Eve Ensler: Embrace your inner girl

212,079 views ・ 2010-01-27

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:15
Namaste. Good morning.
0
15260
3000
00:18
I'm very happy to be here in India.
1
18260
2000
00:20
And I've been thinking a lot about what I have learned
2
20260
3000
00:23
over these last particularly 11 years
3
23260
3000
00:26
with V-Day and "The Vagina Monologues,"
4
26260
2000
00:28
traveling the world,
5
28260
2000
00:30
essentially meeting with women and girls across the planet
6
30260
2000
00:32
to stop violence against women.
7
32260
3000
00:35
What I want to talk about today
8
35260
2000
00:37
is this particular cell,
9
37260
3000
00:40
or grouping of cells, that is in each and every one of us.
10
40260
3000
00:43
And I want to call it the girl cell.
11
43260
3000
00:46
And it's in men as well as in women.
12
46260
2000
00:48
I want you to imagine that this particular grouping of cells
13
48260
4000
00:52
is central to the evolution of our species
14
52260
3000
00:55
and the continuation of the human race.
15
55260
3000
00:58
And I want you imagine that at some point in history
16
58260
2000
01:00
a group of powerful people invested in owning and controlling the world
17
60260
4000
01:04
understood that the suppression of this particular cell,
18
64260
4000
01:08
the oppression of these cells,
19
68260
2000
01:10
the reinterpretation of these cells,
20
70260
2000
01:12
the undermining of these cells,
21
72260
2000
01:14
getting us to believe in the weakness of these cells
22
74260
2000
01:16
and the crushing, eradicating, destroying,
23
76260
4000
01:20
reducing these cells,
24
80260
3000
01:23
basically began the process of killing off the girl cell,
25
83260
3000
01:26
which was, by the way, patriarchy.
26
86260
3000
01:29
I want you to imagine that the girl is a chip
27
89260
3000
01:32
in the huge macrocosm of collective consciousness.
28
92260
3000
01:35
And it is essential to balance, to wisdom
29
95260
3000
01:38
and to actually the future of all of us.
30
98260
4000
01:42
And then I want you to imagine that this girl cell
31
102260
2000
01:44
is compassion,
32
104260
4000
01:48
and it's empathy, and it's passion itself,
33
108260
2000
01:50
and it's vulnerability,
34
110260
2000
01:52
and it's openness, and it's intensity,
35
112260
2000
01:54
and it's association, and it's relationship,
36
114260
2000
01:56
and it is intuitive.
37
116260
3000
01:59
And then let's think how compassion informs wisdom,
38
119260
4000
02:03
and that vulnerability is our greatest strength,
39
123260
3000
02:06
and that emotions have inherent logic,
40
126260
2000
02:08
which lead to radical, appropriate, saving action.
41
128260
3000
02:11
And then let's remember that we've been taught
42
131260
2000
02:13
the exact opposite by the powers that be,
43
133260
2000
02:15
that compassion clouds your thinking,
44
135260
2000
02:17
that it gets in the way,
45
137260
2000
02:19
that vulnerability is weakness,
46
139260
2000
02:21
that emotions are not to be trusted,
47
141260
2000
02:23
and you're not supposed to take things personally,
48
143260
2000
02:25
which is one of my favorites.
49
145260
3000
02:28
I think the whole world has essentially
50
148260
3000
02:31
been brought up not to be a girl.
51
151260
2000
02:33
How do we bring up boys? What does it mean to be a boy?
52
153260
2000
02:35
To be a boy really means not to be a girl.
53
155260
3000
02:38
To be a man means not to be a girl.
54
158260
3000
02:41
To be a woman means not to be a girl.
55
161260
2000
02:43
To be strong means not to be a girl.
56
163260
2000
02:45
To be a leader means not to be a girl.
57
165260
2000
02:47
I actually think that
58
167260
3000
02:50
being a girl is so powerful
59
170260
3000
02:53
that we've had to train everyone not to be that.
60
173260
3000
02:56
(Laughter)
61
176260
6000
03:02
And I'd also like to say that the irony
62
182260
2000
03:04
of course, is that denying girl,
63
184260
2000
03:06
suppressing girl, suppressing emotion,
64
186260
2000
03:08
refusing feeling has lead thus here.
