The U.N. now says that one out of three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in their lifetime; we’re talking about the desecration of the primary resource of the planet.”

Ensler juxtaposes a bureaucratic-sounding statistic (“one out of three”) with a sacred register (“desecration”) to insist that violence against women is not merely a set of individual crimes but a foundational assault on humanity’s capacity to reproduce, nurture, and sustain life. Calling women the planet’s “primary resource” is deliberately provocative: it reframes women not as a special-interest group but as essential infrastructure for every community. The quote also critiques the normalization of gendered violence—if it is this widespread, it cannot be treated as aberrational. Ensler’s aim is to convert shock into moral urgency and collective responsibility, pushing audiences toward structural change rather than sympathy alone.