Shere Hite Nude

She was born Shirley Diana Gregory in St. Joseph Missouri, but took the name Hite from her stepfather, though she ended up being mostly raised by her grandparents and then an aunt. After graduating from Seabreeze High School in Dayton Beach, Florida, she’d go on to earn a Masters in History from the University of Florida. Shere then relocated to New York City to pursue a doctorate from Columbia but never completed her PhD. However, it was during that time that Shere posed for Playboy magazine, in a spread that would have a great influence - or should we say skinfluence - on her future. While working for the National Organization for Women, Shere began to study female sexuality. Using an individualistic research method consisting of thousands of responses from anonymous questionnaires, Shere concluded that 70% of women do not have orgasms through intercourse but are able to achieve orgasm easily by masturbation or other direct clitoral stimulation. She published her findings in 1976 in the book The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study on Female Sexuality, which was almost immediately contested by her patriarchal predecessors who were wary of her modeling background - specifically her appearance in Playboy. After years of criticism from her detractors, Shere renounced her US citizenship and headed overseas, teaching at foreign universities and eventually settling in Germany where she passed away on 2020. In 2023, filmmaker Nicole Newnham presented her documentary The Disappearance of Shere Hite at the Sundance Film Festival, where she told the story of the sex educator and feminist using archival footage and a vast collection of nude photos, some featuring all three Bs of the bold, beautiful babe. Thank goodness her provocative portfolio didn’t disappear as well!