65
188260
3000
03:11
Where we have now come to live in a world where
66
191260
3000
03:14
the most extreme forms of violence,
67
194260
2000
03:16
the most horrific poverty,
68
196260
3000
03:19
genocide, mass rapes,
69
199260
2000
03:21
the destruction of the Earth, is completely out of control.
70
201260
3000
03:24
And because we have suppressed our girl cells
71
204260
2000
03:26
and suppressed our girl-ship,
72
206260
2000
03:28
we do not feel what is going on.
73
208260
2000
03:30
So, we are not being charged with
74
210260
4000
03:34
the adequate response to what is happening.
75
214260
2000
03:36
I want to talk a little bit about
76
216260
2000
03:38
the Democratic Republic of Congo.
77
218260
2000
03:40
For me, it was the turning point of my life.
78
220260
3000
03:43
I have spent a lot of time there in the last three years.
79
223260
3000
03:46
I feel up to that point I had seen a lot in the world,
80
226260
3000
03:49
a lot of violence.
81
229260
2000
03:51
I essentially lived in the rape mines of the world for the last 12 years.
82
231260
3000
03:54
But the Democratic Republic of Congo
83
234260
3000
03:57
really was the turning point in my soul.
84
237260
4000
04:01
I went and I spent time
85
241260
2000
04:03
in a place called Bukavu
86
243260
2000
04:05
in a hospital called the Panzi Hospital,
87
245260
2000
04:07
with a doctor who was as close to a saint as any person I've ever met.
88
247260
3000
04:10
His name is Dr. Denis Mukwege.
89
250260
3000
04:13
In the Congo, for those of you who don't know,
90
253260
3000
04:16
there has been a war raging for the last 12 years,
91
256260
3000
04:19
a war that has killed nearly six million people.
92
259260
3000
04:22
It is estimated that somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 women
93
262260
4000
04:26
have been raped there.
94
266260
2000
04:28
When I spent my first weeks at Panzi hospital
95
268260
3000
04:31
I sat with women
96
271260
2000
04:33
who sat and lined up every day to tell me their stories.
97
273260
3000
04:36
Their stories were so horrific,
98
276260
2000
04:38
and so mind-blowing and so on the other side of human existence,
99
278260
3000
04:41
that to be perfectly honest with you, I was shattered.
100
281260
4000
04:45
And I will tell you that what happened
101
285260
2000
04:47
is through that shattering,
102
287260
2000
04:49
listening to the stories of eight-year-old girls who had their insides eviscerated,
103
289260
4000
04:53
who had guns and bayonets and things shoved inside them
104
293260
3000
04:56
so they had holes, literally, inside them
105
296260
2000
04:58
where their pee and poop came out of them.
106
298260
2000
05:00
Listening to the story of 80-year-old women
107
300260
2000
05:02
who were tied to chains and circled,
108
302260
3000
05:05
and where groups of men would come and rape them periodically,
109
305260
3000
05:08
all in the name of economic exploitation
110
308260
2000
05:10
to steal the minerals so the West can have it and profit from them.
111
310260
4000
05:14
My mind was so shattered.
112
314260
3000
05:17
But what happened for me is that that shattering
113
317260
4000
05:21
actually emboldened me
114
321260
2000
05:23
in a way I have never been emboldened.
115
323260
3000
05:26
That shattering, that opening of my girl cell,
116
326260
3000
05:29
that kind of massive breakthrough of my heart
117
329260
6000
05:35
allowed me to become more courageous, and braver,
118
335260
3000
05:38
and actually more clever
119
338260
2000
05:40
than I had been in the past in my life.
120
340260
2000
05:42
I want to say that I think the powers that be
121
342260
3000
05:45
know that empire-building
122
345260
2000
05:47
is actually -- that feelings get in the way of empire-building.
123
347260
4000
05:51
Feelings get in the way of the mass acquisition of the Earth,
124
351260
3000
05:54
and excavating the Earth, and destroying things.
125
354260
2000
05:56
I remember, for example, when my father,
126
356260
2000
05:58
who was very, very violent, used to beat me.
