“Vaginas: it’s not how you love them, it’s that you do.” Yes, that was the sign I read when I walked into the University Union’s Redwood Room at 7 p.m. on Thursday to watch “The Vagina Monologues.”

The cheeky and assertive statement made me stop for a second and think about the deeper meaning behind its boldness.

As I meandered about, a table to the right caught my eye. Displayed were pens with the words, “I love vaginas” printed on them, even vagina shaped lollipops popped out at me to be sold before the play’s commencement.

Looking around expecting to find mostly women, I was surprised to see a fair amount of men in the audience.

Greg Spitz, accountant, said he admitted that his wife made him come to the play, and especially enjoyed the song at the end.

“The ‘I call my vagina, vagina and sometimes I call it pussy’ song was really catchy,” Spitz said. ” I’ll probably have the song stuck in my head later.”

The play grabbed my attention as soon as it started and maintained it for a full 90 minutes thereafter, something that is difficult to do.

While some monologues were quite personal, one monologue included all the different sounds women make when they have an orgasm; others were funny and downright empowering.

Not to say that this play was nothing but laughter and education, there was a fair share of very serious monologues. After all, creator and activist, Eve Ensler decided to embark on this because she wanted to support the global movement to end violence against all women.

Some of the more serious monologues include issues of rape; one in particular was of a soldier who raped a young woman with his rifle.

Some snickering and heckling could be heard toward the back of the room where I was sitting, but at the end of each monologue applause of great volume burst out.

Lindsey Molineaux, junior biology major, has seen the play many times and still doesn’t get tired of it.

“This is my fourth time seeing the play and I really enjoy the fact that they don’t use actors, they use all different types of women,” Molineaux said. “The stories are really great.”

Participants of the play were equally as enthusiastic of the play’s turnout.

Brittany Sims, sophomore theater arts major, was amazed at how many people came out to support the play as well as the Women’s Resource Center.

Jessica Heskin, organizer of “The Vagina Monologues,” was pleased to reach a different group for the first time.

“This is the first time that we have had the largest turn out of the deaf population,” Heskin said. “I love that we were able to reach out to a whole other group of people.”

And reach them they did, the play had two American Sign Language interpreters to translate so that those in the deaf community would be able to enjoy the play as well.

With all this estrogen in the air, you would think that men would shy away from this kind of play. Chris Carlson, junior fire management major disagrees.

“I would absolutely bring my guy friends with me to this play,” Carlson said. “I don’t know why guys are afraid of vaginas. What do you think we talk about amongst ourselves when girls aren’t around anyways?”

Enough said.

Amber Wertman can be reached at [email protected]