WEBVTT 00:00:01.388 --> 00:00:02.976 I bet you're worried. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:04.976 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:06.274 I was worried. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:07.157 --> 00:00:08.829 That's why I began this piece. 00:00:08.853 --> 00:00:11.841 I was worried about vaginas. 00:00:12.765 --> 00:00:14.976 I was worried what we think about vaginas 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.242 and even more worried that we don't think about them. 00:00:18.654 --> 00:00:20.829 I was worried about my own vagina. 00:00:20.853 --> 00:00:25.285 It needed a context, a culture, a community of other vaginas. 00:00:26.015 --> 00:00:29.720 There is so much darkness and secrecy surrounding them. 00:00:29.744 --> 00:00:34.392 Like the Bermuda Triangle, nobody ever reports back from there. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:34.416 --> 00:00:35.518 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:35.542 --> 00:00:39.335 In the first place, it's not so easy to even find your vagina. 00:00:39.660 --> 00:00:42.668 Women go days, weeks, months, without looking at it. 00:00:43.136 --> 00:00:45.461 I interviewed a high-powered businesswoman; 00:00:45.485 --> 00:00:47.977 she told me she didn't have time. 00:00:48.001 --> 00:00:50.855 "Looking at your vagina," she said, "is a full day's work." NOTE Paragraph 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:51.976 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.096 "You've got to get down there on your back, in front of a mirror, 00:00:55.120 --> 00:00:56.419 full-length preferred. 00:00:56.443 --> 00:00:59.545 You've got to get in the perfect position with the perfect light, 00:00:59.569 --> 00:01:01.976 which then becomes shadowed by the angle you're at. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.211 You're twisting your head up, arching your back, it's exhausting." 00:01:05.235 --> 00:01:07.354 She was busy; she didn't have time. 00:01:07.878 --> 00:01:10.703 So I decided to talk to women about their vaginas. 00:01:11.068 --> 00:01:14.036 They began as casual vagina interviews, 00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:16.740 and they turned into vagina monologues. 00:01:16.764 --> 00:01:18.984 I talked with over 200 women. 00:01:19.008 --> 00:01:21.409 I talked to older women, younger women, 00:01:21.433 --> 00:01:24.139 married women, lesbians, single women. 00:01:24.163 --> 00:01:28.976 I talked to corporate professionals, college professors, actors, sex workers. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.507 I talked to African-American women, Asian-American women, 00:01:32.531 --> 00:01:36.389 Native-American women, Caucasian women, Jewish women. 00:01:36.762 --> 00:01:41.592 OK, at first women were a little shy, a little reluctant to talk. 00:01:42.052 --> 00:01:44.724 Once they got going, you couldn't stop them. 00:01:45.192 --> 00:01:48.458 Women love to talk about their vaginas, they do. 00:01:49.121 --> 00:01:51.560 Mainly because no one's ever asked them before. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:51.584 --> 00:01:52.654 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:52.678 --> 00:01:57.585 Let's just start with the word "vagina" -- vagina, vagina. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:00.195 It sounds like an infection, at best. 00:02:00.880 --> 00:02:02.576 Maybe a medical instrument. 00:02:02.600 --> 00:02:04.360 "Hurry, nurse, bring the vagina!" NOTE Paragraph 00:02:04.384 --> 00:02:05.445 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:05.469 --> 00:02:07.040 Vagina, vagina, vagina. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:07.064 --> 00:02:09.603 It doesn't matter how many times you say the word, 00:02:09.627 --> 00:02:11.976 it never sounds like a word you want to say. 00:02:12.307 --> 00:02:16.482 It's a completely ridiculous, totally un-sexy word. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:20.071 If you use it during sex, trying to be politically correct, 00:02:20.095 --> 00:02:23.306 "Darling, would you stroke my vagina," 00:02:23.330 --> 00:02:25.423 you kill the act right there. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:25.447 --> 00:02:27.117 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:27.141 --> 00:02:30.439 I'm worried what we call them and don't call them. 00:02:30.817 --> 00:02:33.551 In Great Neck, New York, they call it a Pussycat. 