127
358260
3000
06:01
And he would actually say, while he was beating me,
128
361260
2000
06:03
"Don't you cry. Don't you dare cry."
129
363260
2000
06:05
Because my crying somehow exposed his brutality to him.
130
365260
4000
06:09
And even in the moment he didn't want to be reminded
131
369260
2000
06:11
of what he was doing.
132
371260
2000
06:13
I know that we have systematically annihilated the girl cell.
133
373260
4000
06:17
And I want to say we've annihilated it in men as well as in women.
134
377260
3000
06:20
And I think in some ways
135
380260
2000
06:22
we've been much harsher to men
136
382260
2000
06:24
in the annihilation of their girl cell.
137
384260
2000
06:26
(Applause)
138
386260
1000
06:27
I see how boys have been brought up, and I see this across the planet:
139
387260
4000
06:31
to be tough, to be hardened,
140
391260
3000
06:34
to distance themselves from their tenderness, to not cry.
141
394260
4000
06:38
I actually realized once in Kosovo,
142
398260
2000
06:40
when I watched a man break down,
143
400260
2000
06:42
that bullets are actually hardened tears,
144
402260
3000
06:45
that when we don't allow men to have their girl self
145
405260
4000
06:49
and have their vulnerability, and have their compassion,
146
409260
2000
06:51
and have their hearts, that they become hardened and hurtful
147
411260
3000
06:54
and violent.
148
414260
2000
06:56
And I think we have taught men to be secure
149
416260
2000
06:58
when they are insecure,
150
418260
2000
07:00
to pretend they know things when they don't know things,
151
420260
2000
07:02
or why would we be where we are?
152
422260
2000
07:04
To pretend they're not a mess when they are a mess.
153
424260
3000
07:07
And I will tell you a very funny story.
154
427260
2000
07:09
On my way here on the airplane, I was walking up and down the aisle of the plane.
155
429260
3000
07:12
And all these men, literally at least 10 men,
156
432260
4000
07:16
were in their little seats watching chick flicks.
157
436260
3000
07:19
And they were all alone, and I thought, "This is the secret life of men."
158
439260
3000
07:22
(Laughter)
159
442260
4000
07:26
I've traveled, as I said,
160
446260
2000
07:28
to many, many countries,
161
448260
2000
07:30
and I've seen, if we do what we do to the girl inside us
162
450260
4000
07:34
then obviously it's horrific to think
163
454260
2000
07:36
what we do to girls in the world.
164
456260
2000
07:38
And we heard from Sunitha yesterday,
165
458260
2000
07:40
and Kavita about what we do to girls.
166
460260
2000
07:42
But I just want to say that
167
462260
2000
07:44
I've met girls with knife wounds and cigarette burns,
168
464260
3000
07:47
who are literally being treated like ashtrays.
169
467260
2000
07:49
I've seen girls be treated like garbage cans.
170
469260
3000
07:52
I've seen girls who were beaten by their mothers
171
472260
2000
07:54
and brothers and fathers and uncles.
172
474260
3000
07:57
I've seen girls starving themselves to death in America
173
477260
3000
08:00
in institutions to look like some idealized version of themselves.
174
480260
3000
08:03
I've seen that we cut girls and we control them
175
483260
2000
08:05
and we keep them illiterate,
176
485260
2000
08:07
or we make them feel bad about being too smart.
177
487260
2000
08:09
We silence them. We make them feel guilty
178
489260
2000
08:11
for being smart. We get them to behave,
179
491260
2000
08:13
to tone it down, not to be too intense.
180
493260
3000
08:16
We sell them, we kill them as embryos,
181
496260
2000
08:18
we enslave them, we rape them.
182
498260
3000
08:21
We are so accustomed to robbing girls
183
501260
2000
08:23
of the subject of being the subjects of their lives
184
503260
3000
08:26
that we have now actually objectified them
185
506260
2000
08:28
and turned them into commodities.
186
508260
2000
08:30
The selling of girls is rampant across the planet.
187
510260
3000
08:33
And in many places they are worth less than goats and cows.
