Profs and Pints Online presents: “Debunking Human Sexuality Myths,” with Rui Diogo, associate professor of anatomy at Howard University's College of Medicine and resource faculty member at George Washington University's Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology.

[This talk will remain available in recorded form at the link given here for tickets and access.]

It might be time to forget much of what you’ve learned or assumed about sex, sexual relationships, and bodily tendencies and desires. There’s a good chance that many of your ideas are far more based on pseudoscience, various taboos and biases, or stories made up out of whole cloth than any real understanding of the facts as derived from scientific observation.

Gain a rich understanding of what empirical research says about sex and relations between the sexes in this new talk by Diogo, an evolutionary biologist who previously gave a great talk on the narratives surrounding sex and has earned a substantial following among Profs and Pints audiences. Summarizing the latest findings from evolutionary biology, neurobiology, physiology, anthropology, psychology and medicine, he’ll tell us what empirical research has to say about human sexuality and behavior.

Professor Diogo will start by tracing how many of our wrong ideas about sex came into being, looking at how the imposition of monogamy, the teachings of religions, and the writings of Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud especially distorted our understanding of the sexuality of women. He’ll describe how the resulting social norms, biases and prejudices affect our ability to enjoy sex and influence our natural, physiological sexual tendencies.

He’ll then look at what empirical research tells us about topics such as monogamy, polygamy, polyamory, and open relationships, as well as homosexuality and a host of other sexual preferences and behaviors. Among the main questions he’ll tackle: Who naturally has more potential to derive pleasure from sex, men or women?

You might not emerge from the talk a better lover, but you’re likely to at least end up being a more thoughtful, informed, and caring one. Your ancestors up in the trees missed out on such learning opportunities.

Profs & Pints Online: Debunking Human Sexuality Myths