One woman. Many monologues. All about a single, rarely-discussed portion of female anatomy.

When playwright Eve Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues, she could not have anticipated the extraordinary impact this play would have on women around the globe. Or that it would spawn an international movement associated with Valentine's Day called V-Day.

The idea of a play featuring women talking publicly about their vaginas may be unsettling to some. But the intent of the Monologues - and of V-Day - is to help women. According to Vday.org:

V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls....including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. In 2008, over 3700 V-Day benefit events are taking place, produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

The geographic, political and social diversity of participating groups is extraordinary. Worldpress.org reports:

The productions range in scope from a performance in a tiny Anglican church in Nova Scotia to one in a stadium of 6,000 people in the Philippines, and are variously mounted by student groups, feminist organizations, and celebrity actresses and directors....

Initially, Ensler says, she got the idea for Monologues from a conversation with a friend who described feelings of shame and disgust toward her menopausal body. Realizing that many women—menopausal or not—had similar feelings about their bodies, the playwright went on to interview some two hundred women around the world, then turned some of the interviews into monologues....The rest, as they say, is herstory.

The feelings that Ensler's friend expressed turned out to be universal, painful, and profoundly moving, and the play rocked audiences. Marianne Schall, writing for the Women's Media Center, traces the history of The Vagina Monologues and the birth of V-Day:

In 1996, when Eve Ensler premiered The Vagina Monologues at a small performance space in downtown New York, she received the type of response playwrights dream about: critical acclaim, an Obie award, and sold out houses....[H]er play had struck a chord, and as Ensler puts it, “Language leads the way.”

The play was a catalyst for an unexpected response: after every show, women would approach Ensler to share their personal stories of surviving violence, at the hands of relatives, lovers, or strangers. Overwhelmed by their number, and having been physically and sexually abused herself by her father, Ensler began to see her play as more than a work of art about women’s bodies, but as a vehicle to help protect them.

At a benefit performance on February 14, 1998, Ensler launched V-Day....Ten years and thousands of benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues later—including a star-studded run on Broadway and a sold-out event at Madison Square Garden—V-Day has raised over 50 million dollars for anti-violence programs across the globe and staged events in more than 120 countries.

Tonight in New York City, Ensler returns to the Hammerstein Ballroom, the original venue where she first launched V-Day. There she will host V to the 10th: NYC - Kickoff To New Orleans, the start of an intiative which will culminate in April at an event at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome. Joining her tonight will be Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Brooke Shields, and others.

Many V-Day performances take place on Valentine's Day. Others run through March. If you have the opportunity to see The Vagina Monologues, grab a female friend or family member and do it. There's a V-Day search engine that can locate productions in your area.