Can one learn to see beauty?
Eve Ensler
© Edition NautilusChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Mrs. Ensler, how do you define beauty?
Eve Ensler: For me, a person becomes beautiful by how he acts, how he moves in the world, how lovingly he behaves toward other people. A few months ago, I met a doctor in Congo who treated women who had experienced brutal rape. And this man was so kind in his dealings with the women, in the way he talked to them, how he held them, touched and hugged me, that at some point I thought: That's the most beautiful man I've ever met. I did not even think about it being physically attractive until someone said to me, "Well, he looks pretty good." But that did not matter to me. I would like to have a beauty ideal that is based on people's actions, not their looks.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: In the past, you have beautified beauty but by appearances: You wrote a play with "The Good Body" about how fanatically you fought your belly fat.
Eve Ensler: Yes, that's right. When I started "The Good Body," I wanted to explore why I was so obsessed with my stomach. I wrote to him every day, in a kind of diary, and my stomach wrote back to me.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Really? And what did he have to say?
Eve Ensler: My stomach told me why he was so confused and disturbed, why he hated himself so much and what was in him that did not belong there. These were childhood traumas, but also ideals and ideas that other people had hammered into me. And then I sorted out what was really part of me and what came from the outside. About this dream to be super thin: Was this my own dream? Or the dream of my father? My dad did not like to eat, and he did not like it when people ate. I had internalized that, but it was not really mine.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Sounds like a lengthy process of finding your own body beautifully ...
Eve Ensler: I've been trying for a long time to get out of this dilemma of self-hatred and self-destruction, where many women are in Western societies. It was a long way, and that meant that I was honest with what I felt about my body. Meanwhile, I feel almost free. I take good care of my body, I eat healthy and do sports because I travel almost 200 days a year, so I just have to be in good shape.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: And are you not thinking about your stomach today?
Eve Ensler: I've learned to focus on other things. Of course, there are days when I am standing in front of the mirror in the morning and I think: Uh! But then I shrug. Most of the time I like my body today; I am really thankful that I have a body and that he goes to work every morning, supplies me with oxygen and transports me from A to B.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Why do women spend so much time chasing an unattainable ideal of beauty?
Eve Ensler: We live in a world that is constantly trying to convince us that we are not what we should look like. We see the pictures everywhere, in advertising, magazines, on television, in the star culture, in the shops, and it is incredibly difficult to escape this requirement. I always blaspheme that there are only six women in Iceland who correspond to the common ideal of beauty: tall, very slim, fair-skinned, fair-haired. The vast majority of people on our planet are small, dark and plump. The beauty mania distracts us women. And it keeps us from claiming the power in the world we deserve.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: This is an old feminist argument, but it does not explain why most women like to enjoy themselves so often.
Eve Ensler: There is a difference between compulsive work on one's own body, where diet, exercise or botox injections become the sole purpose of life, and a ritual beauty treatment that gives women pleasure for themselves. As a woman, you can definitely take a place in the world, develop ideas, exercise power and even have well-groomed toenails.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: They claim in "The Good Body" that our beauty ideal has a lot to do with the expectations of women to always be good, kind and good. Where exactly do you see the connection?
Eve Ensler: We are still living in a male-dominated world and women are not taught to be loud, wild and demanding. No, we should be quiet, keep our legs closed, behave decently - we can go over the whole list. And the beauty ideal of being thin fits in very well. Women should be thin so they do not take up too much space in the world. At the moment, the trend is for women to become fewer and fewer, and when you look at the young girls, who starve themselves to death, you can see that they have less strength because they do not eat, and so, too can move less in the world.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: But even in the fashion industry is currently debating about the skinny models and their harmful role model effect.
Eve Ensler: I do not think the fashion industry really has a problem with the models. The pressure comes from outside, from normal people. I think it's great that there is this dispute and I hope it will get even worse. These are young women wiping themselves out, committing slow suicide, and who should we idolize?
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Women often find other women beautiful, which do not meet the usual ideals. Why is it so hard for us to be so generous with ourselves?
Eve Ensler: Because we are drunk from an early age, especially to see our own mistakes. How often do you hear a mother say to her daughter, "Oh, the dress makes you fat." Or: "This hairstyle is not yours." And if we then look at ourselves, we will eventually see only these mistakes. Moreover, for women, beauty is still an important social asset. Although many men are now obsessed with their bodies, but not as elementary as women. Men do not think: I will not find a good job if I am not slim and beautiful and do not wear the right clothes. For women, their appearance on the job market continues to be crucial.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Beautiful women are rewarded for their attractiveness: with affirmation and admiration, but also with material advantages. Does not it make sense for women to strive for beauty?
Eve Ensler: No, because they remain trapped in a system where other forces determine which woman has value, and who does not, who is rewarded and who is not, because of their attractiveness. I find it much more worthwhile to say: Let's change the absurd system with its hierarchy of the beautiful and the non-beautiful, which oppresses and destroys so many women. I want to take the idea of beauty apart, I want to fundamentally question the ideal that is put before us.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: As the founder of "V-Day", an organization that combats violence against women, you met women in dozens of countries. Have you ever met those who did not have anything to do with their bodies?
Eve Ensler: A few, especially in the African bush, but also some older women in Europe or India. In Africa, there were even some women who answered my question, "Do you love your body?" did not understand. They said to me, "Are you crazy? Of course I love my body, it's my body after all." But those were really exceptions. Most women have some part of their body that they hate, and they can shoot you out of a gun, which is supposedly wrong with them.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Can this beauty mania fight? Can we learn to see our true beauty?
Eve Ensler: Yes, every day we decide not to play the game. We have to learn to live with ourselves the way we are. We have to say: this is me! I look like this! And I will not waste my time with beauty delusion, but make good use of it. I will fight against the war in Iraq or for the protection of the environment. One of the most radical decisions you can make is to love your own body.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: This is easier said than done, right?
Eve Ensler: Yes, it's a process, you can not just turn off that obsession. It is very important for women to have a community, the feeling that you are not alone with your experience. In performances of "The Good Body", the audience often react very violently and loudly to what is said on stage - I almost get goosebumps, so intense is the argument. The women realize: Oh, that's not my private problem, it's a political, a social problem. This is the beginning of an examination of one's own body.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Ugly said: Only who has too much time and does not have to fight for survival, can afford exaggerated beauty craze.
Eve Ensler: That's right. Therefore, I also believe that the antidote to this self-hatred is a task.Something to help other people in the world. Something bigger than your own problems. For me, this is "V-Day": In ten years' time, we raised nearly $ 50 million for anti-violence projects. People waste their time attacking themselves if they do not feel useful and do not know what their life is good for. However, if you are looking for a social task, the question of whether your hair is now perfectly blown or your jeans are still sitting well shrinks to insignificance.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Nevertheless, all societies of all time have had ideals of beauty. Can this be done away with?
Eve Ensler: In Africa, a woman said to me, "Look at this tree, and now that tree, would you say that the first tree is not beautiful just because it looks different from the second tree?" Of course not! " Since then I sometimes walk the streets, look at women and think: Oh, there is a pasture! Or an oak! Or a book! And they are all beautiful. We need to learn to appreciate and appreciate this diversity. And I think we can do that.
To person: The American Eve Ensler, 54, is one of the most famous feminist and theater authors in the world. She became known in 1996 with her play "The Vagina Monologues" (Edition Nautilus), which was previously performed in 120 countries and in which women tell of their difficult relationship to their sexuality. In her play "The Good Body" she deals with the pressure that beauty ideals exert on women. For ten years, Eve Ensler has been fighting violence against women with her campaign of action "V-Day".
