32. The Disappearance of Shere Hite; movie review

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE

Cert 15

118 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language, sex references, nudity

How can someone be so horribly vilified for merely telling the truth?

Shere Hite's book on female sexuality is among the top 30 biggest sellers in the United States.

And yet she relinquished her American citizenship because of the hatred she encountered from men as a consequence of writing it.

Nicole Newnham's The Disappearance Of Shere Hite returns to the 1970s when its subject sent out thousands of very specific questionnaires about sex to the public.

The answers were surprising and courted considerable controversy.

With diary and journal entries read by Dakota Johnson, the film traces back to Hite's time as a student when she modelled to make ends meet to her death four years ago.

But its keenest focus is on The Hite Report, the intimate study of female experience and desire, and the book that caused colossal offence.

Newnham's documentary includes contributions from those who knew and worked with Hite and the toe-curling interviews with her by male TV presenters and panellists who had either not read her work or hadn't understood it.

Mrs W and I were gobsmacked by the gall of blokes to speak on behalf of their wives and partners with such assurance, irked by the suggestion that a high percentage of women were either dissatisfied with sex or had resorted to an affair.

The angry men's retort was that the survey results didn't chime with their experience (of course, they didn't because they weren't communicating with their wives).

Astonishingly, the media added considerable weight to discrediting Hite, giving inordinate resources to arguments and so-called evidence against her. They even smeared her by dredging up her modelling past.

The Disappearance of Shere Hite is a thorough biopic of the flamboyant and highly erudite feminist.

Sadly, it shows she needed a thicker skin to go public with her findings about women's secret confessions.

Nevertheless, it reflects poorly on the alpha male ego and shows how hard the media can bite those who dare to speak out.

But she did open up a conversation and will have changed the lives of those with an open mind.

It is a shame she did not live to see this thorough and enlightening documentary.

Reasons to watch: Detailed biopic of a reformer

Reasons to avoid: Quite academic at times

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? In 1995, Hite renounced her US citizenship at the former Embassy of the United States in Bonn. She accepted German nationality because she regarded German society as more tolerant and open-minded about her endeavors.

The final word. Nicole Newnham: "There was something about this project that it just had to happen. The ferocity of the response of people to the story, how badly myself and the other mostly women (but some amazing men, too) glommed onto it—we were consciously and subconsciously realising this was an opportunity to respond to the backlash against women controlling their own bodies." IDA

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