"I Heart Female Orgasm" drew forth the sexually active and the sexually curious on Wednesday evening for a frank and informative discussion about female sexuality.
According to organizers of the program, the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP), attendance was about 270 students as nearly all of the seats were filled.
Speakers Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller commented that the Hopkins crowd had an abnormally large male attendance.
HOP member sophomore Alyssa Forster helped to organize this event, which is not unfamiliar to the Homewood campus.
"They were here three years ago and they said it was a great program," Forster said. Through a Facebook event, flyers and word of mouth, the event was a success for the second time around.
For a potentially uncomfortable discussion topic, the speakers put the crowd at ease, eliciting laughter when Miller joked that they don't ask the audience put their phones on silent, just on vibrate.
Miller and Solot began the program by introducing it as "their favorite subject in the world," a statement emphasized by the fact that they are a couple outside of the workplace.
The two are full-time sexual educators - Solot joked that they have both "personal and profession experience" in the field - and have given over 400 presentations around the country.
"We have spoken at high schools, community programs, conferences and businesses," Solot said. She clarified that in the non-collegiate settings, their talks focused on sexuality and health.
While Miller studied sexuality and society in college, Solot's focus was less geared towards what would become her future career. Instead, her education was in animals and human culture.
In her first anecdote told to the crowd, Solot explained that she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26, an event which would not have occurred if she had not been comfortable with her own body. This would be one of the key elements introduced throughout the evening.
As of last month, though, Solot has celebrated 10 years cancer free.
Stephanie Amalfe, a Cognitive Neuroscience major, felt that Solot's inclusion of the story was powerful to the program's overall message.
"Being able to see a cancer survivor being so confident and comfortable with her body made such a 'hush hush' topic one to embrace."
Unlike many of the Hopkins students who revealed that sexuality wasn't often discussed in their households, Solot came from a fairly open family.
She was taught that masturbation was alright in private, but "not to be done in the sandbox."
Even with this open discourse about sexuality, Solot didn't experience masturbation until she began Brown University where a dean held an annual "Masturbation Presentation."
After the presentation, she went to the bookstore, bought the manual the dean had recommended and proceeded to go through the exercises.
"That was the best $5.99 I ever spent," she said. At this, the audience applauded and Solot continued, "Wouldn't it be cool if every orgasm got applause?"
Much of Solot and Marshall's program was fact based, interspersed with personal anecdotes, results from polls they had conducted and a power point presentation that included the famous "orgasm diner scene" from When Harry Met Sally.
They asked the audience what they have heard about female orgasms. Various responses included that they "don't exist," that they are better than male orgasms and a one-word answer of "Freud."
With a slide show of various magazine covers that feature the word "orgasm," Solot and Marshall demonstrated the overwhelming interest in orgasms, whether it be how to have them, how to peak with one's partner, or what one's "O-face" looks like.
According to Solot and Marshall, part of society's reticence to talk openly about sex comes from what individuals were taught in their childhood.
Sex education classes teach girls how to say "no," while Solot and Marshall stress the importance of being taught how to say "yes" responsibly.
Eventually, the audience was separated into two groups, Solot staying to talk with the women and Marshall leaving to speak to the men.
The program originally began for women only. However, when men kept attempting to sit in on the event, Solot introduced Marshall to the program and turned it co-ed.
"I was worried that women would stop talking," Solot said, thus creating the introduction of gender-specific groups in the middle of the program.
It was also emphasized that transgendered individuals could pick which group they better identified with.
In Solot's group, the women discussed qualities that helped them achieve orgasm and told stories of their first orgasm experiences.
The men discussed where they learned about female sexuality - primarily in high school - as well as what they learned.
The overwhelming response was about the Fallopian tube diagram, something that Marshall declared factual but unhelpful when actually discussing female stimulation.
The question Marshall and Solot receive most often is why women cannot have orgasms from intercourse. While it is not impossible, it is unusual, as only 30 percent of women can have an orgasm from intercourse alone. Generally, clitoral stimulation is needed.
On a related topic of orgasm misconceptions, Solot and Marshall also revealed that, to most women, penis size doesn't matter.
Confirmed by their own study as well as an audience "penis poll," it was reveled that it is not the "size of the boat, but the motion of the ocean" that makes a difference.
One of the most discussed topics of the evening was oral sex, as it is this act which generally has the highest success rate in women achieving orgasm.
While the myth that drinking pineapple juice makes male and women's ejaculations taste better, according to Solot and Marshall, the only qualities that seem to make any difference are being a non-smoker and a vegetarian.
Judging by the applause and enthusiastic responses by students, the audience appeared to enjoy itself.
Psychology major Faradia Kernizan enjoyed the program for the message that it promoted.
"You didn't feel like such a freak," she said.
A student who wished to remain anonymous said, "It was really cool that we got a chance to learn about sex. It was pretty great to hear something positive for a change."
Adam Podlisky, a junior, said that it was "fun and amusing [and] helpful in getting Hopkins to open up."
In a spirit representative of the overall crowd, junior Henry Kaldre joked, "What is a clit-or-is?"
"While it was helpful in teaching me to last longer, I wish they had talked more about prostate health," he said.
While it may have been lacking in male sexual education, "I Heart Female Orgasm" promoted health and sexuality in its candid discussion-centered forum.
Ultimately, Solot and Marshall left a well-satisfied (or soon to be well-satisfied) crowd.
