The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and Then Disappeared

Come and meet Shere Hite—the feminist hero whose notorious work revolutionized how we think about sex, marriage, and the female orgasm...

Despite being one of the leading thinkers of the second wave feminist movement, today Shere Hite is little known, little written about, and, unsurprisingly, little read. Her groundbreaking book, The Hite Report, was the first feminist exploration of the link between sex and male power. It sold millions of copies when first published in 1976 and revolutionized the way people thought about marriage and the female orgasm. How, then, did it, and Hite, disappear from public consciousness? 

Using original research material and sharp cultural analysis, Rosa Campbell explores Hite’s complicated life and literary legacy. Campbell expands on Hite’s ideas about sex — namely, that sex is sexist — and tracks Hite through her fraught childhood, her struggles working in the porn industry, and her eventual cancellation by the far-right Evangelical movement. All the while, Campbell holds Hite and The Hite Report to account for their own failings and absence of intersectionality. 

In a post-Dobbs, post-MeToo world, this book’s examination of shifting ideological movements is essential to understanding both the current feminist movement, as well as how conservative, reactionary, counter-mobilization efforts can silence even the most successful of women. Contains 8 black and white vintage photos.

Rosa Campbell is a historian of global feminism and writer based in London. She is a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow at King's College, London and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She has written for Literary Hub, The White Review, The Independent, Public Books, and Meanjin, among others.