revfamily_hitereportsonrevolution

Hite Research International

HOW HITE REPORTS A NEW REVOLUTION

Byline: HELEN O'NEILL

Shere Hite's work has created controversy since the first Hite Report was published almost 20 years ago. Her findings - and even her methods - are still attracting criticism. HELEN O'NEILL writes from London.

SHERE Hite is used to taking flak. When the American feminist's last report, Women And Love, was published in 1988, press reaction was so ferocious that despite the efforts of a 12-strong defence committee, including feminists like Gloria Steinem and Kate Millett, Hite moved out of the United States.

"People will tell you controversy sells books but it depends on the kind of controversy," says Hite, who now divides her time between homes in Cologne, Paris and London.

"The paperback rights to that book would have been the seed money for the next project and no-one (in the US) would bid on the paperback rights because the attack was so fierce. Everyone got very, very nervous ...And the controversy wasn't about the issues in the book. That was the tragic part to me, because I think that the issues are really important, and to this day, they haven't really been discussed." Hite pauses and a wicked smile begins to play on the corners of her lips. "But women are moving on anyway, so it doesn't really matter."

Since she started publishing Hite Reports in 1976, Shere Hite, has left a trail of controversy in her wake. BOASTING a body of research work that is gaining almost epic proportions, Hite, in person, is something of a surprise. Immaculately turned out, irrepressibly curious, and looking two decades younger than her 51 years, she exudes tremendous energy and the mischievous charm of a child. The researcher discusses her marriage to a 31-year-old German pianist, Friedrich Horick, with an open enthusiasm, and breaks into peals of laughter quickly, and often without warning. She gives the impression that however seriously she debates her cause, all she really wants is for people to have fun. Hite says this report, the Hite Report on the Family has yet to generate the extraordinary aggression provoked by the last one. Mind you, she adds, it has yet to be published in the US. Even so, Hite threw quite a stone into the pond with Women and Love, and six years on, the ripples are still visible. The magazine section of Britain's Daily Telegraph printed a profile of Hite, raising questions about her methodology.

The newspaper itself ran a review of the new report under the headline : "Shere Hite Blames Men For Failings In The Family".

"If you read the (review), there wasn't one word of blame and in fact I'm sticking up for men; I think they have a tough time of it too," Hite shrugs in exasperation. "I was really wiped out by that headline."

The other issue, Hite's methodology, is one that has been plaguing the researcher for some time. Her use of lengthy questionnaires inviting essay-style replies has been called non-scientific and likely to attract mainly introspective, middle-class respondents

"In general, there has been a lack of understanding of what the research methods are," Hite says. "The defence committee said, and I agree, that the attacks on my methodology were really more like a smokescreen. You can't attack someone who is trying to propose equal rights for women, you can't attack on most of the grounds of the things I say ... It seems easier and also more of a diversion (to) attack on some other grounds. The methodology, or a lot of times I get character assassination-type attacks - she's a fraudulent person, therefore her research must be fraudulent."

Yet Hite's research has a habit of being borne out by subsequent studies. And now she is anticipating a revolution in family life.

Was she expecting what this survey threw up?

She says not. "I was completely surprised. There's been a long discussion about girls, how girls are brought up to think of themselves as second-class ... but boys and men were telling horror stories about the kinds of things that they'd gone through and complaining over and over that girls have it better.

"From a feminist point of view, that's an amazing (statement), you can't believe boys have it worse, but boys really do suffer."

She typically works on several strands of research at once and says she is thinking about comparing how women felt about sexuality 20 years ago and how they feel about it now. Her appetite for research seems insatiable. She asks questions - any questions - at every opportunity, and recalls a recent incident in which she quizzed a journalist about how young she was when she had her first orgasm.

"She never answered me," Hite laughed. "I still don't know."

Does she mind not knowing?

"Well," and a touch of petulance creeps in, "everybody seems to know everything about me."

HITE seems genuinely amazed by the conclusions she finds herself drawing from her work.What we are seeing, socially, she says, is a "transformation ... you don't have to read a disaster scenario into it."

"At the end of centuries, often, there are these fatalistic, end of the world discussions that go on, and I think it's just a bunch of silliness really.

"(But) it's very dangerous for women, in particular, because it's very mediaeval in its approach to women."

One of the most difficult things about her work is that so little has been surveyed before," she says. "Who has ever done this research?," she demands. "Nobody."

Does this surprise her? "Yes. The things that there are in this world that we haven't looked at are amazing.

"That you have to sleep alone for 10 years. Which is so bizarre."

Hite looks away. She is thinking about the fact that children are usually forced to sleep alone in this culture, and that most don't like it.

"There must be some purpose to all that sleeping alone that society wants it," she muses. "I wonder what it could be."

Publication: Sydney Morning Herald - Publication date: 28-2-1994 - Edition: Late - Page no: 9 - Section: News and Features - Sub section: Agenda