00:02:33.575 --> 00:02:35.976 A woman told me there her mother used to tell her, 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:38.408 "Don't wear panties, dear, underneath your pajamas. 00:02:38.432 --> 00:02:40.218 You need to air out your Pussycat." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:40.242 --> 00:02:43.976 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.690 In Westchester, they call it a Pooki, NOTE Paragraph 00:02:46.714 --> 00:02:48.514 in New Jersey, a twat. 00:02:48.878 --> 00:02:53.188 There's Powderbox, derriere, a Pooky, a Poochi, a Poopi, 00:02:53.212 --> 00:02:57.687 a Poopelu, a Pooninana, a Padepachetchki, a Pal, and a Piche. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:57.711 --> 00:02:59.163 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:59.187 --> 00:03:04.587 There's Toadie, Dee Dee, Nishi, Dignity, Coochi Snorcher, 00:03:04.611 --> 00:03:09.457 Cooter, Labbe, Gladys Seagelman, VA, 00:03:09.481 --> 00:03:13.976 Wee wee, Horsespot, Nappy Dugout, 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:20.206 Mongo, Ghoulie, Powderbox, a Mimi in Miami, 00:03:20.230 --> 00:03:22.337 a Split Knish in Philadelphia ... 00:03:22.361 --> 00:03:23.448 (Laughter) 00:03:23.472 --> 00:03:25.358 and a Schmende in the Bronx. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:25.382 --> 00:03:26.574 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:26.598 --> 00:03:28.547 I am worried about vaginas. 00:03:29.638 --> 00:03:31.848 This is how the "Vagina Monologues" begins. 00:03:32.444 --> 00:03:35.050 But it really didn't begin there. 00:03:35.074 --> 00:03:38.398 It began with a conversation with a woman. 00:03:38.723 --> 00:03:41.212 We were having a conversation about menopause, 00:03:41.236 --> 00:03:43.267 and we got onto the subject of her vagina, 00:03:43.291 --> 00:03:45.640 which you'll do if you're talking about menopause. 00:03:45.664 --> 00:03:48.602 And she said things that really shocked me about her vagina -- 00:03:48.626 --> 00:03:50.745 that it was dried-up and finished and dead -- 00:03:50.769 --> 00:03:52.022 and I was kind of shocked. 00:03:52.046 --> 00:03:53.720 So I said to a friend casually, 00:03:53.744 --> 00:03:55.798 "Well, what do you think about your vagina?" 00:03:55.822 --> 00:03:57.840 And that woman said something more amazing, 00:03:57.864 --> 00:04:00.298 and then the next woman said something more amazing, 00:04:00.322 --> 00:04:02.566 and before I knew it, every woman was telling me 00:04:02.590 --> 00:04:04.667 I had to talk to somebody about their vagina 00:04:04.691 --> 00:04:06.318 because they had an amazing story, 00:04:06.342 --> 00:04:08.225 and I was sucked down the vagina trail. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:08.249 --> 00:04:09.559 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:09.583 --> 00:04:12.016 And I really haven't gotten off of it. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:12.040 --> 00:04:14.148 I think if you had told me when I was younger 00:04:14.172 --> 00:04:16.560 that I was going to grow up, and be in shoe stores, 00:04:16.584 --> 00:04:19.450 and people would scream out, "There she is, the Vagina Lady!" 00:04:19.474 --> 00:04:22.111 I don't know that that would have been my life ambition. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:22.135 --> 00:04:23.138 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:23.162 --> 00:04:25.409 But I want to talk a little bit about happiness, 00:04:25.433 --> 00:04:27.786 and the relationship to this whole vagina journey, 00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:29.890 because it has been an extraordinary journey 00:04:29.914 --> 00:04:31.606 that began eight years ago. 00:04:31.630 --> 00:04:33.896 I think before I did the "Vagina Monologues," 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:36.724 I didn't really believe in happiness. 00:04:36.748 --> 00:04:39.774 I thought that only idiots were happy, to be honest. 00:04:39.798 --> 00:04:43.592 I remember when I started practicing Buddhism 14 years ago, 00:04:43.616 --> 00:04:46.819 and I was told that the end of this practice was to be happy, 00:04:46.843 --> 00:04:50.191 I said, "How could you be happy and live in this world of suffering 00:04:50.215 --> 00:04:52.027 and live in this world of pain?" 00:04:52.051 --> 00:04:55.976 I mistook happiness for a lot of other things, 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.278 like numbness or decadence or selfishness. 