THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE - Mark Reviews Movies

The Disappearance of Shere Hite, IFC Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 16, 2023

Critics can help to define history, which probably sounds like an oddly obvious and egotistical thing for a critic to say, but the more important question is whether or not the criticism that helps to form the public's contemporary opinion and long-term memory of something is made in good faith. One can't help but think of that while watching the third act of The Disappearance of Shere Hite, which highlights the life and career of the eponymous figure—a woman who was internationally famous during the 1970s and '80s, only for a questionable degree of infamy to send her into a kind of self-imposed exile.

Shere Hite, who literally wrote the book on women's sexuality, didn't have any ill intent or hateful motives when she researched how women have sex, what they want from it, why they want it, and, a somewhat scandalous point at the time, the means by which they can and do achieve orgasm. How could she? The perspective was a scientific one of pure curiosity.

Two famous sexologists had written one book about the female orgasm, suggesting that the previously agreed upon means of it was incorrect, and changed course entirely in a follow-up work, falling back on the old idea that the main method for a woman to have an orgasm is through intercourse. Her book The Hite Report on Female Sexuality, written after years of sending out and interpreting thousands of anonymous questionnaires completed by women from across the United States of diverse demographic backgrounds, offered a clear rebuttal to the old thinking. Penetration wasn't always important or, for that matter, even necessary for a woman to have an orgasm.

That book was published in 1976, just to give one an idea of how such a commonplace way of modern thinking about one of the fundamentals of sex and sexual pleasure took so long to even be considered. Hite's book become a bestseller, with director Nicole Newnham point out to a few interviewees late in the film that it's the 30th bestselling book of all time. Most of them, even those who personally knew Hite and definitely know the importance of her work, are pleasantly surprised to discover this bit of trivia. After that, most of them are shocked to realize that, despite the widespread success of her book, the majority of people probably have no clue who Hite was.

The reason for that is a simple, sad, and common one. A good number of people—mostly men—were very, very mad at Hite for her audacity to point out that a traditional way of thinking about something was incredibly wrong. We can see it one some of those critics' faces, as they discuss Hite's book in dismissive, even mocking terms on television or directly confront her on some TV panel show about some hidden agenda she must have.

After Hite wrote a similar book about male sexuality, some actor, whose name and face have also been forgotten to time, on such a program points out that he and no man he knows of are anything like the men who anonymously responded to questionnaires. Part of Hite's findings, of course, is that men are less comfortable discussing emotional matters, lest they be seen as less "masculine" by their peers or larger society, so the look of doubt Hite shoots his way when he keeps insisting upon his point is, well, pretty generous of her, to say the least.

Much of the back end of the documentary consists of similar interviews and confrontations, as well as a lot of critiques made by people who seem to have it out for Hite personally or for women in general. It's all so predictable—not in terms of Newnham's filmmaking, which uses its biographical foundation as a means of getting at some bigger ideas about sex and society, but in the way that, of course, a bunch of men are going to lash out at anyone, especially a woman, who hurts their feelings. She didn't mean to, and they probably shouldn't feel insecure and could use the research as a learning opportunity. That doesn't matter, because some people, if they don't want to know something, can't be taught.

Before arriving at its depressingly inevitable latter section, the vital part of this film is the depth with which Newnham presents and portrays the process and findings of Hite's research. Responses to those questionnaires are recited to or, in the cases of those who recorded the answers on cassette, played for us. Hite and her assistants' charts and graphs are shown to us, and Dakota Johnson gives voice to Hite's public and private writings with the warm, calm tone of someone who cares about these issues and is confident in the work she has done. The evidence is there, and almost half a century removed from that first report, we know much of this stuff, thanks in large part to Hite's work.

The work done by The Disappearance of Shere Hite to make all of that clear, though, means the film's ultimate destination, with our main figure becoming the target of seemingly coordinated doubt and personal attacks, hits hard. That's not only because we can see an all-too familiar pattern emerge from that (The reactionary response from the so-called "moral majority" to a changing culture and society of that time looks exactly like a lot of things happening today). It's also Hite could have done more and should be more recognized now, save for a lot of bad faith from some insincere and/or insecure critics.

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