I left the magazine at the archive, so I'll have to double-check tomorrow, but based on your suggestions, I think I want to look at the story again to see how it examines or exposes itself as writing, or as a fantasy in the process of dissemination. The premise of the story is that Daddy is making the author narrator (oops) keep a journal, and has given her a topic ("daily discipline," or something close to that). Her reflection on the topic forms the piece, and she signs off with a couple of sentences that I don't remember exactly, but they express that she hopes Daddy approves of her and thinks the assignment is going well. Since blurring the lines between personal and communal, private and public, inside and outside is a big part of the feminist project (or projects, plural, since by 1988 feminists were well into the sex wars), then it seems to matter whether and how a piece like this critiques itself as a part of that project, in addition to what the author and her readers say about it. 

I hadn't thought about this connection between fantasy and the fantastic before, and the association of gender play with unrealistic events might need more thought (clits get plenty hard, even if "hard on" was not intended to refer to them, so there is something in the association of hardness and masculinity that actually obscures what women's arousal looks and feels like, which is just an aside, and not to discount your point) but yeah, OOB definitely seems to have taken on both "fantasy" and "the fantastic" as themes, and as ideas that can be juxtaposed, compared, and contrasted via story placement. There are the "fantasies" column, various ideological statements in nonfiction articles and letters about fantasy (like Wertheim's that fantasies are not to be "judged" -- morally, I guess, but what about other kinds of judgment, like criticism?), and then there are stories about vampires that eat your period (sexy, but also seriously convenient!), incestuous invisible monsters that make your fantasies real, alien dildo space ships that fly off into vaginas to explore them. 

Thinking more about Wertheim's statement about fantasies, she seems to connect not only the materiality of arousal ("whatever gets you wet"), but also its visibility and externality (not "whatever gives you adorable butterflies in your tummy") to the immunity from judgment she desires. So maybe she is also suggesting a different ethical standard for disseminated -- purposefully externalized, stated, acknowledged -- fantasies, but one of rigorous neutrality or validation, rather than rigorous scrutiny. 

Mark, I am having a really tough time finding material in the AU library theorizing "fantasy" and "the fantastic." Todorov's book about the fantastic is only there in French, Cortàzar isn't there. I found a literature review of theories of the fantastic, but only a couple of the books are in the library (and not the ones that look like they'd be most useful). Can you make some recommendations? 

Such a deep anewsr! GD&RVVF
- Capatin

Always rehfrseing to hear a rational answer.
- Leatrice