00:04:59.723 --> 00:05:02.690 And what happened through the course of the "Vagina Monologues" 00:05:02.714 --> 00:05:05.251 and this journey is, I think I have come to understand 00:05:05.275 --> 00:05:07.514 a little bit more about happiness. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:07.538 --> 00:05:09.976 There are three qualities I want to talk about. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.913 One is seeing what's right in front of you, 00:05:13.937 --> 00:05:16.395 and talking about it, and stating it. 00:05:16.419 --> 00:05:18.976 I think what I learned from talking about the vagina 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.143 and speaking about the vagina, is it was the most obvious thing -- 00:05:22.167 --> 00:05:25.406 it was right in the center of my body and the center of the world -- 00:05:25.430 --> 00:05:28.206 and yet it was the one thing nobody talked about. 00:05:28.230 --> 00:05:32.483 The second thing is that what talking about the vagina did 00:05:32.507 --> 00:05:35.418 is it opened this door which allowed me to see 00:05:35.442 --> 00:05:38.463 that there was a way to serve the world to make it better. 00:05:38.487 --> 00:05:41.976 And that's where the deepest happiness has actually come from. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.707 And the third principle of happiness, which I've realized recently: NOTE Paragraph 00:05:45.731 --> 00:05:49.976 Eight years ago, this momentum and this energy, this "V-wave" started -- 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.230 and I can only describe it as a "V-wave" because, to be honest, 00:05:53.254 --> 00:05:56.976 I really don't understand it completely; I feel at the service of it. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:59.976 But this wave started, and if I question the wave, 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.438 or try to stop the wave or look back at the wave, 00:06:03.462 --> 00:06:05.976 I often have the experience of whiplash 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.252 or the potential of my neck breaking. 00:06:08.276 --> 00:06:09.626 But if I go with the wave, 00:06:09.650 --> 00:06:12.044 and I trust the wave and I move with the wave, 00:06:12.068 --> 00:06:16.575 I go to the next place, and it happens logically and organically and truthfully. 00:06:16.599 --> 00:06:22.301 And I started this piece, particularly with stories and narratives, 00:06:22.325 --> 00:06:25.159 and I was talking to one woman and that led to another woman 00:06:25.183 --> 00:06:27.001 and that led to another woman. 00:06:27.025 --> 00:06:28.870 And then I wrote those stories down, 00:06:28.894 --> 00:06:31.096 and I put them out in front of other people. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:33.692 And every single time I did the show at the beginning, 00:06:33.716 --> 00:06:36.394 women would literally line up after the show, 00:06:36.418 --> 00:06:38.653 because they wanted to tell me their stories. 00:06:38.677 --> 00:06:41.987 And at first I thought, "Oh great, I'll hear about wonderful orgasms, 00:06:42.011 --> 00:06:44.613 and great sex lives, and how women love their vaginas." 00:06:44.637 --> 00:06:47.976 But in fact, that's not what women lined up to tell me. 00:06:48.310 --> 00:06:51.402 What women lined up to tell me was how they were raped, 00:06:51.426 --> 00:06:53.904 and how they were battered, and how they were beaten, 00:06:53.928 --> 00:06:56.086 and how they were gang-raped in parking lots, 00:06:56.110 --> 00:06:58.131 and how they were incested by their uncles. 00:06:58.155 --> 00:07:00.853 And I wanted to stop doing the "Vagina Monologues," 00:07:00.877 --> 00:07:02.282 because it felt too daunting. 00:07:02.306 --> 00:07:05.773 I felt like a war photographer who takes pictures of terrible events, 00:07:05.797 --> 00:07:08.156 but doesn't intervene on their behalf. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:12.397 And so in 1997, I said, "Let's get women together. 00:07:12.421 --> 00:07:14.597 What could we do with this information 00:07:14.621 --> 00:07:17.165 that all these women are being violated?" 