Listling Without Commentary: Things Women Said About Lesbianism In The 1976 Hite Report on Female Sexuality

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In 1976, Shere Hite published The Hite Report, a monumental and groundbreaking study of female sexuality. Over 3,000 women between the ages of 14 and 78 participated, sharing their intimate feelings about sex. The book opened numerous eyeballs and enlightened many about the nature of female orgasms and masturbation.

8% of respondents said they preferred sex with women, and an additional 9% ID’ed as bisexual or reported having sexual experiences with both men and women. Hite noted that “one of the most striking points about the answers received to the other questionnaires was how frequently, even when it was not specifically asked, women brought up the fact that they might be interested in having sexual relations with another woman.”

The following lines are excerpts from testimonies given by the study’s respondents, as quoted in the section of The Hite Report entitled LESBIANISM. 

Excerpts From Women’s Testimonials On The 1976 Hite Report As Quoted In The section entitled “LESBIANISM”: 

1. “I have been brought up to believe women are more attractive and more beautiful and I am beginning to believe it.”

2. “I’ve slept with about twenty men and one woman. I found the woman much better.”

3. “Sex with a woman for me has involved pressing mound of Venus against mound of Venus on each other’s leg.”

4. “I’d love to massage a woman I liked and was turned on to, and then gradually arouse her sexually through massage and then slowly make love to her and then stop and talk, and then make love again, then sleep together. But I’d never have the nerve!”

5. “No woman has ever asked me ‘Didja come?’ They knew.”

6. “Once we made love in my parents’ bed in candlelight and discovered our love for each other as sexual women. Also once we made love all night in great passion and were soft and silly and warm, and great love was built that night. The difference with boys is it is much shorter.”

7. “I think I am a lesbian, which is not too helpful since I’m married.”

8. “If you dig another woman, let her know — she may very well feel the same. If it freaks her out, talk to her about it — she needs to loosen up.”

9. “I want a woman lover — or more. I generally want closer relationships with women; I want to do all the things only men are supposed to do! I want to explore!!!”

10. “I think women often make love by talking a certain way, at least I do.”

11. “Some times I think I could go straight from deep mouth kissing to clitoral stimulation to have orgasm. It depends on my state of “readiness.” I like also to have my lover touch me very lightly, with her tongue and hands, all over my body, especially my buttocks and lower abdomen. There is no one ‘best’ way of clitoral stimulation — when she uses her mouth it’s no different than her fingers. Sometimes I like her mouth at first and then her finger, and the other times, just her mouth. Either her tongue gently flicking my clitoris, or her mouth sucking me hard, or her finger moving right above my clitoris in an increasingly rapid up and down movement, usually makes me orgasm. Sometimes she pushes her mouth hard against me and shakes her head rapidly from side to side — I orgasm this way also. One thing — I guess it’s easier for me if we start lovemaking with our clothes on and do not have more than a minute’s interruption for removal of clothes. Otherwise I get a little self-conscious.”

12. “Once we were hugging and kissing and starting to make love and all of a sudden she says, ‘What part of the world do armadillos live in?'”

13. “It is good simply to be with women. I could not have written that five years ago. I hated women, believed perfection was male and I looked like a fairly successful imitation of a Barbie doll. Except that I kept rejecting Kens.”

14. “Liz, my roommate, and I have oftentimes made love when one of us has emotional problems.”

15.  “At seven, I used to become highly aroused fantasizing kissing a certain girlfriend. By about twelve, I was fantasizing necking with both sexes. By about fourteen, I wanted to fuck; or, more mysterious and exciting and forbidden, do whatever it was the lesbians did! Now I do. And it’s great.”

16. “I am currently thinking of lesbianism as an alternative to abstinence, and to men in general, because they are not very liberated sexually or emotionally or in any other way, and I can’t stand it any more!”

17. “Sex with a woman includes: touching, kissing, smiling, looking serious, embracing, talking, digital intercourse, caressing, looking, cunnilingus, undressing, remembering later, making sounds, sometimes gently biting, sometimes crying, and breathing and singing together.”

18. “I’ve yet to meet a lesbian who uses a dildo. I think that’s one great big male porno trip.”

19. “Lesbianism in my view is a far-out alternative to always being underneath some man and being a baby machine.”

20. “I believe that this is true for countless millions of wives, in spite of all the claims to orgasm, that they really don’t know what orgasm is… I was taken by surprise in a lesbian relationship [when] I experienced real, buffola total eclipse orgasm for the first time. Wow.”

21. “Once my heart had an orgasm when she was hugging me and looking at me and saying how she loved me. Hers did too.”

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Riese

Riese is the 40-year-old Co-Founder and CEO of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in California. Her work has appeared in nine books including "The Bigger the Better The Tighter The Sweater: 21 Funny Women on Beauty, Body Image & Other Hazards Of Being Female," magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3016 articles for us.

87 Comments

  13. “No woman has ever asked me ‘Didja come?’ They knew.”

    Bwahaha. So true.

    That reminds me of a story my straight friend told me; she had sex with a guy and, well, it did nothing for her so to speak, and afterward he said to her, “Wow, you came so many times!” I was dying when she told me, lol.

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  14. I got confused in #4, at first I thought she was saying they stopped during the sex to talk and then would go back to the sex (possibly after finding out where armadillos live). It made sense what with how we like to process everything.

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    • I’m a woman, I tried just to know how was sex with another girl, even the idea didn’t attract me so much, I was curious and I know a lesbian that wanted me.
      Was a disgusting experience. Men’s are much better.
      There is only a very small percent of women that are really lesbian or bisexual. This book explore a sexual revolution that happen in the 70s were the people were so full of drugs to remove inhibitions but after years most of all even doesn’t remember.
      A woman will never have the pleasure that have with the penetration of a real dick. Everyone have to deal with it.
      All the rest are palliatives, self-beliefs.

      Reply to This Comment

  18. “8% of respondents said they preferred sex with women, and another 9% ID’ed as bisexual or reported having sexual experiences with both men and women.”

    Maybe I’m missing something, but is the 8% included in the 9%, or did they find 17% of women to be non-heterosexual?

    Reply to This Comment

    • i think so? i could transcribe it from the book tomorrow, but that’s what it said, i think — the thing is that it’s a self-selecting sample, the women in the study volunteered to talk about their sex lives. so with a sample like that, you’re gonna have high response rates amongst more sexually open people, or whatever, especially w/lesbian feminists, etc. but the “women who’d had sex with both men and women” category was women who id’ed as straight, which i think was 7% of them. then 2% reporting bisexual. and then 8% as gay. i think

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  20. Back when I “officially” came out at 18, my Aunt gave me a copy of this saying she’d read it and thought it might be helpful to me. It seems relevant to mention that my Aunt was a Catholic Nun. A very cool, open minded and clearly progressive Catholic Nun. Think it’s time to go back and skim this a bit.

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  26. “If you dig another woman, let her know — she may very well feel the same. If it freaks her out, talk to her about it — she needs to loosen up.”

    What a gem.

    I feel like this needs to go in my wallet somewhere so I can remember it daily.

    Reply to This Comment

  32. I love it! I recently found out that my great-grandmother’s sister (great aunt?) had been married to a woman for 40 years before passing away, I can picture her saying some of these things back then or even before then :)

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