Since 1996 when the Vagina Monologues first opened, millions of women – and men – have sat through the two hour play and learned to “celebrate the vagina.”

However, two of the women on the Editorial Board never had this experience. Thank goodness for YouTube. We decided to watch a scene entitled “Because He Liked to Look at It.” We were blushing even before we hit the play button. Five minutes and nine seconds later, we had finally experienced a small sample of the “Vagina Monologues.” This scene was about a woman’s account of how she learned to love her womanly parts when a man told her it was beautiful after he stared at it for an hour.

We blushed. We laughed nervously when she described the feeling she was left with after she decided her vagina was beautiful. We didn’t know what to say when it ended.

We were speechless. It was awkward. Never before had we been inundated with so many occurences of the word “vagina” in five minutes and nine seconds.

Simply put, it made us uncomfortable.

But at the same time, hearing a woman discuss how she learned  to accept her body was empowering. It’s a message we don’t get to hear very often.

After discussing, the Editorial Board put things in perspective. We realized it was not the word itself, but the fact that as a culture, it has become so taboo to discuss women’s sexuality. The awkward feeling we were initially left with after watching the video was a result of our instinct to be uncomfortable when a woman openly discusses her sexuality. We’re just not used to it.

But it’s important we learn to get past this. Aside from being a play about women celebrating their bodies physically, the monologues deal with issues that are often off the radar.

Violence against women for example is a strong theme that is brought up in the monologues, and even though it may seem like something far away, reality is that it’s part of our world here at Iowa State.

According to the Sexual Assault Response Team of Story County, women victims of these crimes are far from alone. From 2006 to 2008, there were 149 incidences of sexual assault at Iowa State, and those are just the cases that were reported. Due to the nature of rape and sexual assault – difficulty in proving the event in court, mental trauma on the part of the victim, embarrassment and shame –  it is estimated by a 2005 U.S. Department of Justice National Crime Victimization Study that 60 percent of sexual assault goes unreported.

This year, 10  percent of  proceeds from the “Vagnia Monologues” will go to V-Day, an organization dedicated to raising funds that go toward ending such violence against women across the world. Ninety percent of the proceeds will go toward ACCESS assault care center in Ames.

ACCESS is an organization dedicated to providing a “safe environment for empowerment and exploration of personal strengths” for victims of domestic violence.

You may have noticed this editorial taking a turn for the more serious, and that’s on purpose.

We wanted to reflect the way watching the “Vagina Monologues” made us feel: Awkward at first, giggling under our breath, and finally realizing the true impact of the message present. This isn’t about man-bashing, this isn’t a feminazi rant. This is us, telling you what we learned, and what we hope you’ll learn.

So we on the Editorial Board encourage you to go celebrate vaginas and donate to worthwhile causes. The “Vagina Monologues” will be held tonight in the Memorial Union at 6:30 p.m. and again at 9 p.m.