Jezebel: Erica Jong

Younger Generation Totally Over Sex, Proclaims Someone in Older Generation

Erin Gloria Ryan — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EDT

Fear of Flying author Erica Jong argues that this generation of young people have grown bored with sex. She knows this because she hangs out with young female writers sometimes, and they're apparently gazing wistfully to the morals of the 1950's, back before Erica Jong and her ilk made pre- and extra-marital sex fun and exciting. More »

Don't Blame Your Famous Parents

Anna North — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:00:00 EDT

When you are the child of a famous person, media outlets will sometimes ask you to write about that person. This can go a few different ways. More »

Whitney Comments On Terrible Show; "Drunk & Disorderly" Kiefer Kicked Out Of Club

Dodai Stewart — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EDT

Whitney Houston is having daily prayer meetings to get her through this difficult time. She has said of her imperfect show in Birmingham:

—Erica Jong

Anna Holmes — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:40:00 EDT

on Oprah Winfrey and Kitty Kelley's new unauthorized biography. More »

"Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer

Anna North — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:40:00 EDT

In an Ann Coulter-worthy bit of self-undermining, sex writer and new owner of Britain's Erotic Review Kate Copstick says women don't know how to write about sex. More »

Sappho's Leap

Anna Holmes — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:10:00 EDT

[Tel Aviv, June 12. Image via Getty]

Celebs Are Psyched About America's New President

Dodai Stewart — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST

Good Morning, you have new president. His name is Barack Obama. No, he cannot start today. But soon. And he says: "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy… tonight is your answer." [People]
Oprah on Barack Obama's win: "It's one of the greatest moments I could ever even imagine. That's how great it is." [ET]
Courteney Cox and David Arquette hosted a Barack Obama victory party at their house in Beverly Hills. Jennifer Aniston, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher were in attendance; champagne was had. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey watched Obama's speech live. Also psyched: George Clooney and Usher. [E!]
George Clooney: "I congratulate President-elect Obama on his historic victory, and now it's time to begin unifying the country so we can take on the extraordinary challenges that this generation faces." [ET]
Oprah again: "This is democracy at its finest." [ET]
In other news, Jennifer Aniston is pregnant with twins. Supposedly. More in Midweek Madness. [Star]

Poll: Who Should Play Isadora Wing In the Movie Version Of Fear Of Flying?

Jessica G. — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:30:00 EDT

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Diane English, the woman who adapted the forthcoming film The Women, is adapting Erica Jong's classic feminist novel Fear of Flying for the movies. Flying's heroine, Isadora Wing, is a poet in a marginally unhappy marriage who indulges in a number of sexually freeing affairs while at a psychiatry conference with her shrink husband in Vienna. English, who is also directing Flying, tells E! that she wants Kate Winslet to play Isadora. Kate Winslet coining the zipless fuck? Something about that doesn't sit quite right with us — Winslet seems not introspective enough and a little vanilla for Isadora — so we figured out a few alternatives. Vote on your favorite after the jump. More »

Sexual Taboo-Busting German Novelist Inspired By Douches. Literally.

Jessica G. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Meet Charlotte Roche, Germany's Erica Jong for the aughts. The former TV presenter's new novel, Wetlands, is causing causing quite the hubbub in Germany for its frank discussion of scatology and anatomy from the mouth of its 18-year-old narrator, Helen Memel. Roche, a self-proclaimed feminist, was inspired to write Wetlands when perusing the douche aisle of her local store, according to the New York Times. She was struck by the number of products telling women that their natural odors and growths were enemies, meant to be eliminated and perfumed. “[Wetlands] is not feminist in a political sense, but instead feminism of the body, that has to do with anxiety and repression and the fear that you stink, and this for me is clearly feminist, that one builds confidence with your own body," Roche told the Times. "Ever since I could think, I've had hemorrhoids," Wetlands begins with an, erm, blast. More »

"The Sexual Revolution Was Central To Women's Liberation"

