By By: Gail Waterhouse

Northeastern students got a lesson in how the opposite sex thinks Tuesday night at an interactive lecture entitled ‘Everything You Always Wanted To Know About the Opposite Sex.’

The event was held in Blackman Auditorium as part of Greek Week, a series of events sponsored by the Interfraternity Council, the Multicultural Greek Council, the National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Panhellenic Council. The event had an audience of more than 250 people, garnering male and female interest among, Greeks and non-Greeks alike.

‘The attendence for all of the events, including this one, has far exceeded our expectations,’ said Tom Cody, a senior computer science major who is this year’s Greek Week Chair.

The guest speaker for the evening was Dr. Lori Hart Ebert, director of alcohol education for Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity and a speaker for Campusspeak, Inc. As she stepped on to the stage with high energy, Hart asked for audience participation and began her talk by asking women and men what they found most ‘mind-boggling’ about the opposite sex.

One woman stood up and stated that what annoyed her most about men was that they ‘lie when they don’t have to,’ a statement that was met with loud applause from other women in the audience.

When asked the same question, one man responded that he didn’t like ‘how much [women] are able to lead [men] on,’ which seemed to be a sentiment many men in the audience agreed with.

Ebert addressed these and other issues by discussing the differences between men and women through four aspects: ‘ biology, stereotypes, socialization and communication.’

Ebert kept the audience engaged throughout her presentation by slipping in facts like that the average female speaks 20,000 words per day, while the average male speaks about 7,000 words per day.

With such a large discrepancy in words per day, it may be fairly easy to see why Ebert said that many of the problems in relationships have to do with communication.

‘It’s simple versus complicated,’ Ebert said of the way men and women think. Men can focus better when they only have to deal with one task at a time, while women are better multi-taskers, she said, and each gender would communicate better if it realized how the other processed information.

‘Love looks different for men and women,’ she declared.’ For college students, the most important thing is, ‘figuring out what it is you truly need for a relationship to be successful.’

Though she stressed that gender identity is based on different qualifiers like ethnicity, home life and what part of the country someone was raised in, many people in the audience said they identify with the points Ebert made.

‘You’re laughing because it’s true,’ Ebert said to the women in the audience at one point in the evening, after describing how women expect men to do things they haven’t specifically requested.

Ebert ended the evening by reminding audience members that college was a time for self-introspection.

‘Right now you need to learn to love yourself,’ she said.’ ‘Focus on being in relationships that make you better than you are, but remember that nobody completes you but you.’

Many in the audience seemed to enjoy the event, which lasted approximately an hour and a half, and said they took away a variety of lessons from it.

‘I thought it was very entertaining,’ said Katie Ryan, a junior business marketing major.’ ‘She gave us good research and also gave great advice about relationships and life in general.’

Sophomore biology major Verron Dorville also thought that the evening was a balance of information and entertainment. ‘It was like a comedy show with facts thrown in,’ he said.’ ‘I definitely learned a lot from it.’
Greek Week started Saturday with a community service
day, and ends today with the Greek Awards. Last night was a Greek Sing & Dance Competition in Blackman Auditorium, which had all of the
different sororities and fraternities competing for number one.