By Jillian Orlando

A crowd of mostly women and a few brave men gathered to talk about vaginas in a crowded Blackman Auditorium on Monday night.

“Women secretly love to talk about their vagina,” said actress Lauren Romans to start the show.

Topics addressed included hair down there, masturbation, menstruation, rape, abuse of women, and sexual mutilation during the lively and dramatic presentation of “The Vagina Monologues,” written by Eve Ensler.

The show, performed by Northeastern students, is based on a series of interviews about vaginas that Ensler conducted with women of all ages, ethnicities and religions.

Leah Canali had the audience roaring as “The Woman who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy.” She talked about her love for moaning and demonstrated everything from the “go Huskies” college moan to the guilty Catholic “I’m sorry moan.”

Between the bursts of audience laughter throughout the show, information on important issues and some lesser-known facts were also dispersed. For example, it is illegal to sell vibrators in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, and Arkansas, but guns, which are considered more dangerous to most people, and viagra, which has been known to have sexual benefits of its own, are legal.

“My short skirt and everything under it is mine,” said Wittly Jourdan in the monologue “My Short Skirt.”

“My short skirt is not an invitation to be raped,” Jourdan said.

The paramount issue of rape was further discussed when Maylin Murphy tackled the pain and enduring suffering of women raped as a war tactic in “My Vagina Was My Village.”

All 18 women in the show were dynamic and well-received by the audience. The hard work put in by the production staff, cast and faculty shined throughout the evening.

“The girls were wonderful, it was a beautiful performance,” said Matthew Pian, a sophomore business major.

The show ended with a standing ovation from an audience that had a good laugh along with open conversation on preferences and pleasantries or unpleasantries, of the vagina leading to important issues regarding women’s rights and safety.

“It was absolutely amazing, go vaginas,” said Dana Rucinski, a middler journalism and history major.

“It inspired me last year and that’s why I’m here,” said Kristen Mattera, public relations coordinator for “The Vagina Monologues” and a midder graphic design major.

Mattera, along with The Silver Masque theater group, designed V-Day shirts and boxers that were sold at the event. All proceeds from the performance and merchandise sales were donated to Casa Myrna Vazquez, Inc., Jane Doe, Inc., and the V-Day Fund for Women in Juarez. V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina and is the initiative to make the world a place where women live in safety and freedom, according to the V-Day statement handed out in the show program.

“We figured all the money goes to charity so we did as much as we could,” Mattera said.

The men were just as impressed as the women and some even want to get involved with all the vagina talk.

“I think men should be able to try out,” said Kurt Vogel, a middler business management marketing major, but the show might not be ready for that.

“You don’t have a vagina,” Rucinski said in response, and that may be the determining factor on that prospect.