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The Good Body Paperback – November 8, 2005

by Eve Ensler (Author)

4.4 82 ratings

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Botox, bulimia, breast implants: Eve Ensler, author of the international sensation The Vagina Monologues, is back, this time to rock our view of what it means to have a “good body.” “In the 1950s,” Eve writes, girls were “pretty, perky. They had a blond Clairol wave in their hair. They wore girdles and waist-pinchers. . . . In recent years good girls join the army. They climb the corporate ladder. They go to the gym. . . . They wear painful pointy shoes. They don’t eat too much. They . . . don’t eat at all. They stay perfect. They stay thin. I could never be good.”

The Good Body starts with Eve’s tortured relationship with her own “post-forties” stomach and her skirmishes with everything from Ab Rollers to fad diets and fascistic trainers in an attempt get the “flabby badness” out. As Eve hungrily seeks self-acceptance, she is joined by the voices of women from L.A. to Kabul, whose obsessions are also laid bare: A young Latina candidly critiques her humiliating “spread,” a stubborn layer of fat that she calls “a second pair of thighs.” The wife of a plastic surgeon recounts being systematically reconstructed–inch by inch–by her “perfectionist” husband. An aging magazine executive, still haunted by her mother’s long-ago criticism, describes her desperate pursuit of youth as she relentlessly does sit-ups.

Along the way, Eve also introduces us to women who have found a hard-won peace with their bodies: an African mother who celebrates each individual body as signs of nature’s diversity; an Indian woman who transcends “treadmill mania” and delights in her plump cheeks and curves; and a veiled Afghani woman who is willing to risk imprisonment for a taste of ice cream. These are just a few of the inspiring stories woven through Eve’s global journey from obsession to enlightenment. Ultimately, these monologues become a personal wake-up call from Eve to love the “good bodies” we inhabit.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Eve Ensler:
“Eve Ensler can soar to Rabelaisian heights or move us with quiet compassion. . . . She may not save the world, but what other playwrights even think of trying?”
–Time

Acclaim for The Vagina Monologues

“Spellbinding, funny, and almost unbearably moving . . . It is both a work of art and an incisive piece of cultural history, a poem and a polemic, a performance and a balm and a benediction.”
–Variety

“The monologues are part of Eve Ensler’s crusade to wipe out the shame and embarrassment that many women still associate with their bodies or their sexuality. [They] are both a celebration of women’s sexuality and a condemnation of its violation.”
–The New York Times

“Women have entrusted Eve with their most intimate experiences. . . . I think readers, men as well as women, will emerge from these pages feeling more free within themselves–and about each other.”
–GLORIA STEINEM

From the Back Cover

Botox, bulimia, breast implants: Eve Ensler, author of the international sensation "The Vagina Monologues, is back, this time to rock our view of what it means to have a "good body." "In the 1950s," Eve writes, girls were "pretty, perky. They had a blond Clairol wave in their hair. They wore girdles and waist-pinchers. . . . In recent years good girls join the army. They climb the corporate ladder. They go to the gym. . . . They wear painful pointy shoes. They don't eat too much. They . . . don't eat at all. They stay perfect. They stay thin. I could never be good."
"
The Good Body starts with Eve's tortured relationship with her own "post-forties" stomach and her skirmishes with everything from Ab Rollers to fad diets and fascistic trainers in an attempt get the "flabby badness" out. As Eve hungrily seeks self-acceptance, she is joined by the voices of women from L.A. to Kabul, whose obsessions are also laid bare: A young Latina candidly critiques her humiliating "spread," a stubborn layer of fat that she calls "a second pair of thighs." The wife of a plastic surgeon recounts being systematically reconstructed-inch by inch-by her "perfectionist" husband. An aging magazine executive, still haunted by her mother's long-ago criticism, describes her desperate pursuit of youth as she relentlessly does sit-ups.
Along the way, Eve also introduces us to women who have found a hard-won peace with their bodies: an African mother who celebrates each individual body as signs of nature's diversity; an Indian woman who transcends "treadmill mania" and delights in her plump cheeks and curves; and a veiled Afghani woman who is willing to risk imprisonment for a taste of ice cream. These arejust a few of the inspiring stories woven through Eve's global journey from obsession to enlightenment. Ultimately, these monologues become a personal wake-up call from Eve to love the "good bodies" we inhabit.

"From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

EVE ENSLER is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose many works for the stage include Floating Rhonda and the Glue Man, Lemonade, Necessary Targets, and The Vagina Monologues, for which she received an Obie Award. Performances of The Vagina Monologues, sponsored by V-Day (www.vday.org), have raised $25 million to stop violence against abused women and girls around the world. She lives in New York City.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER ONE

When I was a little girl people used to ask me, What do you want to be when you grow up? Good, I would say. I want to be good. Becoming good was harder than becoming a doctor or an astronaut or a lifeguard. There are tests to pass to become those things–you have to learn dissection or conquer gravity or practice treading water.

Becoming good was not like that. It was abstract. It felt completely out of reach. It became the only thing that mattered to me. If I could be good, everything would be all right. I would fit in. I would be popular. I would skip death and go straight to heaven. If you asked me now what this means, to be good, I still don’t know exactly.

When I was growing up in the fifties, “good” was simply what girls were supposed to be. They were good. They were pretty, perky. They had a blond Clairol wave in their hair. They wore girdles and waist cinchers and pumps. They got married. They looked married.
They waited to be given permission. They kept their legs together, even during sex.

In recent years, good girls join the Army. They climb the corporate ladder. They go to the gym. They accessorize. They wear pointy, painful shoes. They wear lipstick if they’re lesbians; they wear lipstick if they’re not. They don’t eat too much. They don’t eat at all. They stay perfect. They stay thin. I could never be good.

