Others, she adds, are compilations and/or summaries.

Some of the monologues, she writes, are practically verbatim transcripts of what she was told. At the outset, the author comments that the content of the monologues is, for the most part, based on interviews she conducted with a number of women, material she distilled and shaped to varying degrees. The main body of the book consists of the original Vagina Monologues as well as subsequently written material. Introductions to the original published edition of the play (by noted feminist Gloria Steinem and by the author) highlight the need for such a movement, and the value it has in women's individual lives and in the place women have, can take, or in some cases are forced, in society. She describes how her original intention (to simultaneously celebrate womanhood and awaken awareness of violence against women) has expanded into a worldwide movement manifesting the same dual intention. The first is by the author, introducing the book as a central component of the Tenth Anniversary celebration of the creation, publication, and performance of her original play. The book opens with a series of introductions.

Drawing upon both personal experiences and those of women whom she interviewed as source material, the author creates a wide-reaching, multi-faceted portrait of both the positive and negative aspects of being a woman in contemporary society. This book is an expansion of a play originally written and performed in 1998, with both book and play anchored by the author's intent to break down the barriers of secrecy and shame surrounding both the use of the word 'vagina' (both in public and in private) and the violence perpetrated against those who have one.

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler