Jezebel: fear of flying

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

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

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.

Will Kate Winslet Take A Flying Leap? [E! Online]

Earlier: Erica Jong Would Rather Be A Lesbian Than A Cougar
Erica Jong's Sister: "Fear of Flying Has Been A Thorn In My Flesh For Thirty-Five Years"

Women More Likely To Survive Hurricanes, Less Likely To Live Through Tsunamis

Jessica — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EDT

I have a deeply irrational fear of flying, and, according to Time staffer Amanda Ripley, the author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why , my fellow aviaphobes and I fear planes because of the dread equation. Ripley explains in an interview with Mother Jones, dread=uncontrollability + unfamiliarity + imaginability + suffering + scale of destruction + unfairness. "The dread equation is a simplification, but it's a way to explain why we fear something so much when it is so unlikely," Ripley says. "Part of it is the lack of control. That's why we're more scared of plane crashes than car crashes even though we know rationally which is more dangerous." She also goes into how people react when placed into situations that have overwhelming dread quotients. Apparently women are more likely to survive hurricanes because most of the deaths come from driving through high water (and women aren't dumb enough to try that), and they're also more likely to follow evacuation orders to the T. However, women were more likely to die in the Southeast Asian tsunami. Why?

In part, women perished at a level of almost 3 to 1 in some villages, because they are less physically strong, on average. It takes a lot of arm strength to hold onto something, and that's how many people survived. It was also a cultural thing, says Ripley, because many women were not taught to swim. To save this post from being a complete bummer, I will leave you with some heartening words from Ms. Ripley: "[Survivors of disasters] felt a lot of fear in early stages, when they're just realizing what's happening. But then things really seemed to be at their peak of terror, the fear went away… At that moment your brain needs to focus all its attention on surviving, so people will feel a sense of calm as their brain tries to sort out a plan." You, too, can survive a plane crash — so down some Xanax and fly on out into the sunset, my fellow aviaphobics!

Five Ways to Survive Any Disaster [Mother Jones]

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

Jessica — 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.

You see, Helen is in the hospital because of the accidental damage she's done to her precious lady flower with a razor while attempting to achieve a hairless poon. And according to the Times, Wetlands "only gains momentum from there, eventually reaching avocado pits as objects of female sexual satisfaction and — here is where the debate kicks in — just possibly female empowerment."

The novel has sold more that 680,000 copies, and according to the Times it has "has struck a nerve [in Germany], catching a wave of popular interest in renewing the debate over women’s roles and image in society." But critics — and with a novel so taboo that women have fainted at local readings, there are many — say that the explicit sex in Wetlands obscures and muddles a real debate over things like equal pay for equal work. German women currently earn 22% less than German men, the third worst disparity in all of Europe (behind only Estonia and Cyprus). As the Times puts it, because of Wetlands, " A debate that might more profitably center on career counselors and day care is instead mired in old questions about sexual liberation."

Of course, it brings up great questions for American women as well. Does "empowerment" even mean anything anymore when women claim to be "empowered" by pole dancing lessons and Botox? Where is the intersection of sexual liberation and societal progress for women? I imagine we'll be discussing these questions long after 18-year-old Helen Meyer takes her place in the literary "slut" pantheon with Isadora Wing and Emma Bovary.

Germany Abuzz At Racy Novel Of Sex And Hygiene [NYT]
Publishers Battle To Sign Up Europe's Sex Sensation [Guardian]

Earlier: The Second Period No One Tells You About
Erica Jong Would Rather Be A Lesbian Than A Cougar

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

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

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."

Erica used me, and she used my husband, who was a very kind man, a very handsome man. I just felt I had to do it. It was not a novel; it was a memoir, but it was a memoir something like James Frey's memoir. A lot of nastiness went into that book. But I forgive her for everything, except writing that my husband crawled into her bed, which he didn't, and asked her to perform fellatio, which he didn't.

Of her outburst, Suzanna tells Mead, "I gave myself permission to be a bitch... God forgive me, I didn't mean to do it. But I am at peace." In response, Jong called her sister "insane," and claims, "I thought I was writing a mock memoir, à la Moll Flanders or Robinson Crusoe. I never thought anyone would take it literally, especially a member of my very intelligent family."

However, as the New Yorker points out, Jong used specific details of her sister's life to pad out Flying. But Suzanna's outburst does raise an interesting question about memoir-ish writing in general: is it worth the price of hurting loved ones feelings to create an arguable masterpiece? In this world of TMI and blogging every conquest and conflict, are there too many personal casualties? Isn't it anti-feminist to sell your sister down the river to further your own success? Or is this just a case of sisterly jealousy gone awry?

What Makes A Feminist Book A Classic? [Salon]
Still Flying [New Yorker]
Fear Of Flying [Amazon]