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Part 2 of VH1's documentary mini-series Sex: The Revolution aired last night, and a portion of it focused on the sexual revolution's influence on feminism in the 1970s and vice versa. The doc combines archival footage of interviews, TV shows, and protest rallies and new interviews with heavyweights like Gloria Steinem, Helen Gurley Brown, Ariel Levy, Erica Jong, and Susan Brownmiller. Nearly 40 years later, Steinem is still sticking to her guns that the sexual revolution was a disservice to women because it was a movement for men to make women more sexually available to them. (How can she not realize by now that we all have natural sexual desires?) Ariel Levy, author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, offered a different (and perhaps younger?) take on the sexual revolution, asserting that it was important for feminism, because gaining equality in sexual satisfaction was a key element in the women's movement. Still, it was nice to see both sides of the argument presented. Clip above. More »

Fear of Flying author Erica Jong is currently...

Jessica G. — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:20:00 EDT

Fear of Flying author Erica Jong is currently in Italy, where, she says, "the men are just as sexist as they are in America yet there is no physical mockery of female candidates. The Italian elections are on Sunday and Monday and most of the women candidates are between forty and sixty plus. Yet no one makes fun of their looks." Um, except for Silvio Berlusconi, the right-wing Italian opposition leader who says that women on the left have "no taste" and that women on the right are "more beautiful." Italy: not quite the paragon of political correctness Jong thinks it is! [HuffPo, Telegraph] More »

Erica Jong's Sister: "Fear of Flying Has Been A Thorn In My Flesh For Thirty-Five Years"

Jessica G. — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EDT

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Last week, in honor of the 35th anniversary of the publication of Fear of Flying and the acquisition of Erica Jong's papers by Columbia University, the author herself gave a talk about Flying's role in the feminist pantheon. Rebecca Traister of Salon thinks of Flying more as a sex book than as a feminist book (Jong on her legacy: "I used to worry that they would put zipless fuck on my tombstone."). And though Jong's book is frankly sexual — "his curled pink penis which tasted faintly of urine and refused to stand up in my mouth" — it's also very, very autobiographical, as Jong's irate sister pointed out in the middle the lecture. According to the New Yorker's Rebecca Mead, Jong's sister, Suzanna Daou, stood up and said, "I love my sister very much, but Fear of Flying has been a thorn in my flesh for thirty-five years." More »

What Were New Hampshire Women Thinking When They Picked Hillary? Who Knows?

Jessica G. — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:00:00 EST

My grandfather, who died 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 91, hated Hillary Clinton. He was a yellow dog democrat but the first time she ran for Senate in New York State, he abstained because he couldn't vote Republican, and he couldn't bring himself to vote for a woman whose persona he so desperately despised. Mind you, my grandfather was born in 1913 and unfortunately held some deeply sexist beliefs. He hated her because she was too ambitious — he found her shrill and obnoxious and he found her bid for power distasteful. My grandfather was generally quiet and mild mannered and rarely spoke ill of anyone, but his visceral, irrational dislike of Hillary was palpable. All of which is a long winded and self-indulgent way of saying that men are just as emotional and capricious when choosing candidates as women are. I don't rule out the possibility that the women of New Hampshire, as Maureen Dowd et. al., are saying, voted for Hillary last night because she cried. What I will say is that none of us were there in the voting booth with them, and all the excessive, frenzied speculation as to what her tears meant for womanity and for the country and possibly for the world, is mostly a lot of hot air. More »

Erica Jong Would Rather Be A Lesbian Than A Cougar

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:30:00 EDT

Feminist author/sex enthusiast Erica Jong (Fear of Flying) let it all hang out during an episode of the highly addictive and educational podcast series In Bed With Susie Bright this past summer. She was way too TMI (which we love in a gal), talking about how her husband likes getting her pubes stuck in his teeth, how she tried being gay for a little bit, and about how being a cougar isn't really all that.

...one is too wise, by then, to think of it as anything but a zipless fuck. Or a zipless fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck... because you don't want to be their nurse, and you don't want to be their purse.

Their whole conversation is pretty fascinating, as both women have been pretty influential in changing the way we think about women's sexuality. First, Erica, 65, dropped the bomb that she tried being a lesbian when she got older: More »