Ensler's purpose when it comes to The Vagina Monologues is to raise awareness of violence against women and to also celebrate being female. All of the stories within the collection bring attention to one of these two topics, although I feel more of them are focused around raising awareness. Her bias is always to make a woman feel comfortable with expressing the people that have put their vaginas down through out their life. Very few of the stories actually celebrate how wonderful the organ is. Most of them are a combination. Ensler will tell about the hardships these women have faced and (sometimes) how they've overcome them. She will also tell about discovery of self through the vagina. She tells of ways to become whole and complete as a women and as a human by sexually exposing oneself in a healthy manner. She wants women to experience what it is to love your vagina and know exactly what it looks/feels like.
At different points through out the book Ensler includes "Vagina Facts". This is what I think kind of sets the tone for the book. Although the stories range from self-discovery to mutilation, these facts make the mix a bit unbalanced. With the inclusion of these facts the reader gets a sense of how the vagina is seen/valued/hated across the world. They tend to lay on the side of violence and mutilation. This changes the purpose of her writing from celebration to awareness. She talks a lot about the genital cutting in Africa. These "Vagina Fact" portions describe how women in Africa view their vaginas and in the stories that follow it shows how these women are mistreated and abused. I feel that this really sets the tone for most of the book and pushes her purpose towards violence.
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