Vagina, vagina, vagina. Yes you just read the word vagina three times in a row. There are certain words in our society that just do not come up in normal conversation. These words may have negative connotations, be foul or support bad notions.

Unfortunately, the word vagina is often considered to be one of those so-called bad words. Honestly, how often do you slip the word vagina into your daily gossip sessions?

Personally, I am proud to admit that I have been using the word vagina a lot lately. The stares you get are worth the time it takes to remember to slip it into your daily conversations. No, I did not just wake up one morning and think “Wow, ?vagina? what a great word.” Instead, I was introduced to V-day, a grassroots movement to end violence against girls and women.

Five years ago, Eve Ensler introduced “The Vagina Monologues,” a one-woman show which consisted of reading monologues about vaginas alone on stage. Ensler was not introducing society to a new type of porn. In fact, she was introducing the public to the seriousness of women and the importance of their vaginas. The Monologues are based on interviews from 200 women about their vaginas. According to Ensler, “Part of the dynamic of abuse, whether its rape or battery or sexual slavery, is that women are taught to feel shame about their vaginas and not to realize that their vaginas belong to them.”

Some of the monologues are silly, and make women more comfortable about their vaginas, and others are about the rape of women in Bosnia. V-day was created when Ensler began offering her monologues to nonprofit organizations for performances to raise money for women?s organizations in their communities. This year, 550 colleges, including Sacramento State, are included in V-day events. This is the first time Sacramento has been included in V-day events, and we should be proud to say the word vagina. March 15-17 the word vagina will be repeated numerous times in front of sold out crowds in the University Union, and if you listen closely you may even hear the word “c-nt.”

But if you couldn?t track down a ticket, you can still be proud to support “The Vagina Monologues” and get the word out about this important project. It is amazing that an event that sold out so quickly was not showcased on local television. The local news stations, such as 10 and 3, were not interested in promoting the sold out V-day events at the Hyatt Regency, University of California Davis and Sac State. The only information about events in Sacramento was printed last week in the News and Review and The Sacramento Bee.

Be brave and support the efforts to stop violence against women and girls and realize vagina is not a bad word, but a positive word that represents what all women are. When people have a hard time accepting the use of the word “vagina,” Ensler reminds the audience that they are comfortable seeing the words “anthrax,” “nuclear weapons” and “smallpox,” but not “vagina.” There is nothing about vaginas that kill, instead they give birth and offer pleasure. So just do it, say “vagina” and mean it!

Does Crystal Clark have her lines crossed? Tell her why or why not at [email protected].

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