Gillian Anderson would be "interested to know" if men crave intimacy outside of sex.
The 56-year-old actress has written a book titled 'Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous' because she feels as if the topic has usually been portrayed within the "male gaze" but has now wondered what the response would be if the tables were turned, although she is hesitant to spend "too much time" on the idea of asking men their opinion anyway.
Speaking on the 'Table Manners' podcast, she told hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware: "Historically, sex in the public sphere and in the billion-dollar porn industry, it has been very much in the male gaze and geared very much towards men's pleasure.
"On the one hand, this feels like a bit of an antidote to that.
"But even though we've got used to that over the centuries, in terms of what men want, how they reach climax, and not necessarily how they help women be pleasured in the midst of it, I will be interested to know whether it's just become a habit, or whether men do have needs outside of that.
"If we did ask men to submit letters anonymously whether there too would be letters about wanting to be held, or to be seen for who I am, not for my biceps or brain.
"But there has been so much that is for the sake of men historically that maybe we shouldn't spend too much time talking about that."
The 'X Files' star previously admitted that she tried to be "nonjudgmental" in the letters she received for the project by default, but ended up "not being shocked" by anything she read.
She told The Guardian's Saturday magazine: "I think we all felt that if people did feel they were writing to me, knowing how open I am – I’m pretty understanding and nonjudgmental, and I try to be as inclusive as humanly possible – people might feel safer, somehow. That they could put anything down and I wouldn’t be shocked."
