Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous

by Gillian Anderson

The potent thing about all intentional sexual fantasies is that we are the authors of the stories. We have agency and we control the action, who does what to whom and how, down to the last elaborate, exquisite, erotic detail. We can choose to do whatever we want, with whomever we want, however many people we want, whenever we want – without fear, without societal judgement or consequence. I think that’s key: fantasy can help crystallise our wants and needs. It can free us to explore ourselves, to experiment with our arousal and our desire without risk of harm or criticism. Fantasy is a safe space; it is not necessarily what we wish was real. Crucially, in a fantasy we don’t need anyone’s permission other than our own: a fantasy is a deliberate, and usually entirely private, act of both memory and imagination.