Fear of Flying is a 1973 novel by Erica Jong, which became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality, and figured in the development of feminism.
The novel is narrated by its protagonist, Isadora Zelda White Stollerman Wing, an unpublished poet. On a trip to Vienna with her second husband, Isadora decides to indulge her sexual fantasies with another man. The book resonated with women who felt stuck in unfulfilled marriages, and it has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide. Jong has denied that the novel is autobiographical, but admits that it has autobiographical elements.
In the novel, Jong coined the term “zipless fuck”, which soon entered the popular lexicon. A “zipless fuck” is defined as a sexual encounter for its own sake, without emotional involvement or commitment, between two previously unacquainted persons.
“The zipless fuck is absolutely pure. It is free of ulterior motives. There is no power game . The man is not “taking” and the woman is not “giving.” No one is attempting to cuckold a husband or humiliate a wife . No one is trying to prove anything or get anything out of anyone. The zipless fuck is the purest thing there is. And it is rarer than the unicorn. And I have never had one.”
– Erica Mann Jong, Fear of Flying (1973)
Jong goes on to explain that it is “zipless” because “when you came together, zippers fell away like rose petals, underwear blew off in one breath like dandelion fluff. For the true ultimate zipless A-1 fuck, it was necessary that you never got to know the man very well.”
The term has seen a resurgence in popularity as third-wave feminism authors and theorists continue to use it while reinterpreting their approach to sexuality.
