“The zipless fuck is absolutely pure. It is free of ulterior motives. There is no power game. The man is not "taking" and the woman is not "giving." No one is attempting to cuckold a husband or humiliate a wife. No one is trying to prove anything or get anything out of anyone. The zipless fuck is the purest thing there is. And it is rarer than the unicorn. And I have never had one.”
For some reason this passage really stuck out to me as bizarre and interesting. She basically says that the ultimate form of sex is one where nothing is happening other than sex. There are no “ulterior motives” and “no one is trying to prove anything or get anything”. I thought that all of this sounded good in some sense. She wants to experience the physical and animal aspects of sex. And this is, to her, what she describes as “absolutely pure”. Yet it seems to me that there should be more to sex than that. Humans should hold standards higher than those of animals and we should strive to find meaningful relationships that include emotions and ultimately ulterior motives. That said, from her point of view as a discontent wife, it makes sense to yearn for purely physical sex. At the same time, the passage created huge social implications in respect to feminism, which was surprising to me. It seems so natural for there to be women who are discontent with their marriages and wish for the ability to have “the zipless fuck” especially by the year 1973, when the book was published. The “zipless fuck” seems to connect perfectly to college hookup culture, where people have one-night stands all the time. By doing this, people are gaining all the physical advantages of sex but at the same time, it is not something that everyone does and it is definitely something that some people look down on. The hookup culture is founded around idea of fleeting happiness as is the “zipless fuck” where people desire a perfect physical experience in the moment. The long-term problem of emotional connection definitely sticks out as a problem though.
I definitely agree with your assessment that a problematic aspect of the zipless fuck is that it is entirely absent of any emotional intimacy. Part of what is supposed to make sex enjoyable-- and, as you point out, the very thing that makes us different from animals-- is the emotional bond between the people participating.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that for Isadora, anything other than pure physicality must carry with it emotional baggage, "ulterior motives," and a "power game." What do you think this says about her views on sex? Would it be fair to say that she equates emotional intimacy with a power struggle? How is that perhaps true, and how could it be untrue?
I think you're on to something here but need to approach it from a different perspective. Although the term "zipless fuck" applies to college hook-ups (and just plain hook-ups in general), I think Eric Jong was trying to get past the R-rated material and explore a bigger topic. With this in mind, you might want to consider how the "zipless fuck" can apply to other, possibly counter-intuitive, situations and what that does the progress the argument on individual vs. interpersonal freedom.
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ReplyDeleteI had written my post in a word document before even looking at the blog so I didn't realize you had chosen the same passage! But it looks like we pretty much have the same opinion. Totally agree that the notion of a zipless fuck is problematic, as sexual intimacy is an experience that is shared between two that have an emotional connection and not simply out of physical impulse.
ReplyDeleteI was reading up on some interviews with Jong many years after the publication of the novel and it was interesting what she had to say about her term.
Now 69, the author says she doubts the pure sexual encounter described in the novel really exists.
“I mean we always wish it would happen. We never completely give up the fantasy but I think it’s rarer and rarer and when I look back on my life for the most part the best sex of my life has always been with people that I was with for many years and had a lot in common with.
“When I look back at the one night stands and zipless f**ks, they were terrible.”