50 years ago, Nancy Friday's taboo-shattering anthology My Secret Garden was published. It opened up a dialogue around female desire and asked women to share their innermost sexual fantasies. Exhilarating, confessional and inflammatory for its time, all these years later actor Gillian Anderson is following up the feminist bestseller with a project of her own.
Determined to explore what desire looks like for women in today's climate, Anderson has issued an open call out for women all across the globe to submit detailed letters describing their own sexual fantasies, all of which will be compiled into a book with Bloomsbury. I wonder how many of the submissions will revolve around the actress herself?
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"As women, we know that sex is about more than just sex," Anderson writes. "And yet so many of us don’t talk about it. Our deepest, most intimate fears and fantasies remain locked away inside of us, until someone comes along with the key."
"Here is a key," the Sex Education actor says. "I would love to know your fantasy: the secret desire you’d share with only the most trusted of confidants. Whatever your background, whomever you do or don’t sleep with, whether you’re eighteen or eighty: if you identify as a woman, I want to hear from you."
For the entire month of February Anderson will be collecting submissions for the project, with women from all walks of life encouraged to participate. All you need to do is open your letter with "Dear Gillian" and stick to a word limit of around 1000 – but no more than 25000 – words and upload your entry before 23:59 GMT, February 28, 2023. All submissions will remain anonymous, so your secrets are safe here. Now, time to get writing! As Anderson says, "let your imagination run wild!"
For more information, simply head to the Dear Gillian project website.
Image: @gilliana
