In 1976, a Playboy model turned feminist sex-researcher called Shere Hite did hundreds of television and radio appearances promoting her book, The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality. She went on Good Night America dressed in a high-necked Victorian white silk blouse, huge faux-pearl earrings and matching necklace, her face framed by a cloud of apricot curls.
The host, Geraldo Rivera, grinning under his 1970s handlebar moustache, asked her to summarise her book’s findings. “Don’t get hung up, turned off or turned on by the explicit language,” he warned the audience. Hite outlined the great provocation of the work: “Intercourse doesn’t lead to orgasm for most women.”