188
513260
5000
08:38
But I also want to talk about the fact that
189
518260
2000
08:40
if one in eight people on the planet
190
520260
3000
08:43
are girls between the ages of 10 to 24,
191
523260
3000
08:46
they are they key, really, in the developing world,
192
526260
3000
08:49
as well as in the whole world, to the future of humanity.
193
529260
3000
08:52
And if girls are in trouble because they face systematic disadvantages
194
532260
3000
08:55
that keep them where society wants them to be,
195
535260
3000
08:58
including lack of access to healthcare,
196
538260
2000
09:00
education, healthy foods,
197
540260
2000
09:02
labor force participation.
198
542260
2000
09:04
The burden of all the household tasks
199
544260
2000
09:06
usually falls on girls and younger siblings,
200
546260
3000
09:09
which ensures that they will never overcome these barriers.
201
549260
3000
09:12
The state of girls, the condition of girls,
202
552260
2000
09:14
will, in my belief -- and that's the girl inside us
203
554260
3000
09:17
and the girl in the world -- determine whether
204
557260
2000
09:19
the species survives.
205
559260
2000
09:21
And what I want to suggest is that,
206
561260
3000
09:24
having talked to girls, because I just finished a new book called
207
564260
3000
09:27
"I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World,"
208
567260
3000
09:30
I've been talking to girls for five years,
209
570260
2000
09:32
and one of the things that I've seen is true everywhere
210
572260
3000
09:35
is that the verb that's been enforced on girl
211
575260
2000
09:37
is the verb "to please."
212
577260
2000
09:39
Girls are trained to please.
213
579260
3000
09:42
I want to change the verb.
214
582260
2000
09:44
I want us all to change the verb.
215
584260
2000
09:46
I want the verb to be "educate,"
216
586260
2000
09:48
or "activate," or "engage,"
217
588260
2000
09:50
or "confront," or "defy," or "create."
218
590260
3000
09:53
If we teach girls to change the verb
219
593260
3000
09:56
we will actually enforce the girl inside us
220
596260
3000
09:59
and the girl inside them.
221
599260
2000
10:01
And I have to now share a few stories
222
601260
3000
10:04
of girls I've seen across the planet
223
604260
2000
10:06
who have engaged their girl,
224
606260
2000
10:08
who have taken on their girl in spite of
225
608260
2000
10:10
all the circumstances around them.
226
610260
3000
10:13
I know a 14-year-old girl in the Netherlands,
227
613260
2000
10:15
for example, who is demanding that she take a boat
228
615260
4000
10:19
and go around the entire world by herself.
229
619260
3000
10:22
There is a teenage girl who just recently
230
622260
2000
10:24
went out and knew that she needed 56 stars
231
624260
3000
10:27
tattooed on the right side of her face.
232
627260
2000
10:29
There is a girl, Julia Butterfly Hill,
233
629260
3000
10:32
who lived for a year in a tree
234
632260
2000
10:34
because she wanted to protect the wild oaks.
235
634260
3000
10:37
There is a girl who I met 14 years ago in Afghanistan
236
637260
4000
10:41
who I have adopted as my daughter
237
641260
2000
10:43
because her mother was killed. Her mother was a revolutionary.
238
643260
3000
10:46
And this girl, when she was 17 years old,
239
646260
3000
10:49
wore a burqa in Afghanistan,
240
649260
2000
10:51
and went into the stadiums
241
651260
2000
10:53
and documented the atrocities that were going on towards women,
242
653260
4000
10:57
underneath her burqa, with a video.
243
657260
2000
10:59
And that video became the video that went out all over the world
244
659260
3000
11:02
after 9/11 to show what was going on in Afghanistan.
245
662260
5000
11:07
I want to talk about Rachel Corrie
246
667260
2000
11:09
who was in her teens when she stood in front of an Israeli tank
247
669260
3000
11:12
to say, "End the occupation."
248
672260
2000
11:14
And she knew she risked death and she was literally gunned down
249
674260
3000
11:17
and rolled over by that tank.
250
677260
3000
11:20
And I want to talk about a girl that I just met recently
251
680260
2000
11:22
in Bukavu, who was impregnated by her rapist.
