Shere Hite’s 1976 book, The Hite Report was a huge best-seller that challenged the basic cultural conceptions of female sexuality and sex itself, particularly as it related to female pleasure. According to Newsweek, it has sold 50 million copies and is the 30th-best-selling book (and 3rd-best-selling non-fiction book) of all time. Today, few remember her. What happened? This doc from Nicole Newnham (Crip Camp) examines that question. As influential and earthshaking as the Report was, the conservative, male backlash was equally intense. Archival clips show Hite as she was ambushed by Maury Povich, mocked and mansplained by a number of interviewers, and shouted down by an all-male audience on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Hite died in 2020, having lived her last decades in Europe.
If you didn’t know her before, you’ll wonder why you never heard of Shere Hite. ~SM