Beyond My Control: Forbidden Fantasies In An Uncensored Age

by Friday, Nancy

• ISBN13: 9781402218545
• ISBN10: 1402218540
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-07
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc

Summary

The bestselling author of My Secret Garden exposes the wild and sexy fantasies that many of us have but are afraid to share. For over thirty years, Nancy Friday has written about eros, love, beauty, and seduction. Now she returns to the territory she pioneered during the sexual revolution--exploring our most taboo sexual desires. In a contemporary world where women are formidable partners in the erotic dance and no topic seems out of bounds, Friday breaks into a still-forbidden world of lust, power, and pleasure. Collecting fantasies from dozens of women and, for the fi rst time, men, Friday explores the wildest corners of our imagination. Beyond My Control: Forbidden Fantasies in an Uncensored Ageshows that our fantasies are not compensation for a "missing" sex life but are a critical component of our fullest selves, the secret desires that yearn to soar. Praise for Nancy Friday "YOU'LL BLUSH, YOUR PULSE WILL RACE." New York Times "Delicious... women can share in their sisters'secrets and not feel that they are alone." Los Angeles Times "Nancy Friday's work... demonstrate[s] beyond doubt that the emancipation of women's bodies begins with the emancipation of our minds." Faye Wattleton, former president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Excerpts

Over thirty-five years ago I called it My Secret Garden because collecting their fantasies was like listening to women whispering in my ear. I was hearing their deepest erotic secrets, in many cases desires they had not even told themselves until then. Still today, many women and men finish by saying,"Thank you for letting me tell you."I know precisely what they mean. There is something about putting sex into writing, almost as if we are taking it to the next level of reality, getting closer and closer to the flame. At the same time it is emboldening, as in: "This is who am, who I really am! And look... the sky hasn't fallen, I haven't been ostracized from the family, and I feel more complete, whole, part of the human race."Yes, I do believe that for many of us, accepting our erotic reveries opens a new consciousness in our lives. We don't have to act on the fantasies to feel this way: some, fully realized, would become nightmares. Nor share them with our partners: often, kept from them, they can be even more emboldening. It is thrilling just to own the creativity of our sexual imagination. Just as learning to drive opens new paths - emotionally as well as physically - so do our private sexual thoughts at any age, take us on ever-new trips, doors opening, horizons broadening.