00:07:17.537 --> 00:07:20.722 And it turned out, after thinking and investigating, 00:07:20.746 --> 00:07:24.143 that I discovered -- and the UN has actually said this recently -- 00:07:24.167 --> 00:07:26.976 that one out of every three women on this planet 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.580 will be beaten or raped in her lifetime. 00:07:30.103 --> 00:07:31.667 That's essentially a gender; 00:07:31.691 --> 00:07:35.086 that's essentially the resource of the planet, which is women. 00:07:35.110 --> 00:07:38.282 So in 1997 we got all these incredible women together and we said, 00:07:38.306 --> 00:07:42.421 "How can we use the play, this energy, to stop violence against women?" 00:07:42.771 --> 00:07:45.446 And we put on one event in New York City, in the theater, 00:07:45.470 --> 00:07:48.061 and all these great actors came -- from Susan Sarandon, 00:07:48.085 --> 00:07:49.895 to Glenn Close, to Whoopi Goldberg -- 00:07:49.919 --> 00:07:52.759 and we did one performance on one evening, 00:07:52.783 --> 00:07:56.638 and that catalyzed this wave, this energy. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.051 And within five years, NOTE Paragraph 00:07:59.075 --> 00:08:01.540 this extraordinary thing began to happen. 00:08:01.564 --> 00:08:04.976 One woman took that energy and she said, "I want to bring this wave, 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.565 this energy, to college campuses," 00:08:07.589 --> 00:08:09.607 and so she took the play and she said, 00:08:09.631 --> 00:08:12.804 "Let's use the play and have performances once a year, 00:08:12.828 --> 00:08:15.417 where we can raise money to stop violence against women 00:08:15.441 --> 00:08:17.651 in local communities all around the world." 00:08:17.675 --> 00:08:20.834 And in one year, it went to 50 colleges, and then it expanded. 00:08:21.167 --> 00:08:23.447 And over the course of the last six years, 00:08:23.471 --> 00:08:26.747 it's spread and it's spread and it's spread around the world. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:27.390 --> 00:08:30.981 What I have learned is two things: 00:08:31.005 --> 00:08:36.976 one, that the epidemic of violence towards women is shocking; it's global; 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.048 it is so profound and it is so devastating, 00:08:39.072 --> 00:08:41.976 and it is so in every little pocket of every little crater, 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.667 of every little society that we don't even recognize it, 00:08:44.691 --> 00:08:46.191 because it's become ordinary. 00:08:46.854 --> 00:08:49.755 This journey has taken me to Afghanistan, 00:08:49.779 --> 00:08:52.508 where I had the extraordinary honor and privilege 00:08:52.532 --> 00:08:56.857 to go into parts of Afghanistan under the Taliban. 00:08:56.881 --> 00:09:00.525 I was dressed in a burqa and I went in with an extraordinary group, 00:09:00.549 --> 00:09:03.918 called the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. 00:09:03.942 --> 00:09:06.976 And I saw firsthand how women had been stripped 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:11.165 of every single right that was possible to strip women of -- 00:09:11.189 --> 00:09:13.696 from being educated, to being employed, 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:16.346 to being actually allowed to eat ice cream. 00:09:16.723 --> 00:09:18.264 For those of you who don't know, 00:09:18.288 --> 00:09:20.636 it was illegal to eat ice cream under the Taliban. 00:09:20.660 --> 00:09:24.436 And I actually saw and met women who had been flogged 00:09:24.460 --> 00:09:26.771 for being caught eating vanilla ice cream. 00:09:26.795 --> 00:09:31.197 I was taken to the secret ice cream-eating place in a little town, 00:09:31.221 --> 00:09:34.064 where we went to a back room, and women were seated 00:09:34.088 --> 00:09:37.820 and a curtain was pulled around us, and they were served vanilla ice cream. 00:09:37.844 --> 00:09:41.260 And women lifted their burqas and ate this ice cream. 00:09:41.284 --> 00:09:44.404 And I don't think I ever understood pleasure until that moment, 00:09:44.428 --> 00:09:47.976 and how women have found a way to keep their pleasure alive. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.548 It has taken me, this journey, to Islamabad, 00:09:50.572 --> 00:09:54.209 where I have witnessed and met women with their faces melted off. 00:09:54.233 --> 00:09:58.085 It has taken me to Juarez, Mexico, where I was a week ago, 00:09:58.109 --> 00:10:00.730 where I have literally been there in parking lots, 00:10:00.754 --> 00:10:02.603 where bones of women have washed up 00:10:02.627 --> 00:10:06.196 and been dumped next to Coca-Cola bottles. 