Kant & Sexual Fantasy

Building on Kant’s idea of the ‘free play of the imagination’, we argue that sexual fantasy reveals both deep insights into our desires and emotional wounds as well as the impact of oppressive conditions on our sexual selves. After clarifying Kant’s distinctions between experience, dreams, and fantasy, insofar as they are important to defining the unique character of sexual fantasy, and incorporating feminist theories of fantasy and pornography into our reading of Kant and sexual fantasy, we examine the intersection of aesthetic expression and moral significance, suggesting that fantasy is not morally neutral but deeply formative; indeed, viewed comprehensively, sexual fantasy can become a site for wise personal resistance and growth. In particular, and contrary to what seems to be Kant’s own worry, a Kantian view of sexual fantasy can provide resources for liberation from a tendency to regard oneself, and others, as mere objects in sexual fantasy, towards a more integrated sense of our multifaceted nature.