252
682260
4000
11:26
And she was holding her baby.
253
686260
2000
11:28
And I asked her if she loved her baby.
254
688260
2000
11:30
And she looked into her baby's eyes and she said,
255
690260
2000
11:32
"Of course I love my baby. How could I not love my baby?
256
692260
4000
11:36
It's my baby and it's full of love."
257
696260
2000
11:38
The capacity for girls to overcome situations
258
698260
4000
11:42
and to move on levels, to me, is mind-blowing.
259
702260
4000
11:46
There is a girl named Dorcas, and I just met her in Kenya.
260
706260
2000
11:48
Dorcas is 15 years old,
261
708260
2000
11:50
and she was trained in self-defense.
262
710260
2000
11:52
A few months ago she was picked up on the street
263
712260
3000
11:55
by three older men.
264
715260
2000
11:57
They kidnapped her, they put her in a car.
265
717260
3000
12:00
And through her self-defense, she grabbed their Adam's apples,
266
720260
2000
12:02
she punched them in the eyes
267
722260
2000
12:04
and she got herself free and out of the car.
268
724260
4000
12:08
In Kenya, in August,
269
728260
2000
12:10
I went to visit one of the V-Day safe houses for girls,
270
730260
3000
12:13
a house we opened seven years ago
271
733260
2000
12:15
with an amazing woman named Agnes Pareyio.
272
735260
3000
12:18
Agnes was a woman who was cut when she was a little girl,
273
738260
4000
12:22
she was female genitally mutilated.
274
742260
2000
12:24
And she made a decision as many women do across this planet,
275
744260
3000
12:27
that what was done to her would not be enforced and done
276
747260
3000
12:30
to other women and girls.
277
750260
2000
12:32
So, for years Agnes walked through the Rift valley.
278
752260
2000
12:34
She taught girls what a healthy vagina looked like,
279
754260
4000
12:38
and what a mutilated vagina looked like.
280
758260
3000
12:41
And in that time she saved many girls. And when we met her
281
761260
2000
12:43
we asked her what we could do for her,
282
763260
2000
12:45
and she said, "Well, if you got me a Jeep I could get around a lot faster."
283
765260
4000
12:49
So, we got her a Jeep. And then she saved 4,500 girls.
284
769260
3000
12:52
And then we asked her, "Okay, what else do you need?"
285
772260
2000
12:54
And she said, "Well, now, I need a house."
286
774260
3000
12:57
So, seven years ago Agnes built the first V-Day safe house
287
777260
3000
13:00
in Narok, Kenya, in the Masai land.
288
780260
3000
13:03
And it was a house where girls could run away,
289
783260
2000
13:05
they could save their clitoris, they wouldn't be cut,
290
785260
2000
13:07
they could go to school.
291
787260
2000
13:09
And in the years that Agnes has had the house,
292
789260
2000
13:11
she has changed the situation there.
293
791260
3000
13:14
She has literally become deputy mayor.
294
794260
3000
13:17
She's changed the rules.
295
797260
3000
13:20
The whole community has bought in to what she's doing.
296
800260
2000
13:22
When we were there she was doing a ritual
297
802260
3000
13:25
where she reconciles girls, who have run away, with their families.
298
805260
3000
13:28
And there was a young girl named Jaclyn.
299
808260
3000
13:31
Jaclyn was 14 years old and she was in her Masai family
300
811260
3000
13:34
and there's a drought in Kenya.
301
814260
2000
13:36
So cows are dying, and cows are the most
302
816260
2000
13:38
valued possession.
303
818260
2000
13:40
And Jaclyn overheard her father
304
820260
2000
13:42
talking to an old man about
305
822260
2000
13:44
how he was about to sell her for the cows.
306
824260
3000
13:47
And she knew that meant she would be cut.
307
827260
2000
13:49
She knew that meant she wouldn't go to school.
308
829260
2000
13:51
She knew that meant she wouldn't have a future.
309
831260
2000
13:53
She knew she would have to marry that old man, and she was 14.
