your goal is security, anyone who disagrees with you becomes a threat. A grieving mother, wearing a T-shirt, whose son has sacrificed his life for war, gets treated like a criminal.”
“Danger lurks when people are dissociated and detached from their own story or feelings. We were together in the center of their story, in the torrent of their feelings, in the truth of their reality. Naked there, exposed there. If there is any security in this world, it is there.”
“We have all been wrongly manipulated, misguided to believe we are longing for security, when really it is kindness we are after”
“The increasing security of the world can make us insane or can simply clarify reality, which is that we are going to die and it could happen anytime, anywhere.”
“The greed-centered economic policies of multinational corporations in partnership with the U.S. government masquerading as our great protectors cause worldwide starvation, the destruction of the environment, horrendous poverty, illness, illiteracy, the spreading of AIDs and the resulting violence.
If we are truly interested in security, let’s begin with securing all people the basic human right to food, shelter, drinkable water, health care, a place to live, safety, and a livable earth.”
“Let’s take that money and make compassion the end goal, human connection the end goal, honoring all people the end goal.
Then, I promise, we may not know security, but we will certainly know peace.”
Quotes:
“All I wanted was to grow up and not be hit or molested. I lived as a survivor. Happy every day not to be screamed at, ridiculed, beaten, terrorized, or thrown out.”
“It has been my denial itself, not the painful things I had been denying, that had been depressing and isolating me. It had been my clinging to what I instinctively knew were lies and illusions that had reduced and imprisoned me.”
“When your goal is security, anyone who disagrees with you becomes a threat. A grieving mother, wearing a T-shirt, whose son has sacrificed his life for war, gets treated like a criminal.”
“Danger lurks when people are dissociated and detached from their own story or feelings. We were together in the center of their story, in the torrent of their feelings, in the truth of their reality. Naked there, exposed there. If there is any security in this world, it is there.”
“We have all been wrongly manipulated, misguided to believe we are longing for security, when really it is kindness we are after”
“The increasing security of the world can make us insane or can simply clarify reality, which is that we are going to die and it could happen anytime, anywhere.”
“The greed-centered economic policies of multinational corporations in partnership with the U.S. government masquerading as our great protectors cause worldwide starvation, the destruction of the environment, horrendous poverty, illness, illiteracy, the spreading of AIDs and the resulting violence.
If we are truly interested in security, let’s begin with securing all people the basic human right to food, shelter, drinkable water, health care, a place to live, safety, and a livable earth.”
“Let’s take that money and make compassion the end goal, human connection the end goal, honoring all people the end goal.
Then, I promise, we may not know security, but we will certainly know peace.”