Vagina, vagina, vagina.

The word often shocks, surprises and, in the case of Notre Dame's Department of Film, Television and Theatre and Gender Studies Program's production of "The Vagina Monologues," it may enlighten.

The controversial production is part of Notre Dame's V-Day activities. The V-Day movement began in New York City in 1998 to help bring awareness to women's issues such as violence, rape, female slave trading, genital mutilation, subjugation, sexual abuse and harassment as well as the recognition of women's roles as sexual beings.

Since it's inception, the staged reading of Eve Ensler's play, "The Vagina Monologues," has served as the centerpiece of V-Day. Ensler began writing the play after she had a conversation with a woman about menopause; Ensler realized that she didn't understand how women conceived of their vaginas. "The Vagina Monologues" is a compilation of women's testimonies about their vaginas; Ensler interviewed hundreds of women from around the world about their experiences. Some of the monologues are taken almost verbatim from a single woman's account; others are composed from many women's interviews.

Although the V-Day launch was a successful fundraiser for women's charities, the event's organizers wanted to extend the message to women across the nation and around the world, especially young women who they see as being the progressive leaders of the future. The organizers chose Ensler's Obie award-winning show to help spread that message.

"`The Vagina Monologues' on college campuses and in communities and everywhere it has been brought is an unusual vehicle for putting forward the message that violence against women and girls around the world is a tremendous problem that touches all our lives and has to be brought to an end," said Karen Obel, V-Day's director of the college campaign.

Obel thinks that "The Vagina Monologues" are particularly pertinent to college campuses because of the prevalence of date rape. She believes that because many young women have never been informed of their rights or understand their own sexual nature they are not equipped to stand up for themselves. "The Vagina Monologues," in her opinion, is meant to break the secretive nature of female sexuality and empower women.

"[Young women] need to know that their bodies are their own, how they operate and to be able to not give away things they don't want to give away," Obel said.

In the four years since V-Day launched its college campaign, it has grown from 65 schools in the United States and Canada to 550 schools worldwide. Obel notes that of those schools, Notre Dame and Saint Mary's have had the most resistance to the production.

After "The Vagina Monologues" was performed on Saint Mary's campus and sponsored by the Feminist Collective in 2000, College president Marilou Eldred banned officially-recognized campus groups from sponsoring the show and subsequently sanctioned participants in an individual production in 2001.

This year, the College will allow the show to go on, but it has not been officially recognized by Saint Mary's or any of its departments. Notre Dame's show is recognized by the University and is sponsored by two departments, although many students and campus organizations have organized to protest the University's consent in the matter.

"It's not surprising to me that a rape-prone zone is having the hardest time with V-Day … of all the colleges that we work with [the Notre Dame and Saint Mary's communities] have had the most difficulty … When people have something to protect and have something to cover, they don't want anything to come in and change the status of things … it's not surprising to me that [there's an attempt to have it] kept out," Ensler said.

The message of "The Vagina Monologues" has been hotly disputed. Critics have called the show immoral, desensitizing and offensive because they believe it encourages and depicts behavior that violates something they believe should be held sacred. But Ensler doesn't think those criticisms are valid.

"I'm always surprised when people are afraid of vaginas … when they're not afraid of words like anthrax, smallpox and nuclear weapons. They can put those on the headlines, but they're suddenly terrified about vaginas," Ensler said. "Vagina is not a slang word, it is not a dirty word, it's actually a part of the body. And I think, that people's fear of vaginas really stems from their profound fear of being alive and being connected and being intimate and being fully present in the world. And I think that's a scary thing to be."

Often, criticism has been religious in nature. Some feel that "The Vagina Monologues" contradicts religious teachings, specifically Christian religious teachings. Ensler, however, feels that the show is in keeping with Christianity. She believes that Christ would not have wanted anyone to be ashamed of anything that God gave him or her. She points out that many devout Christians are and have been involved with V-Day and "The Vagina Monologues," but there is a brand of Christianity that shames women and often mistakes sexual purity with silence in regard to women's sexuality.