310
833260
3000
13:56
So, one afternoon, she'd heard about the safe house,
311
836260
4000
14:00
Jaclyn left her father's house
312
840260
2000
14:02
and she walked for two days, two days
313
842260
3000
14:05
through Masai land.
314
845260
2000
14:07
She slept with the hyenas. She hid at night.
315
847260
2000
14:09
She imagined her father killing her on one hand,
316
849260
3000
14:12
and Mama Agnes greeting her,
317
852260
2000
14:14
with the hope that she would greet her when she got to the house.
318
854260
2000
14:16
And when she got to the house she was greeted.
319
856260
2000
14:18
Agnes took her in, and Agnes loved her,
320
858260
3000
14:21
and Agnes supported her for the year.
321
861260
2000
14:23
She went to school and she found her voice,
322
863260
2000
14:25
and she found her identity, and she found her heart.
323
865260
2000
14:27
Then, her time was ready
324
867260
3000
14:30
when she had to go back to talk to her father
325
870260
3000
14:33
about the reconciliation, after a year.
326
873260
2000
14:35
I had the privilege of being in the hut
327
875260
3000
14:38
when she was reunited with her father and reconciled.
328
878260
3000
14:41
In that hut, we walked in,
329
881260
3000
14:44
and her father and his four wives were sitting there,
330
884260
3000
14:47
and her sisters who had just returned because
331
887260
2000
14:49
they had all fled when she had fled,
332
889260
2000
14:51
and her primary mother, who had been beaten
333
891260
3000
14:54
in standing up for her with the elders.
334
894260
3000
14:57
When her father saw her and saw who she had become,
335
897260
3000
15:00
in her full girl self,
336
900260
2000
15:02
he threw his arms around her and broke down crying.
337
902260
3000
15:05
He said, "You are beautiful. You have grown into a gorgeous woman.
338
905260
4000
15:09
We will not cut you.
339
909260
2000
15:11
And I give you my word, here and now,
340
911260
2000
15:13
that we will not cut your sisters either."
341
913260
3000
15:16
And what she said to him was,
342
916260
2000
15:18
"You were willing to sell me for four cows,
343
918260
2000
15:20
and a calf and some blankets.
344
920260
4000
15:24
But I promise you, now that I will be educated
345
924260
2000
15:26
I will always take care of you,
346
926260
3000
15:29
and I will come back and I will build you a house.
347
929260
3000
15:32
And I will be in your corner for the rest of your life."
348
932260
3000
15:35
For me, that is the power of girls.
349
935260
2000
15:37
And that is the power of transformation.
350
937260
3000
15:40
I want to close today
351
940260
3000
15:43
with a new piece from my book.
352
943260
2000
15:45
And I want to do it tonight
353
945260
2000
15:47
for the girl in everybody here.
354
947260
2000
15:49
And I want to do it for Sunitha.
355
949260
3000
15:52
And I want to do it for the girls that Sunitha talked about yesterday,
356
952260
3000
15:55
the girls who survive, the girls who can become somebody else.
357
955260
4000
15:59
But I really want to do it for each and every person here,
358
959260
4000
16:03
to value the girl in us,
359
963260
2000
16:05
to value the part that cries,
360
965260
2000
16:07
to value the part that's emotional,
361
967260
2000
16:09
to value the part that's vulnerable,
362
969260
2000
16:11
to understand that's where the future lies.
363
971260
4000
16:15
This is called "I'm An Emotional Creature."
364
975260
2000
16:17
And it happened because I met a girl in Watts, L.A.
365
977260
3000
16:20
I was asking girls if they like being a girl,
366
980260
2000
16:22
and all the girls were like, "No, I hate it. I can't stand it.
367
982260
2000
16:24
It's all bad. My brothers get everything."
368
984260
3000
16:27
And this girl just sat up and went, "I love being a girl.
369
987260
2000
16:29
I'm an emotional creature!"
370
989260
3000
16:32
(Laughter)
371
992260
1000
16:33
This is for her:
372
993260
3000
16:36
I love being a girl.
373
996260
3000
16:39
I can feel what you're feeling
374
999260
2000
16:41
as you're feeling inside the feeling before.
375
1001260
3000
16:44
I am an emotional creature.
