Advance tickets sales have ended but plenty of additional tickets remain available at the door.
Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “The Science of Sex, Love and Pleasure,” with Jenn Pollitt, assistant professor and assistant director of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and teacher of courses on human sexuality at Temple University.
No matter our age, when it comes to matters of love and sex many of us fumble in the dark, lacking crucial knowledge of how to be a good to ourselves and our partners or even a basic understanding of the signals our bodies send us. Worse yet, we’re bombarded with—and sometimes go through life believing—notions that impede our relationships and limit our pleasure even though research on human sexuality proves them false.
Take heart if you are among the many who could still stand to learn a thing or two. Profs and Pints is offering you a do-over of the proverbial talk about “the birds and the bees” or whatever sex ed you received in high school. Come to the Black Squirrel Club in Philadelphia’s Fishtown to get a crash course on love and sex from Professor Jenn Pollitt, a designer of sex education curricula and a teacher of college-level sexuality education courses popular among Temple University’s students.
Dr. Pollitt will explore the science behind attraction, arousal, desire, orgasm, touch, and connection, drawing from research informed by gender and sexuality studies, medicine, psychology, and neuroscience.
She’ll discuss what’s known about love, lust and infatuation, tackling questions such as where that “falling in love” feeling comes from, or why we can’t stop thinking about love in the beginning of relationships, or why that feeling changes or fades as relationships become long-term. She’ll help us sort out whether a racing heart means that we’re excited or, instead, anxious, and why that’s important to love, sex, and romance. You’ll learn why “heartache” can be physically felt.
Focusing on pleasure, Dr. Pollitt will take us on a tour of our bodies and discuss how they interact with the bodies of others. She’ll talk about how our anatomy and physiology, neurotransmitters, hormones, and much more all interact to create a sense of our sexual selves. You’ll become more familiar with haptics, or the neuroscience of touch, and learn about the phenomenon of “skin hunger.” You’ll also learn the differences between two forms of arousal--psychogenic and reflexogenic—and how each informs sexual behavior and satisfaction.
Among the questions Professor Pollitt will tackle: Is there really such a thing as a “cuddle hormone”? Audience members will have a chance to anonymously submit questions about things they have always wanted to know but been afraid to ask. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. People can come to the bar any time after 3 pm.)
image: Photo by Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels.