When television was full of smiling, spectacular blonde women showing off their curves, Gillian Anderson became the rare bird from the small screen giving life to Dana Scully, the FBI agent who in The X-Files made seriousness a much more normal than paranormal character in the series. Almost two decades later, her role as a sex therapist in the acclaimed Sex Education turned the actress into a standard-bearer for sexuality outside of the series as well, as she made her social media a hymn to sexuality and attended the Golden Globes, nominated for her role in the Netflix series, dressed in a Gabriela Hearst dress with subtle vulva embroidery.
After having founded the healthy drinks brand G Spot, aimed at seeking the well-being of women, she now launches Wanna (Temas de Hoy, 2024). “This is a book that collects the letters of hundreds of women from around the world who share their deepest fantasies. Presented by me, along with my own anonymous letter, Wanna reveals what women think and feel about sex when they are free to be fully themselves.”
In the book, the actress collects without filters the anonymous letters of hundreds of women whose realities are as heterogeneous as those of a Sikh woman who writes about the secret desire she feels for her brother-in-law, a white British woman who wants to be kissed “properly” for the last time, a Spanish-Jewish woman settled in Bangladesh who is excited by a door knob and an Apache woman who writes about how she longs to be worshipped as a divine creature… And these are just a few examples.
The format is inspired by My secret garden (Ediciones B, 1993), the anthology of sexual secrets that Nancy Friday compiled through interviews and correspondence. Friday’s work dates back to 1973 and contains confessions not free of stories of incest and sexual violence, something that does not occur in Wannaan inclusive book in which Anderson acts as the key that allows the most intimate fears and fantasies to come to light. She admits that she would be embarrassed if people recognized which of the writings is hers, but trying to find out is part of the morbidity of the book.
