Shere Hite is a woman with a mission. Her calling – her ministry – is sex and sexual mores. She wants to convert us all to her own views on these matters, and she has published three books which are meant to persuade us that our sexual habits are in urgent need of revision. The fullest force of her missionary zeal is aimed against the missionary position, but her crusade includes all variations of sexual intercourse, even women on top. We just shouldn't be doing it.

This message has gained fresh momentum since she first advanced it in The Hite Report on Female Sexuality in 1976. Since that time AIDS has become the spectre at the party of our sexual freedom, bringing the notion of Safe Sex into our vocabulary and our bedrooms. What used to