Conference Abstract

Homosocial Bonds: A Racial Quest for Power in Fear of Flying

“It momentarily occurred to me that perhaps something more had happened between the two men during the night…” recalls Isadora in Erica Jong’s novel Fear of Flying. Her momentary fear is cut short as she quickly considers the thought preposterous. But a homosocial bond is formed during the late-night encounter between Isadora, her white fling Adrian, and her Asian husband Bennett: it is created through a competition between the two diverse men in a quest for power. Using Eve Sedgwick’s theory of homosociality, the conflict for power between the two men is fostered through their sexual control over the female conduit herself; however, Isadora’s eventual selection of Adrian shifts the power dynamic in favor of the white man. This triangle between two racially different men and a female catalyst exemplifies the inequality between races in homosocial relationships, with the eventual result of white dominance. Women and their ability to subvert these relationships can attempt to balance the homosocial relationship’s dynamic of power. But, according to Sedgwick, this endeavor is impossible because of the mere existence of power itself. True equality of power in a homosocial relationship can never be achieved.