00:10:06.672 --> 00:10:09.675 It has taken me to universities all over this country, 00:10:09.699 --> 00:10:12.191 where girls are date-raped and drugged. 00:10:12.215 --> 00:10:15.976 I have seen terrible, terrible, terrible violence. 00:10:16.376 --> 00:10:20.279 But I have also recognized, in the course of seeing that violence, 00:10:20.303 --> 00:10:24.921 that being in the face of things and seeing actually what's in front of us 00:10:24.945 --> 00:10:27.781 is the antidote to depression, 00:10:27.805 --> 00:10:30.976 and to a feeling that one is worthless and has no value. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:32.976 Because before the "Vagina Monologues," 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.976 I will say that 80 percent of my consciousness was closed off 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:38.834 to what was really going on in this reality, 00:10:38.858 --> 00:10:43.180 and that closing-off closed off my vitality and my life energy. 00:10:43.707 --> 00:10:46.517 What has also happened is in the course of these travels -- 00:10:46.541 --> 00:10:49.073 and it's been an extraordinary thing -- 00:10:49.097 --> 00:10:51.987 is that every single place that I have gone to in the world, 00:10:52.011 --> 00:10:53.423 I have met a new species. 00:10:53.447 --> 00:10:57.161 And I really love hearing about all these species at the bottom of the sea. 00:10:57.185 --> 00:11:00.544 And I was thinking about how being with these extraordinary people 00:11:00.568 --> 00:11:02.202 on this particular panel, 00:11:02.226 --> 00:11:04.976 that it's beneath, beyond and between, 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:07.976 and the vagina kind of fits into all those categories. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:09.462 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:11:09.486 --> 00:11:11.976 But one of the things I've seen is this species -- 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.975 and it is a species, and it is a new paradigm, 00:11:14.999 --> 00:11:17.633 and it doesn't get reported in the press or in the media 00:11:17.657 --> 00:11:20.695 because I don't think good news ever is news, 00:11:20.719 --> 00:11:23.362 and I don't think people who are transforming the planet 00:11:23.386 --> 00:11:26.267 are what gets the ratings on TV shows. 00:11:26.291 --> 00:11:28.315 But every single country I have been to -- 00:11:28.339 --> 00:11:31.244 and in the last six years, I've been to about 45 countries, 00:11:31.268 --> 00:11:34.322 and many tiny little villages and cities and towns -- 00:11:34.346 --> 00:11:38.094 I have seen something what I've come to call "vagina warriors." 00:11:38.118 --> 00:11:42.293 A "vagina warrior" is a woman, or a vagina-friendly man, 00:11:42.317 --> 00:11:45.911 who has witnessed incredible violence or suffered it, 00:11:45.935 --> 00:11:50.306 and rather than getting an AK-47 or a weapon of mass destruction 00:11:50.330 --> 00:11:52.770 or a machete, 00:11:52.794 --> 00:11:55.531 they hold the violence in their bodies; 00:11:55.555 --> 00:11:59.659 they grieve it; they experience it; and then they go out 00:11:59.683 --> 00:12:03.916 and devote their lives to making sure it doesn't happen to anybody else. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:03.940 --> 00:12:06.660 I have met these women everywhere on the planet, 00:12:06.684 --> 00:12:08.446 and I want to tell a few stories, 00:12:08.470 --> 00:12:11.976 because I believe that stories are the way that we transmit information, 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.193 where it goes into our bodies. 00:12:14.217 --> 00:12:18.184 And I think one of the things about being at TED that's been very interesting 00:12:18.208 --> 00:12:20.118 is that I live in my body a lot, 00:12:20.142 --> 00:12:22.384 and I don't live in my head very much anymore. 00:12:22.408 --> 00:12:24.217 And this is a very heady place. 00:12:24.241 --> 00:12:26.687 And it's been really interesting to be in my head 00:12:26.711 --> 00:12:29.429 for the last two days; I've been very disoriented -- 00:12:29.453 --> 00:12:30.454 (Laughter) 00:12:30.478 --> 00:12:33.976 because I think the world, the V-world, is very much in your body. