The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

This is your brain on sex

Associate Director of Counseling Services Dr. Tim Silvestri kicked off Sex Week last Thursday by leading the brown bag “This is Your Brain on Sex.”

He began the lecture by showing the audience a short scene from the 2011 film Crazy, Stupid, Love that showed Ryan Gosling’s character flirting with Emma Stone’s. By having the audience watch the clip, Silvestri taught the crowd a few crucial tips for attracting others. He said flirting is about sparking curiosity in the person you are trying to court, such as by grabbing the person’s attention, making your conversation interpersonal and it will advance beyond the surface level. The crowd also watched a clip from the 2005 movie Hitch, in which Will Smith’s character smoothly courts Eva Mendez’s. The clip exemplified Silvestri’s message that immersion and peaking curiosity help when looking for relationships.

Silvestri also directed the lecture towards a conversation about the dangers of sexual addiction, along with other types of addiction. He said that in order to break an addiction, one should not tell themselves they are going to stop partaking in that vice, because it will only remind the person of what they are trying to stop, which is ineffective. One should instead connect the desire to quit to a core value or moral that he or she wishes to live by. In doing so, he or she will be able to take a step towards personal autonomy and freedom from the addiction.

Some audience members felt misled by the lecture’s title, since it was not completely focused on sex.

“The talk was not what I expected in terms of information about sex,” Stephanie McCartney ‘17 said. “I was hoping to get a more scientific approach about the brain during sexual intercourse, but instead I learned how to attract people.”

Still, many students that attended the lecture thought the talk was interesting and informative.

“It was interesting and humorous and Silvestri made a good point about how we need to just be ourselves and show genuine interest in others,” Marci Weinstein ‘17 said.

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