376
1004260
4000
16:48
Things do not come to me as intellectual theories
377
1008260
2000
16:50
or hard-pressed ideas.
378
1010260
2000
16:52
They pulse through my organs and legs and burn up my ears.
379
1012260
3000
16:55
Oh, I know when your girlfriend's really pissed off,
380
1015260
3000
16:58
even though she appears to give you what you want.
381
1018260
2000
17:00
I know when a storm is coming.
382
1020260
2000
17:02
I can feel the invisible stirrings in the air.
383
1022260
3000
17:05
I can tell you he won't call back. It's a vibe I share.
384
1025260
3000
17:08
I am an emotional creature.
385
1028260
2000
17:10
I love that I do not take things lightly.
386
1030260
3000
17:13
Everything is intense to me,
387
1033260
2000
17:15
the way I walk in the street, the way my momma wakes me up,
388
1035260
3000
17:18
the way it's unbearable when I lose, the way I hear bad news.
389
1038260
4000
17:22
I am an emotional creature.
390
1042260
3000
17:25
I am connected to everything and everyone. I was born like that.
391
1045260
3000
17:28
Don't you say all negative
392
1048260
2000
17:30
that it's only only a teenage thing,
393
1050260
2000
17:32
or it's only because I'm a girl.
394
1052260
2000
17:34
These feelings make me better.
395
1054260
2000
17:36
They make me present. They make me ready. They make me strong.
396
1056260
2000
17:38
I am an emotional creature.
397
1058260
3000
17:41
There is a particular way of knowing.
398
1061260
2000
17:43
It's like the older women somehow forgot.
399
1063260
2000
17:45
I rejoice that it's still in my body.
400
1065260
3000
17:48
Oh, I know when the coconut's about to fall.
401
1068260
4000
17:52
I know we have pushed the Earth too far.
402
1072260
4000
17:56
I know my father isn't coming back,
403
1076260
2000
17:58
and that no one's prepared for the fire.
404
1078260
3000
18:01
I know that lipstick means more than show,
405
1081260
3000
18:04
and boys are super insecure,
406
1084260
2000
18:06
and so-called terrorists are made, not born.
407
1086260
3000
18:09
I know that one kiss
408
1089260
2000
18:11
could take away all my decision-making ability.
409
1091260
3000
18:14
(Laughter)
410
1094260
2000
18:16
And you know what? Sometimes it should.
411
1096260
3000
18:19
This is not extreme. It's a girl thing,
412
1099260
2000
18:21
what we would all be if the big door inside us flew open.
413
1101260
4000
18:25
Don't tell me not to cry, to calm it down,
414
1105260
2000
18:27
not to be so extreme, to be reasonable.
415
1107260
2000
18:29
I am an emotional creature.
416
1109260
3000
18:32
It's how the earth got made, how the wind continues to pollinate.
417
1112260
3000
18:35
You don't tell the Atlantic Ocean to behave.
418
1115260
5000
18:40
I am an emotional creature.
419
1120260
2000
18:42
Why would you want to shut me down or turn me off?
420
1122260
2000
18:44
I am your remaining memory.
421
1124260
3000
18:47
I can take you back.
422
1127260
2000
18:49
Nothing's been diluted.
423
1129260
2000
18:51
Nothing's leaked out.
424
1131260
2000
18:53
I love, hear me, I love
425
1133260
3000
18:56
that I can feel the feelings inside you,
426
1136260
5000
19:01
even if they stop my life,
427
1141260
3000
19:04
even if they break my heart,
428
1144260
2000
19:06
even if they take me off track,
429
1146260
3000
19:09
they make me responsible.
430
1149260
2000
19:11
I am an emotional, I am an emotional,
431
1151260
4000
19:15
incondotional, devotional creature.
432
1155260
3000
19:18
And I love, hear me,
433
1158260
3000
19:21
I love, love, love being a girl.
434
1161260
4000
19:25
Can you say it with me?
435
1165260
2000
19:27
I love, I love, love, love
436
1167260
4000
19:31
being a girl!
437
1171260
2000
19:33
Thank you very much.
438
1173260
2000
19:35
(Applause)
439
1175260
13000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7