“The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality” was scandalous in circles, and a defiant “yes, we can” in others. Shere Hite’s 1976 bestseller was but one part of the feminist’s plain speak about sexuality. She said words that people just didn’t say on TV (and she was on TV a lot) without shame or embarrassment.
Drink a shot every time the word “orgasm” is spoken and you’ll be on the floor in minutes. But juvenile jokes aside, Hite was a super famous personality. She was a professional model in New York for important accounts, while spending every other minute surveying men and women (respondents were anonymous) and culling the data into a book that many found useful.
It was a battle-even in the post-Woodstock, bell-bottomed days of the mid 70s, women were held back in almost every facet of living which, it turns out, included the bedroom, where their satisfaction was not guaranteed. Unless they helped themselves.
There is ample stock footage of Hite through the years, which is augmented by Dakota Johnson narrating some of Hite’s other musings and explanations. She was reviled by millions, but somehow faded away by the time she died in 2020.
The film by Director Nicole Newnham has woven a full two-hour bio-doc that could have used another run through the editor, but Hite’s dreamy voice and flawless face were only a shield from her serious mind and inner fire, so it’s important to go inside and out.
There are typical talking head interview clips within, but I welcomed them. We needed to hear from people who knew her from an angle that the public didn’t necessarily see.
Her “disappearance” is meant metaphorically; I can’t remember hearing her name since I was 13 years old. Did the mob forget, forgive, or simply adapt to the times that she helped change?
The Disappearance of Shere Hite | Not Rated | 3 out of 4 Stars
