The Disappearance of Shere Hite 15

Whatever happened to Shere Hite? The feminist writer and researcher caused a minor social earthquake in 1976 with her research on the female orgasm. Based on thousands of anonymous surveys among American women, she concluded that women don’t need penetration to achieve orgasm—other methods of stimulation are much more effective.

The Hite Report, the book in which she shared the women’s candid testimonies, became a worldwide bestseller. In the US it remains one of the top 30 best-selling books of all time. Her findings contradicted what the establishment had always claimed, and were ground-breaking in the debate about gender and sexuality. Yet her name is virtually unknown among younger generations.

Using extensive archive material and interviews with those directly involved, director Nicole Newnham outlines who the flamboyant and charismatic Hite was, the era in which she worked, and how the opposition she increasingly encountered (which, ironically, only served to further corroborate her message) led her to withdraw from public life.