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.828 It's a body world, and the species really exists in the body. 00:12:37.852 --> 00:12:42.161 And I think there's a real significance in us attaching our bodies to our heads, 00:12:42.185 --> 00:12:45.291 that that separation has created a divide 00:12:45.315 --> 00:12:48.821 that is often separating purpose from intent. 00:12:48.845 --> 00:12:51.991 And the connection between body and head 00:12:52.015 --> 00:12:54.259 often brings those things into union. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:54.735 --> 00:12:57.782 I want to talk about three particular people that I've met, 00:12:57.806 --> 00:13:01.355 vagina warriors, who really transformed my understanding 00:13:01.379 --> 00:13:03.339 of this whole principle and species, 00:13:03.363 --> 00:13:05.703 and one is a woman named Marsha Lopez. 00:13:06.251 --> 00:13:09.312 Marsha Lopez was a woman I met in Guatemala. 00:13:09.336 --> 00:13:12.364 She was 14 years old, and she was in a marriage 00:13:12.388 --> 00:13:15.388 and her husband was beating her on a regular basis. 00:13:15.412 --> 00:13:16.881 And she couldn't get out, 00:13:16.905 --> 00:13:19.023 because she was addicted to the relationship, 00:13:19.047 --> 00:13:20.325 and she had no money. 00:13:20.349 --> 00:13:22.818 Her sister was younger than her, and she applied -- 00:13:22.842 --> 00:13:26.976 we had a "Stop Rape" contest a few years ago in New York -- 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.976 and she applied, hoping that she would become a finalist 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.842 and she could bring her sister. 00:13:31.866 --> 00:13:35.976 She did become a finalist; she brought Marsha to New York. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:37.245 And at that time, 00:13:37.269 --> 00:13:39.960 we did this extraordinary V-Day at Madison Square Garden, 00:13:39.984 --> 00:13:43.045 where we sold out the entire testosterone-filled dome -- 00:13:43.069 --> 00:13:46.656 18,000 people standing up to say "Yes" to vaginas, 00:13:46.680 --> 00:13:49.414 which was really a pretty incredible transformation. 00:13:49.438 --> 00:13:51.257 And she came, and she witnessed this, 00:13:51.281 --> 00:13:54.367 and she decided that she would go back and leave her husband, 00:13:54.391 --> 00:13:56.454 and that she would bring V-Day to Guatemala. 00:13:56.478 --> 00:13:58.051 She was 21 years old. 00:13:58.075 --> 00:14:03.269 I went to Guatemala and she had sold out the National Theater of Guatemala. 00:14:03.293 --> 00:14:07.727 And I watched her walk up on stage in her red short dress and high heels, 00:14:07.751 --> 00:14:11.232 and she stood there and said, "My name is Marsha. 00:14:11.256 --> 00:14:15.017 I was beaten by my husband for five years. He almost murdered me. 00:14:15.041 --> 00:14:17.198 I left and you can, too." 00:14:17.556 --> 00:14:20.802 And the entire 2,000 people went absolutely crazy. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:21.325 --> 00:14:24.817 There's a woman named Esther Chávez who I met in Juarez, Mexico. 00:14:24.841 --> 00:14:28.076 And Esther Chávez was a brilliant accountant in Mexico City. 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:31.155 She was 72 years old and she was planning to retire. 00:14:31.527 --> 00:14:35.101 She went to Juarez to take care of an ailing aunt, 00:14:35.125 --> 00:14:38.197 and in the course of it, she began to discover what was happening 00:14:38.221 --> 00:14:41.590 to the murdered and disappeared women of Juarez. 00:14:41.614 --> 00:14:44.336 She gave up her life; she moved to Juarez. 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:48.453 She started to write the stories which documented the disappeared women. 00:14:48.477 --> 00:14:52.092 300 women have disappeared in a border town because they're brown and poor. 00:14:52.116 --> 00:14:54.378 There has been no response to the disappearance, 00:14:54.402 --> 00:14:56.639 and not one person has been held accountable. 00:14:56.663 --> 00:14:58.177 She began to document it. 00:14:58.201 --> 00:15:01.780 She opened a center called Casa Amiga, and in six years, 00:15:01.804 --> 00:15:05.164 she has literally brought this to the consciousness of the world. 00:15:05.188 --> 00:15:06.577 We were there a week ago, 00:15:06.601 --> 00:15:10.287 when there were 7,000 people in the street, and it was truly a miracle. 