Before a packed crowd Monday night at the Hillel building, Dr. Ruth Westheimer relayed to University of Wisconsin students and community members the insights that have given her a household name as an authority on sexual behavior.

The 74-year-old Westheimer, better known as “Dr. Ruth,” spoke about topics ranging from masturbation and premature ejaculation to abortion and pornography during her presentation called “Sexually Speaking.”

While she often draws on her religion in explaining her sexual philosophy, Westheimer said she is not a strict adherent to the traditional Jewish belief that sex before marriage is wrong.

Choosing when to engage in sexual intercourse “depends on the [person’s] values, on [their] beliefs and on having the right partner,” she said.

Westheimer offered advice for women engaging in sexual relations with their partners.

“If he wants to have more sexual activity than she does, I say to her: ‘What’s the big deal? It takes two minutes,'” Westheimer said, prompting laughter and applause from the audience.

Asked by an audience member if any question had ever made her blush, Westheimer talked about the time that Diane Sawyer came to her house for an interview. Westheimer let her husband participate in the interview, and Sawyer’s first question was directed to him, asking him how his sex life was with his wife.

“The shoemaker’s children don’t have shoes,” he replied.

Students said they were appreciative of Dr. Ruth’s advice and openness on sexuality.

“She’s not afraid to approach anything, no matter how embarrassing it could be for the person,” said UW sophomore Paola Morantess.

UW freshman Patrick Emanual said the lecture taught him about “what each person can contribute to a relationship and also reinforced the fact that for relationships to prosper and grow, you need to open up that line of communication.”

Morantess, however, disagreed with Dr. Ruth’s pro-choice views.

“I’m pro-life, and I was kind of upset to hear her opinion, but the fact is that it’s her opinion, and you have to respect that,” Morantess said.

However, he added that Westheimer is “just like a grandmother that everyone should have, telling things that you ought to hear.”

In her lecture, however, Westheimer said that while discussion of sexuality is important, it is not something that should be discussed within the family.

“I want us to imply and to teach,” she said. “But sex ought to remain a private matter. I don’t want anybody to go to the phone after this talk and to ask your parents, ‘Do you masturbate?’ I don’t want anyone to ask, ‘Mother, do you have orgasms?’ I don’t want anyone to call home and say to your father, ‘Did you get it up last night?'”

Sociology professor Dr. John Delamater, who teaches a class on human sexuality at UW, disagreed that families should not talk about sex.

“The problem is that we have this incredibility open treatment of sexual things in the media, and increasingly on prime-time television, and yet we don’t talk about it with people that we’re really close to, and I think that it ought to be the reverse,” Delamater said.

“If parents discussed with their kids more explicit information about sexuality,” he added, ” the young people would find it easier to develop their own sexual adjustment, and they wouldn’t be forced to go to the Internet and other places for all this sexual information.”

Parental involvement or not, Westheimer concluded, “Anybody who is sexually literate, and who really studies the subject matter, and who really has a good sense of humor, is going to be sexually active for a very long time.”