Shere Hite is a frightening woman. The first thing that strikes you is her incredible beauty, considering her age (Hite is 67). Next is her calm, eerie and slow tone of voice, which sends shivers down your spine.
Yet it is only when she unabashedly asks her audience, “Do you masturbate?” at the beginning of her speech, prompting nervous laughter from gathered students, that you realise her intimidating levels of self-confidence.
Since the 1970s, Hite has written twelve books on women and their inferior status in sexual life. She claims, “Sex is too focused on male-oriented intercourse…it is quite hard to orgasm during intercourse for a woman as it does not compare to our masturbation.”
To produce her “Hite Reports”, Shere has interviewed many women, concluding that 70% do not reach orgasm during the penetrative sex, because it lacks clitoral stimulation, an aspect of sex from which most women derive pleasure.
For Hite, this problem of male-oriented sex stems from our traditions and social notions. “Is it true that our shape defines our roles? There is the assumption that psychology grows out of our nature. I do not agree.” She adds, “Why is it that calling boy a ‘girl’ is still an insult? We need to upgrade the status of a girl. If men were bleeding, we would have called the days a national holiday.”
Hite is deeply troubled by sexual inequality. She is convinced that to gain gender equality we need to start on a sexual level. One of the problems she identifies is language. How can you communicate with your partner if you would like some “clitoral stimulation”? Hite pleads, “Can you suggest a better word? This has too many syllables.”
She also points out that female genitalia are often referred to in derogatory terms. “Cunt is another word that has become a form of insult. You dirty rotten cunt.”
Hite is critical of societal sexual attitudes. She says, “There is a view that sex is separate from the rest of your life, you shouldn’t masturbate. I don’t agree…we need to change the direction of culture to improve sexual freedom.”
Hite has also criticised family as the source of oppression for many females in her third report. As a result of her research, she concluded that 98% of married women are dissatisfied. However, her methodology has come under heavy criticism as only 4% of women to whom the survey was sent replied – it has been suggested that those who replied might have been more inclined to answer negatively. In a similar survey led by The Washington Post which used the technique of random sampling, as many as 93% of women were satisfied with their marriages.
As a result of the hostility she has encountered to her work she renounced her American citizenship, becoming a German citizen, as her husband at the time was. But Hite won’t tell me about how her research has affected her personal life. She seems heavily guarding her own sexual privacy, despite her willingness to disregard others’.
When I ask her what advice she would give to a fresher in this University, she switches topic suddenly saying, “But Marta, I came here to ask you personal questions, how do you reach orgasm?” Maybe it’s because down to all the psychological oppression, maybe it’s a result of cultural relativism, but I answer the question only half-heartedly and slightly intimidated, leave as soon as I can.
THE HITE FILE
Personal: Born in 1942, in Missouri. Hite married in 1985 a German citizen 19 years her junior. The marriage lasted 15 years.
Education: BA & MA at University of Florida; Started Ph.D studies in Columbia where she modelled part-time. Claims she received a Ph.D. from Nihon University, Japan
First Book: The Hite Report on Female Sexuality (1976) where she argued that orgasm is right for women given the right stimulation.
Plans for the future: Create a new, televised Hite report, for which she filmed several Oxford students.
