Random Hite Report #13
Hello, welcome again to one of my favorite segments on the SSL blog, Random Hite Report! It's simple really. I flip through the pages of the The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality (or sometimes The Hite Report on Male Sexuality) by a one Ms. Shere Hite and copy the contents of the page where I land - no more no less. Anyone who reads my blog will know that this 1976 book is a fave of mine; not only because of its shockingly realistic and progressive insight about the female orgasm, but also because of its very touching insight into the lives of the women who took part in this huge, comprehensive survey. This is an under-appreciated and under-read book if you ask me.
So, sit back, getcha a beverage, and enjoy a little...Random Hite Report...you never know what yer gonna get!
The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality Dell. 1976.
Pg. 486 From section "The Sexual Revolution" in chapter "Birth Control" and quoting women who were dissatisfied with their birth control options. (To put some of these comments in context, the original Pill that was on the marker had a much higher level of estrogen than was necessary and there was a lot of controversy at this time about the side effects of the drug. The companies actually didn't completely stop making the high-dose drug until 1988. Look HERE HERE and HERE for a touch more info.)
"The pill liberated men from condoms. I demand a return to the old way."
"I think if there is such a thing as a sexual revolution going on, it is, for the most part, to the detriment of women. Men expect that a woman will consent to having sex more often and with less commitment. Men very rarely take responsibility for birth control and it angers me that women have to be prepared every day for a man's sperm. Women are really wreaking havoc on their bodies and mainly for the explicit pleasure and convenience of men."
"Contraception was a hassle till my hysterectomy. He didn't like his 'sensations' dulled by a rubber. The diaphragm hurt me; the coil caused constant bleeding and pain, and the pill had ennough side effects to have probably caused the hysterectomy. I was very bitter that I had to endure all of these gadgets with rarely an orgasm when he could always come even when 'dulled' by the rubber."
"The birth control pill allows a woman to control her fertility but also forces her to take all the responsibility for birth control and to risk her life and health and future fertility."
"Contraception is a pain in the ass to me. I feel very frustrated and oppressed when I think how relatively unreliable and/or unsafe or what nuisances they all are. I took birth control pills before and after we were married for about a year, then went off them as the doctor I had wouldn't let you use them longer than that if you never had used them before. I never went back on them because I discovered that they seemed to have had a bad effect on my vaginal secretion and made intercourse more painful because I had less lubrication-I still have that problem somewhat, but then it was much worse. They also gave me breast pain that felt like someone was sticking pins in my breasts for about a week before the time you went off them to have a period. Because of that and all the studies that have been done on side effects (my family has a history of heart trouble and cancer on both sides) I didn't feel very safe using them. After that we have used..."