The Disappearance of Shere Hite (2023), by Nicole Newnham

She sold more than 20 million books in 36 countries, translated to 19 languages… and banned in at least eight countries. She could have started a revolution about how men and women discuss and live their sexuality. Yet, when she passed away, in 2020, the news made just a few headlines. Shere Hite, author of what should be the infamous “The Hite Report”, was forgotten because she was ahead of her time. And it took almost 50 years to make her discussions timely, that are now resurrected with the new documentary “The Disappearance of Shere Hite”.

A beautiful strawberry blonde, Shere modeled for a while during college years to make ends meet. At around the same time — it was the late 1960s — she took part in her first feminist protests… suddenly she had found her place in the world. Her place as a model would only be found decades later, when submitted to the female gaze of her friend Iris.

In 1972, she started printing questionnaires about sexuality, masturbation and orgasms that she spread all over the USA for women to answer to anonymously. She received three thousand answers in five years. The data was then analyzed and presented in a book called “The Hite Report”, with the subtitle “A nationwide study of female sexuality”. The publishers printed only 4,000 copies and wanted to do no publicity on the book, but Shere was smarter: she took part on a conference about sexuality and there she presented her work. Her book soon became the talk of the country — and a best seller.

In a time when women couldn’t get credit on their own — they needed their husband’s signature to get a credit card — Shere got money from friends to see her book published. These angel investors were dutifully paid back when the book became a success.

When the book was published — the late 1970s — a movement had been drawing: the far-right movement to obtain political power and nix the rights of women and homosexuals, claiming that those rights were corrupting children’s minds: “homosexuals have to reproduce by corrupting our children” were the very exact words uttered by conservative spokesperson Anita Bryant and included in the documentary. In the middle of this turmoil there she was: Shere Hite, advocating for people to love whoever they wanted.

In 1981, a companion book to “The Hite Report” was published, this time about male sexuality, coming from more than seven thousand answers to Shere’s questionnaire from men aged 13 to 97. She chronicled in the book the trouble of male loneliness and toxic masculinity, but most men at the time weren’t ready for this conversation. In TV shows and the press, they tried to diminish her book, which was again a success but a smaller one than expected. You can see how uncomfortable men were with her findings from a single interview: when put next to David Hasselhoff — quite an interesting pairing, to say the least — he stutters when trying to have a dialogue about sexuality.

It’s infuriating to watch Shere Hite become the target of scrutinity and judgement because of her methods and her past — after all, she had been the model for lascive book covers and was featured in a Playboy article. Besides that, she had to sue her publisher to get her full earnings. As one of the interviewed men who met her put in words: “A lot of people couldn’t take her seriously because of the way she presented herself, but presenting herself that way was who she was”.

There is a surprising amount of footage from Shere Hite herself, from videos of her walking down the street with her dog to interviews on TV. There are also many photos, including photos from her famous house parties. This allows for a complete portrait of a woman who should be a feminist icon as famous as author Betty Friedan, from “The Feminine Mystique”.

“The Disappearance of Shere Hite” had an almost all female team behind the cameras. The writings of Shere Hite are read by Dakota Johnson, the daughter and granddaughter of two famous actresses, respectively Melanie Griffith and Tippi Hedren. The director and screenwriter is Nicole Newnham, from the Oscar nominated “Crip Camp” (2020). The documentary premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and has been collecting praises ever since.

“Male ownership of women’s sexuality is what makes the patriarchy possible. As women, we deserve the right to own our own bodies”. These are the words to live by, by feminist icon Shere Hite.