Thrillers R Us's Reviews > The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality

Typed as an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon during most of the 1960s, the counterculture movement had a big helping hand from the British Invasion that started approximately mid-decade. Among the many aspects of British culture arriving on United States shores that gained popularity (not only with fans of the female persuasion) was the burgeoning English rock band THE ROLLING STONES. Not scoring their first #1 hit on both shores of the Atlantic (and incidentally the first US #1) until 1965's (I can't get no) Satisfaction, the Stones have shown incredible stamina, still going strong after sixty years in the biz. Written by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards and recorded by an all-male band, '(I can't get no) Satisfaction' is about corporatocracy and sexual frustration, the latter of which, of course, if THE HITE REPORT is consulted, is a barefaced lie.

THE HITE REPORT, first published in 1976, was a sexual revolution in six hundred pages, chronicling the answers to sensitive questions dealing with the most intimate details of women across America. An important read about women for women by women, and most any other reader could benefit from attentively reading it, too. By no means to be generalized as representative of ALL women, it's a great starting point for shaping personal perspective since there still is a comparative and competitive (male centered) view of sexuality [generally speaking--probably media and entertainment influenced], and a stereotyped way of defining sex. Consequently, through reading the other side, THE HITE REPORT is also good for understanding male perspective formation and cultural as well as institutional behavior and attitudes. As such, the report provides a personal, real, and important look at the (perceived & experienced) toxic effects of patriarchal society and patrilineal inheritance assurance, forced monogamy, and widespread influence and acceptance of Freudian model of female psychology.

As was said in DUNE, he who controls the spice controls the universe, and it seems from the report's analysis, that controlling (female) sexuality maintains the form of social organization that we know. That is, institutionalized acceptable physical congress, codified into many laws, seems to have seen use in earlier times to ensure population growth and with that consolidation of power, wealth, territory, and control, resulting in pronatalist bias in modern culture, creating social pressure on women. Has the world changed in the intervening years or have things turned for the worse? In light of there existing a whole spectrum of possible physical (intimate) relations, sex and physical relations must be redefined in a way that ceases to reflect oppressive and cultural stereotypes, starting with an overhaul of the limited vocabulary that corrals the congress to a rather linear and predictable outcome or conclusion, leaving one party more or less in lurch.

With references to scholarly greats like Kinsey, Masters & Johnson, Sherfey, as well as Berg & Street, THE HITE REPORT may seem antiquated; it does have a certain 1960s/70s feel to it, making mention of "hip, making a scene, dig it, communes, etc." THE HITE REPORT lives on the strength of the often explicit yet eloquent and honest answers to drastically direct questions, about 60 per questionnaire in different waves over a one year period. The vulnerability and honesty of the replies are engaging and often quite humorous without degenerating into cruelty or ridicule. Phrases like Vaginal destiny, lonely psychological limb, vicarious emotional climax, sexual dishonesty, and receptacle-participant parallax make THE HITE REPORT utterly readable and relatable in a world that has destroyed such candor in exchange for toxic positivity and group think. A topic not easily broached, female sexuality is the core of THE HITE REPORT and it's not a diamond in the rough--it's a gem. And it's here to stay. Come hell or high water, everyone can benefit from a readthrough of THE HITE REPORT, reader discretion is advised.