Ahead of its release in UK cinemas on 12th January, discover the pioneering feminist researcher and bestselling author behind the revelatory portrait The Disappearance of Shere Hite.
Shere Hite’s 1976 bestselling book, The Hite Report, liberated the female orgasm by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Her findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. So how did Shere Hite disappear?
Digging into exclusive archives, as well as Hite’s personal journals and the original survey responses, filmmaker Nicole Newnham (Crip Camp, 2021 Best Feature Documentary Oscar® Nominee, Audience Award Winner: U.S. Documentary, 2020 Sundance Film Festival) transports viewers back to a time of great societal transformation around sexuality. Her revelatory portrait is a rediscovery of a pioneer who has had an unmistakable influence on current conversations about gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy, as well as a timely, cautionary tale of what too often happens to women who dare speak out.
The Shere Hite Report:
A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality
The Hite Report, a groundbreaking study of the intimate experiences of women, remains one of the bestselling books of all time since its publication in 1976. Drawn from anonymous survey responses, the book challenged restrictive conceptions of sex and opened a dialogue in popular culture around women’s pleasure. Its charismatic author, Shere Hite, a feminist sex researcher and former model, became the public messenger of women’s secret confessions.
Image credit: Iris Brosch
the book has since sold almost 50m copies worldwide.
Image credit: James Hamilton
Nicole Newnham, the director of The Disappearance of Shere Hite recalls her experience discovering Hite’s groundbreaking research, stating:
“The women who answered Shere’s intimate survey were eye-opening to me both in their diversity - age, race, sexual identity, experiences - and also in their commonality. The book helped me understand that there was not one ideal script to follow about who to be, who to love, and how to love them.”
RECEPTION OF THE HITE REPORT
Image credit: Mike Wilson
As the backlash mounted, the media began questioning her research methods and claimed her findings were flawed and unreliable. Despite the vitriol, Hite continued to conduct research, publishing several more bestsellers about men, sexuality, and the family that further provoked the establishment.
So what happened to Shere Hite?
Image credit: iris Brosch
Nicole Newnham highlights the importance of revisiting the trailblazing researcher:
“What I learned from Hite was valuable, hard to access information.. Women’s pleasure was not part of my high school sex education and in the late ‘80s, I heard mentions of Hite’s work at college, but soon after, she and the conversations she sparked disappeared. I realized young women today needed to have these conversations. I felt that in answering the question “how did someone like Shere Hite disappear?” we might come to understand the architecture of silence, how ideas that challenge the predominant power structure dissipate, and the cost of that to our progress towards an equitable society.”
WATCH A TEASER - THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE
In cinemas 12th January.