The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Shere Hite (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is certain to be another controversial bestseller from the infamous author of previous sex surveys. Her methodology has been criticized and her inferences are sometimes stretched, yet her subjects reveal more about 'Western' family life than cold statistics could ever match. Her findings are often shocking and challenging to traditional assumptions - for example, boys emerge as psychologically and emotionally better off growing up without fathers. The brutality and the distance which some parents contrive to put between themselves and their children is chillingly portrayed, while the characteristics of good parent-child relationships, with intimacy, genuine respect and friendship, though rarer, emerge with clarity. Hite offers some provocative suggestions for improving the lot of boys and girls of the future which parents would do well to contemplate. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Ten years after the Hite Report exploded the myths surrounding women's physical sexuality, Women and Love offers a massive and moving documentation of women's profound questioning of their emotional relationships with men.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 638 pages
• Publisher: Dell; First Edition Edition edition (August 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440136903
• ISBN-13: 978-0440136903
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,029,618 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars World Media Opinion, September 1, 2001

By A Customer

This book has received praise from media and institutions all over the world. For example, Reuters has remarked that it 'has left an indelible mark on Western civilization.' Others, including the prestigious Frankfurter Allgemeine, have called it 'legendary'. The London Times has listed it as one of the top one hundred key books of the twentieth century. It received the distinguished service award from America's largest organization of sex researchers and counselors, AASECT (American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists).

Why? Because it was the first and still in many ways is the only book to 'make the case' for the beauty and pleasure of clitoral stimulation for female orgasm. It galvanized and helped create a cultural revolution, documenting in women's own voices and with statistics (based on its own independent sample of over 3,000 women of all ages and walks of life) that almost all women can orgasm easily and efficiently with clitoral or exterior stimulation of the vulva -- and going on to question why this is not considered a 'normal part of sex'? Why is there no word for this, i.e., why is this 'act' never shown in films or pornography (where the focus is almost always on coitus, bondage or fellatio)? Yes, this is a feminist analysis of 'sex', stating (it was the first to do so) that our definition of sex is a cultural and historical phenomenon, not simply a 'biological inevitability.'

Read this book if you want to understand anything about female sexuality.

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Revealing, May 7, 2008

By	K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews

I read this book in the early 1980's and found it quite interesting and revealing. The thousands of women that responded to Hite's anonymous questionnaires seemed willing to open up, and both men and women can learn from what they had to say. Hite's finding that only 30 percent of women climax during intercourse should encourage couples to communicate. She also mixes long responses with one-phrase answers, and the result is often revealing and occasionally tiltillating. Critics say that Hite lacked a perfect scientific sample, but one suspects her respondents were more honest than those who participate in face-to-face interviews (Kinsey, etc.). Perhaps most of all this book seems to confirm the emotional and physical appeal of the subject.

This book was based on questionnaires answered in the pre-safe sex, pre-cyber porn 1970's, but seem quite relevant today. Ms. Hite left the USA for Germany in the 1990's, apparently due to attacks on her and her work. This is an imperfect book, but worth a look.

1 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Serves well for one purpose, August 3, 1999

By	Aidan ([e-mail]) (Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews

The book serves well as for the testimonies it has. It keeps a neutral line as for instructing the best sexual approach following the duality presented in the testimonies in the subject of orgasm and sexual joy by vaginal sex vs. non-vaginal sex.