There was a time when Erica Jong's novel, Fear of Flying, was all the rage. She was a prominent woman writer, a feminist in fact, and the heroine of her story was in hot pursuit of an ideal she called: "the zipless f-word". Sorry, it's a family blog, but it wasn't a family book, and the heroine desired a sex act of such all-consuming passion that she would not be aware of any unzipping involved.
"As described by her - It is a sexual encounter between strangers that has the swift compression of a dream and is seemingly free of all remorse and guilt. It is absolutely pure, there is no power game and it is free of ulterior motives. It has also been described as the perfect one night stand."
I must confess, I never read the whole book. I did read some of what used to be called "the good parts".
Wikipedia says: "Fear of Flying is a 1973 novel by Erica Jong, which became famously controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality, figured in the development of second-wave feminism."
Yes, this was feminism. I'm not sure which wave we're riding now, but it seems to be more like this:
"Anyone who still believes that affirmative consent policies don’t mislead students or restrict their sexual autonomy should visit Coastal Carolina University—where consent can only be given when all participants are both enthusiastic and sober."
I've started to think, as this trend has turned more extreme, that the motive behind all this is a kind of envy, the envy that self-questioning intellectuals harbor toward the apparently more spontaneous jock and cheerleader types. Puritanism was long ago defined as the fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun. And this new trend seems to embody a fear that someone, somewhere, might be having sex without thinking about it too much.
What happened to tacit consent?
In certain circles, it got up and went.
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