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A Bumpy Flight
- Abstract
When Erica Jong’s autobiographical novel Fear of Flying was published in 1973, women around the globe ravenously consumed this “manifesto of liberation,” one that helped initiate a new cultural conversation about sexuality, especially female eroticism.
For many women, the novel’s portrayal of “zipless” sex—an encounter “free of ulterior motives,” with “no power game,” no one trying to “prove anything” or “get anything”—represented a paradigm shift. Even though Jong’s protagonist, Isadora Wing, acknowledges that zipless sex is a fantasy, something “rarer than the unicorn,” the notion that it was the ideal kind of sex integrated itself into the mainstream of American culture with amazing rapidity.
About the Author
Sabrina L. Schaeffer is a senior fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum and managing partner of Evolving Strategies.
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