Ensler thinks that people who find her play shocking or profane have issues in themselves that they need to investigate. In her eyes, the play is describing something entirely natural and normal; she sees the vagina as being both metaphorical and literal in her play. For Ensler, the interplay between those two ways of looking at vaginas is what her play is all about.

"I want women to think about their vaginas. I want women and men to love vaginas and hold them sacred. I want women to know what gives them pleasure so they can know how to get pleasure. And mainly I want women to be safe and protected and I want the violence — which is absolutely pervasive on this planet — to end toward vaginas," Ensler said.

But Ensler welcomes discussion from critics and fans alike. She thinks that the dialogue "The Vagina Monologues" generates is productive. In the end, she thinks that the show does exactly the opposite of desensitizing people to women's issues.

"So many women and men that I interview have no idea what to do with vaginas, they don't know how to pleasure vaginas … they don't have any idea of their own bodies because they've been taught to be so ashamed of it, so shut down and isolated and invisible and secretive about it. I think that secretive reality really damages everyone because we can no longer communicate what is most essential in our lives," Ensler said. "So, I think the opposite happens: I think that when people talk about vaginas it stops being shameful and jaded and contemptuous and in can becomes normal and part of an ongoing daily dialogue as opposed to prurient and scary and perverse."

The Notre Dame production of "The Vagina Monologues" features 35 female actors from the University and one from Saint Mary's as well as a number of people of both sexes involved in the production but not on stage. All involved affectionately refer to themselves as "vagina warriors."

Senior Kerry Walsh, who directs the show, decided to get involved with V-Day after reading about the controversy over the show last year while she was abroad in France. Walsh, who has always been active in women's issues and wants to go to law school to become a lawyer specializing in gender law, solicited the University to put on the production and found surprisingly little objection.

"I've been tickled pink that the administration has been so open-minded about putting on the production; I've probably had the least resistance from them. I wouldn't say that they've supported, because that's not the right terminology, but they have been extremely open-mind about the production and having it on campus," Walsh said.

Walsh rehearsed with her cast two nights a week for five weeks to produce the show. Most of the women involved are not particularly experienced in theatre. In fact, part of the relevance of "The Vagina Monologues" is that it does not feature actors, but rather uses real women to pass its message. Most of the show is reader's theatre: the women carry note cards with their lines on them.

The stage is bare except for three microphones that the actors step to when they are performing. Behind the microphones, the rest of the cast sits patiently in chairs.

Walsh had the actors dress in red and black; two colors that have symbolic meaning. They represent things such as love, violence, women and (of course) vaginas.

The monologues range from humorous, such as junior Mary Beth Asmussen's rendition of the different types of pleasurable moans in "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy," to intensely dramatic, such as senior Maura Malloy's portrayal of female genital mutilation of Bosnian women in "My Vagina Was My Village." Each story is the story of real women; some are more discomforting than others.

But "The Vagina Monologues" are meant to be a little rough around the edges. It's what makes the show meaningful: it's real. Even the members of the cast are not always in agreement about the show.

"For me [being in "The Vagina Monologues"] has been an opportunity to meet more like-minded women and women who want to discuss these issues whether we agree on them or not," senior Molly Morin said.

The show is supposed to be dialectic.

"People tell me: `Oh Kerry, you've done such a great thing for this campus.' I really don't see it as me doing a great thing for this campus, I see it as a group of women who have come together to do a great thing for this campus," Walsh said.

Some audience members may find the content offensive. The play uses very frank language and describes things that are often not spoken about freely in public. But the cast of the show is not being edgy for the sake of being edgy; it's really is important to the meaning they are trying to convey.

People uninterested in the message of "The Vagina Monologues" will most likely find the show dull. But those who are interested in discussion of the issues in the show will be pleased with the thought-provoking delivery of the Notre Dame cast.

"The Vagina Monologues" will be performed tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in 101 DeBartolo Hall. General admission is $7, $5 for Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students. Call or visit the LaFortune Student Center box office at (574) 631-8128 to purchase tickets. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the women's rights group SOS.

Contact C. Spencer Beggs at beggs.3@nd.edu.

• `Vagina warriors' come to the Notre Dame stage