00:15:10.311 --> 00:15:12.151 And as we walked through the streets, 00:15:12.175 --> 00:15:15.386 the people of Juarez, who normally don't even come into the streets, 00:15:15.410 --> 00:15:17.188 because the streets are so dangerous, 00:15:17.212 --> 00:15:18.824 literally stood there and wept, 00:15:18.848 --> 00:15:21.389 to see that other people from the world had showed up 00:15:21.413 --> 00:15:23.099 for that particular community. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:23.810 --> 00:15:25.533 There's another woman, named Agnes. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:25.557 --> 00:15:30.218 And Agnes, for me, epitomizes what a vagina warrior is. 00:15:30.242 --> 00:15:32.992 I met her three years ago in Kenya. 00:15:33.016 --> 00:15:35.976 And Agnes was mutilated as a little girl; 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:40.609 she was circumcised against her will when she was 10 years old, 00:15:40.633 --> 00:15:42.133 and she really made a decision 00:15:42.157 --> 00:15:45.976 that she didn't want this practice to continue anymore in her community. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:49.111 So when she got older, she created this incredible thing: 00:15:49.135 --> 00:15:54.428 it's an anatomical sculpture of a woman's body, half a woman's body. 00:15:54.452 --> 00:15:56.580 And she walked through the Rift Valley, 00:15:56.604 --> 00:15:59.976 and she had vagina and vagina replacement parts, 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.829 where she would teach girls and parents and boys and girls 00:16:02.853 --> 00:16:06.309 what a healthy vagina looks like, and what a mutilated vagina looks like. 00:16:06.333 --> 00:16:07.976 And in the course of her travel -- 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.039 she walked literally for eight years through the Rift Valley, 00:16:11.063 --> 00:16:13.324 through dust, through sleeping on the ground, 00:16:13.348 --> 00:16:15.523 because the Maasai are nomads, 00:16:15.547 --> 00:16:18.976 and she would have to find them, and they would move, 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:20.638 and she would find them again -- 00:16:20.662 --> 00:16:23.557 she saved 1,500 girls from being cut. 00:16:23.946 --> 00:16:26.527 And in that time, she created an alternative ritual, 00:16:26.551 --> 00:16:29.876 which involved girls coming of age without the cut. 00:16:29.900 --> 00:16:31.976 When we met her three years ago, 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:33.913 we said, "What could V-Day do for you?" 00:16:33.937 --> 00:16:37.553 And she said, "Well, if you got me a jeep, I could get around a lot faster." NOTE Paragraph 00:16:37.577 --> 00:16:38.578 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:16:38.602 --> 00:16:39.917 So we bought her a jeep. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:39.941 --> 00:16:44.223 And in the year that she had the jeep, she saved 4,500 girls from being cut. 00:16:44.550 --> 00:16:47.012 So we said to her, "What else could we do for you?" 00:16:47.036 --> 00:16:49.298 She said, "Well, Eve, if you gave me some money, 00:16:49.322 --> 00:16:51.472 I could open a house and girls could run away, 00:16:51.496 --> 00:16:52.890 and they could be saved." 00:16:53.224 --> 00:16:56.105 And I want to tell this little story about my own beginnings, 00:16:56.129 --> 00:17:00.423 because it's very interrelated to happiness and Agnes. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:00.447 --> 00:17:04.131 When I was a little girl -- I grew up in a wealthy community; NOTE Paragraph 00:17:04.155 --> 00:17:07.376 it was an upper-middle class white community, 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:10.259 and it had all the trappings and the looks 00:17:10.283 --> 00:17:13.918 of a perfectly nice, wonderful, great life. 00:17:14.259 --> 00:17:16.886 And everyone was supposed to be happy in that community, 00:17:16.910 --> 00:17:18.491 and, in fact, my life was hell. 00:17:18.515 --> 00:17:20.048 I lived with an alcoholic father 00:17:20.072 --> 00:17:22.976 who beat me and molested me, and it was all inside that. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:27.976 And always as a child I had this fantasy that somebody would come and rescue me. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:31.620 And I actually made up a little character whose name was Mr. Alligator. 