This feeling of badness lives in every part of my being. Call it anxiety or despair. Call it guilt or shame. It occupies me everywhere. The older, seemingly clearer and wiser I get, the more devious, globalized, and terrorist the badness becomes. I think for many of us–well, for most of us–well, maybe for all of us–there is one particular part of our body where the badness manifests itself, our thighs, our butt, our breasts, our hair, our nose, our little toe. You know what I’m talking about?

It doesn’t matter where I’ve been in the world, whether it’s Tehran where women are–smashing and remodeling their noses to looks less Iranian, or in Beijing where they are breaking their legs and adding bone to be taller, or in Dallas where they are surgically whittling their feet in order to fit into Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos.

Everywhere, the women I meet generally hate one particular part of their bodies. They spend most of their lives fixing it, shrinking it. They have medicine cabinets with products devoted to transforming it. They have closets full of clothes that cover or enhance it. It’s as if they’ve been given their own little country called their body, which they get to tyrannize, clean up, or control while they lose all sight of the world.

What I can’t believe is that someone like me, a radical feminist for nearly thirty years, could spend this much time thinking about my stomach. It has become my tormentor, my distracter; it’s my most serious committed relationship. It has protruded through my clothes, my confidence, and my ability to work. I’ve tried to sedate it, educate it, embrace it, and most of all, erase it.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Villard; First Paperback Edition (November 8, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812974735
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812974737
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.3 x 7.95 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #412 in Dramas & Plays by Women
- #1,952 in Feminist Theory (Books)
- #6,788 in Self-Esteem (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 82 ratings

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Eve Ensler

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Eve Ensler is a Tony award winning playwright, performer and activist. She is the author of international phenomenon, The Vagina Monologues, which won an Obie and has been published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Eve wrote the New York Times Bestseller, I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life Of Girls Around The World. She then adapted it as a play which ran to critical acclaim in South Africa, Paris, Berkeley and Off-Broadway. She is the founder of V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls, which has raised over 100 million dollars for grassroots organizations around the world. On V-Day's 15th Anniversary, it launched it's most ambitious campaign One Billion Rising which inspired one billion people in 207 countries to Strike Dance and Rise on Feb 14, 2013 for the freedom, safety and equality of women. With the women of Congo, V-Day opened and supports City of Joy in Bukavu, Congo, a revolutionary center where survivors of gender violence Turn Their Pain to Power. Eve starred in the HBO version of The Vagina Monologues. Her play Here was filmed live by Sky Television in London, UK. She co-produced the documentary What I Want My Words to You which won the Freedom of Expression Award at Sundance. Her other plays include Necessary Targets, The Treatment and The Good Body, which she performed on Broadway, followed by a national tour. In 2006, Eve released her book, Insecure At Last: A Political Memoir, and co-edited A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer. Her newest book In The Body of the World will be published by Holt. Ensler lives in the world.

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4.4 out of 5

82 global ratings

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Kristin_Marie

for all you ladies out there

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

As someone who has always struggled to "fit in" on some level, this just shows me that all over the world, many women feel the same way.
The countries that lack the social media, have the most love for themselves and their bodies. After reading this, I have realized that if I focus too much on what I hate about myself, it will never get better.
Worrying about something so much, just makes your goals seem so unattainable.
Even Ensler is great, and I plan on reading all she has to say; and I want to say thank you to her for putting these written words out there. Without them, I wouldn't know how great is it to be me, and all of the things Me and a woman in America has, and has taken for granted. This book of less than 100 pages has taught me so much. I am so happy that I took the time to read it.
I will pass it on to all of my friends that are willing to read it as well. <3

One person found this helpful

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CreativeActor1988

One of my favorite plays!

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

Boy are you in luck! Eve Ensler is astonishing in her take on the shape of things in today's society. Relevant, intense, heartwarming, raged with anger.. this play has it all! I directed this piece with an all female cast several years ago at a university and it was a truly magically rewarding experience. A transformation for all whom were involved. Solid read!

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2015

Inspirational

Must read and see it live if you can!

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2015

Verified Purchase

I saw this play in Salt Lake City, Utah a few years ago with my mom. I absolutely loved it. What a great reminder that women can do great things in the world when we stop obsessing over our bodies and picking them apart. They truly are 'good bodies' and can change the world.

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

Eve Ensler delves into how women feel about our bodies. As a woman this book will make you see that you are not alone in your feelings and will ignite feelings of power about who you are as a woman regardless of your shape and size.

One person found this helpful

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jaub99

Recommend!!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2018

Verified Purchase

Got this book for cheap for a class I’m in and it was such an easy and great read.

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judy cecchini

A GREAT MESSAGE FOR ALL WOMEN

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

It is surprising what some women to make their body "beautiful". Some of it was rather nauseous. If you can get through that, though, it had a good message. I especially liked the final chapter.

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

This book is good for women of all ages. It lets us know and appreciate who we are as women. All young women should read this. Thank you Eve.

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PuEmmeMed

True

Reviewed in Italy on February 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

I suggestivi thai book to every woman who's struggling with self acceptance. It island True, funny and worth reading it.

Kindle Customer

A book I will read over and over

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book is a celebration of life of being a woman. I can associate with those in the book and whilst bringing a lovely, comforting message made me laugh out loud. I too feel this way and I'm sure many of my fellow women would feel the same. Brilliant eve xxx

2 people found this helpful

Pauline Colon

The Good Body

Reviewed in France on April 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

Drôle, émouvant, intelligent, tellement bien écrit qu"il se lit avec une bienheureuse fluidité... J'ai regretté être arrivée à la dernière page, qu'il n'y ai pas un chapitre de plus... Just one more! ;)

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emma

the good body review

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

REally didnt think much of this read - we chose it at one of our book clubs and sadly most people were disappointed

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