On January 2nd, 1975, Erica Jong joined “Tomorrow” television host Tom Snyder for a promotion interview about her revolutionary book The Fear of Flying. In this interview, Jong discusses her book and its reception. While her book was reaching large audiences all over the country, many still called Jong’s book “dirty,” and host Tom Snyder even mentions that multiple organizations refused to advertise her book due to their beliefs it was inappropriate for audiences. While Snyder seems complimentary of Jong’s book, he brings up a valid point: Jong’s work was often rejected by mainstream services because of its content and reputation. When Snyder asks how Jong achieved such critical acclaim for an “erotic novel,” she retorts that her novel isn’t erotic, it’s about “unfulfilled sexuality” for women. But Jong continues, saying that the novel isn’t about sex and the physicality of it, but rather how sex goes wrong and the “comedy” surrounding sex. Jong explains in her interview with Tom Snyder that for her and for her readers, this was an important distinction between a simple erotic book and an in-depth depiction of the “honest” way that “men and women think about sex in their heads.” Jong states that, as a writer, she must write as honestly as possible about sexuality and the fantasies men and women share.

While Jong discusses her book as a whole, she also notes the “roles of the sexes” and her belief that no role is “intrinsically male or intrinsically female.” The larger discussion about the roles of women opens up a new dimension for women. Jong pushes the audience to see the world through eyes free of male and female stereotypes. Tom Snyder presses Jong further and asks why people are so concerned with these stereotypes that seem to define society. Jong retorts that the world “cling[s] to [these stereotypes], because people are afraid of change.” Fear of Flying addressed traditional gender expectations and challenged them; in Jong’s hands women were no longer silent beings confined within their marriages and children. Female sexuality was revolutionized and reclaimed to fit a changing society.

Sources:

January 2nd, 1975 Tomorrow Tom Snyder Interview with Guest Erica Jong.” YouTube, YouTube, 8 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LWwkneLegs. Accessed 29 November, 2018.