00:17:31.644 --> 00:17:33.976 I would call him up when things got really bad, 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.163 and say it was time to come and pick me up. 00:17:36.187 --> 00:17:39.976 And I would pack a little bag and wait for Mr. Alligator to come. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.182 Now, Mr. Alligator never did come, 00:17:42.206 --> 00:17:46.680 but the idea of Mr. Alligator coming actually saved my sanity 00:17:46.704 --> 00:17:48.466 and made it OK for me to keep going, 00:17:48.490 --> 00:17:50.221 because I believed, in the distance, 00:17:50.245 --> 00:17:52.976 there would be someone coming to rescue me. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.469 Cut to 40-some odd years later, 00:17:55.493 --> 00:17:58.723 we go to Kenya, and we're walking, 00:17:58.747 --> 00:18:01.125 we arrive at the opening of this house. 00:18:01.490 --> 00:18:03.907 And Agnes hadn't let me come to the house for days, 00:18:03.931 --> 00:18:06.084 because they were preparing this whole ritual. 00:18:06.108 --> 00:18:07.698 I want to tell you a great story. 00:18:07.722 --> 00:18:09.344 When Agnes first started fighting 00:18:09.368 --> 00:18:11.869 to stop female genital mutilation in her community, 00:18:11.893 --> 00:18:15.432 she had become an outcast, and she was exiled and slandered, 00:18:15.456 --> 00:18:17.487 and the whole community turned against her. 00:18:17.511 --> 00:18:19.869 But being a vagina warrior, she kept going, 00:18:19.893 --> 00:18:23.242 and she kept committing herself to transforming consciousness. 00:18:23.266 --> 00:18:24.874 And in the Maasai community, 00:18:24.898 --> 00:18:27.699 goats and cows are the most valued possession. 00:18:27.723 --> 00:18:31.976 They're like the Mercedes-Benz of the Rift Valley. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.886 And she said two days before the house opened, 00:18:34.910 --> 00:18:37.773 two different people arrived to give her a goat each, 00:18:37.797 --> 00:18:38.948 and she said to me, 00:18:38.972 --> 00:18:43.378 "I knew then that female genital mutilation would end one day in Africa." NOTE Paragraph 00:18:43.786 --> 00:18:47.484 Anyway, we arrived, and when we arrived, 00:18:47.508 --> 00:18:51.238 there were hundreds of girls dressed in red homemade dresses -- 00:18:51.262 --> 00:18:54.172 which is the color of the Maasai and the color of V-Day -- 00:18:54.196 --> 00:18:55.538 and they greeted us. 00:18:55.562 --> 00:18:58.014 They had made up these songs that they were singing, 00:18:58.038 --> 00:19:00.591 about the end of suffering and the end of mutilation, 00:19:00.615 --> 00:19:02.310 and they walked us down the path. 00:19:02.334 --> 00:19:04.699 It was a gorgeous day in the African sun, 00:19:04.723 --> 00:19:07.176 and the dust was flying and the girls were dancing, 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:11.726 and there was this house, and it said, "V-Day Safe House for the Girls." NOTE Paragraph 00:19:11.750 --> 00:19:17.052 And it hit me in that moment that it had taken 47 years, 00:19:17.076 --> 00:19:19.679 but that Mr. Alligator had finally shown up. 00:19:20.219 --> 00:19:22.101 And he had shown up, obviously, 00:19:22.125 --> 00:19:25.521 in a form that it took me a long time to understand, 00:19:25.545 --> 00:19:30.651 which is that when we give in the world what we want the most, 00:19:30.675 --> 00:19:33.976 we heal the broken part inside each of us. 00:19:34.483 --> 00:19:36.857 And I feel, in the last eight years, 00:19:36.881 --> 00:19:39.976 that this journey -- this miraculous vagina journey -- 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.802 has taught me this really simple thing, 00:19:42.826 --> 00:19:47.249 which is that happiness exists in action; 00:19:47.273 --> 00:19:51.408 it exists in telling the truth and saying what your truth is; 00:19:51.432 --> 00:19:54.976 and it exists in giving away what you want the most. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:58.976 And I feel that knowledge and that journey 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:01.453 has been an extraordinary privilege, 00:20:01.477 --> 00:20:03.071 and I feel really blessed 00:20:03.095 --> 00:20:05.515 to have been here today to communicate that to you. 00:20:05.539 --> 00:20:06.704 Thank you very much. NOTE Paragraph 00:20:06.728 --> 00:20:08.904 (Applause)