THE HITE REPORT: A Nationwide Study on Female Sexuality

by Shere Hite ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1976

O.K., O.K., we believe it. There is no such thing as a vaginal orgasm. But anyone would have to admit that nearly 3,000 angry, disillusioned, hostile women decrying what most of them claim to be men's inability to recognize that fact is a bit much. The research from which this book was compiled--a questionnaire sponsored by the National Organization for Women--is, admittedly, voluminous. But it is seriously flawed by the fact that the questionnaire seems to have reached a large proportion of women who are somehow connected to the Women's Movement. Though the author insists repeatedly that this is not the case, the attitudes of the women quoted (and this is a book made up entirely of responses to the questionnaire) as well as the language they use to describe their feelings about sex would indicate otherwise. And so it is a book about how women in The Movement feel about sex, which is often an entirely different matter. Hite begins by categorizing the various ways in which women masturbate (there are four), proceeds from there to analyze orgasm and how the women studied feel about it, and then generalizes from these findings: masturbation can lead invariably to orgasm; women ought to be able ""to orgasm"" as regularly as men do (more, even)--but 70% of them are denied the right to easy orgasm by men who are pigs. The women say so; the author imples it by her choice of quotations. And the voices of the dissatisfied are much louder than those of the contented 30%. In sum--strident, unpleasant, and hardly credible.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION