Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues,” captivated a Northwestern audience Friday afternoon with stories about the award-winning play and the global movement against violence on women that it started.

At the end of her speech, the 300 students packed into Norris University Center’s Louis Room rose to their feet to give Ensler a standing ovation.

“(NU) is such a vagina-friendly college,” Ensler said.

But Ensler said it was never her dream to be called the “vagina lady.”

“I never thought I was going to write a play about vaginas,” she said. “I was led down the vagina path like Alice in Wonderland. Interviews led to monologues. It was truth in its rawest and uncluttered sense. The stories emerged themselves.”

Although many contended at the beginning that the play’s title would turn people away, its success grew rapidly after its first performance in a small New York theater.

“People told me no one would come, men wouldn’t come, the government would destroy it,” Ensler said.

But women felt connected to her play at various levels and were motivated to relate their experiences to her, she said.

“All of us have a voice within us that is suppressed,” she said. “There are two trajectories: the voice within and the voices that told me that ‘no one would come.’ … It is time for the feminine to emerge again.”

“V-Day,” a movement she started in New York in 1998, began with a performance of the play by famous actresses such as Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close and Susan Sarandon.

The stories Ensler heard as she performed the play inspired her to start V-Day to increase awareness about violence against women.

Women from around the world, including Guatemala, Kenya, Zaire and Japan, “healed a part of themselves,” by overcoming their anger and helping others in the V-Day movement, Ensler said.

Her production funded a shelter for girls in Kenya as an escape from sexually abusive cultural practices, Ensler said.

A woman in Macedonia was inspired to end a traditional gypsy practice where a woman must prove her virginity by either sleeping with her husband’s father or by having men of the community examine her genitalia prior to the marriage, she said.

“In every single country, there are women who have been raped, mutilated, et cetera,” she said. “It’s the greatest hope and idea when anger is taken to prevent this kind of violence.”

As she discussed the victories won by women around the world, Ensler mentioned her own story, which included being raped by her father at the age of 5, an experience she said was empowering.

“I waited my whole life for someone to come and save me,” Ensler said. “But there’s no one out there running the ships. Everything, all the answers, are in our own body … By going and giving people what I needed, I’ve healed a part of myself.”

Students said they appreciated Ensler’s versatility as both an activist and artist.

“This was one of the most incredible speeches,” said Chris Yonan, a Communication sophomore. “It was cool because it’s feminist-oriented, and yet she doesn’t put down men at the same time. It’s applicable to a larger context.”

When one male student asked Ensler what defines a vagina-friendly male, she answered that men who ask questions, are receptive and overcome their aggression are vagina-friendly.

She insisted that men tap into their feminine sides to understand themselves better.

“The world is being destroyed because men can’t cry,” she said. “That’s my theory.”

Despite the time she spent talking to students, Ensler left them wanting more.

“She was amazing,” said Susan Schwegman, a Weinberg junior. “I wanted her to keep talking.”