ideaCity: Finding Feminism’s Future

It just had to be the woman who gave the world “the zipless f—-” that was, arguably, the most outspoken presenter at ideaCity. So outspoken that she talked for double her allotted time.

Of course, it was the brash Erica Jong, whose 1973 bestselling novel Fear of Flying — 20 million copies sold — let the world in on a secret: women like sex.

So it’s not surprising that, after recounting her grandfather’s dramatic migration through Europe to New York, after unleashing her liberal opinions on the Arab-Israeli conflict, after giving a quick course on how to write an autobiography, Jong launched into a frank and four-letter-word salted discussion of where women went wrong.

“So we made half a revolution and then Princess Di married her prince and women started being gold diggers again,” she said.

“So, in the ’80s, everything we tried to do for women’s liberation was reversed.”

But there’s no reason for pessimism, Jong said. It helps that Baby Boomer women now have disposable income.

“I know there’s a lot of talk about what big consumers we are, we women in our 60s with money in the bank,” Jong said. “Suddenly people are interested in us because we buy things. Everybody likes us a little more because we’ve got money. And money is like equality — but not quite.

“We have a lot of work to do. . . . We have to have the same pay as men. We have to have the same rights as men. We’re going to have another women’s movement. But this time we’re going to actually finish the women’s movement.”

- Antonia Serbisias, The Toronto Star

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/825901–ideacity-finding-feminism-s-future