Gillian Anderson has edited a new book – ‘Want: Sexual Fantasies’. It’s a collection of anonymous sexual fantasies written by women and curated by Anderson. It’s obviously inspired by the 70’s classic ‘My Secret Garden‘ by Nancy Friday. I remember sneaking a copy of that off my parents shelf and shocking my teenage self with how explicit and unfiltered it was. That was of course pre-internet. I suspect modern readers will be a bit harder to startle.
It’d be interesting to compare the two books, given the 50 years gap between them. Amazing to think how much the world of media, erotica and communication has changed since then. Human desires in contrast are far slower to shift, if they ever do.
The only thing that gives me pause is that the stories this time were collected via an anonymous internet portal. I hope there was some sort of guards in place to ensure the submissions were actually from women. Nobody needs the collected fantasies of horny online men. That’s already a significant fraction of the internet.
This is Gillian Anderson shot for Porter magazine. Apparently one of the fantasies in the book is hers, although she has not said which.