Nancy Bauer, “How to Do Things With Pornography” (Harvard UP, 2015)
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What is Nancy Bauer’s background and how did she arrive at philosophy?
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. And I'm co host of the channel along with Robert Talise, professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Nancy Bauer, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. Her new book, How to Do Things with Pornography, is just out from Harvard University Press. What are the allowable limits on pornography in a democratic society?
What justifies the claim that, as Bauer puts it, the Any right you have to not be offended by what turns me on is dwarfed by my right to privacy. In her new book, Bauer considers the sexual objectification of women in in contemporary society from several different angles. The sense of empowerment that young women feel in today's hookup culture The mistaken, on her view, reading of JL Austin's work on language that informs prominent feminist critiques of pornography. and the backdrop of a predominantly white and male profession of academic philosophy. Bauer offers a radical new reading of Austin and uses it to argue for a better critical stance regarding pornography and its role in human life. Let's turn to the interview.
Hello, Nancy Bauer, are you there? I am. Hi
Carrie. Hi. Uh nice to talk with you. Um and welcome you to New Books in Philosophy.
Thank you so much. It's a delightful to be here. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.
Um, yeah, so we're going to talk about pornography, but also about Uh, the hookup culture and jail Austin. And, you know, the state of professional academic philosophy today, about which you have a lot of interesting and critical comments to make on on all of those um issues. Um before we get into the the book um as such, um maybe you can give us a little bit of background about yourself, how you how you got to philosophy. how you came to the areas of philosophy that you that you work in and and how you came to the writing of this particular book.
Yeah, thanks. Um Well, I'm always surprised at how circuitous most people's paths to philosophy are. I think of mine as definitely circuitous. Um, I was not a philosophy major as an undergraduate. Instead I spent probably seventy five percent of my time at the my s college's daily paper, and I was the managing editor for it. Um, I wanted nothing more than to be a journalist. I did a little bit of studying in social theory. I took one course in philosophy, uh this was at Harvard that I absolutely couldn't stand.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Nancy Bauer’s background and how did she arrive at philosophy?
0:00–9:40
2
How does Bauer describe the sense of empowerment that young women feel in today’s hookup culture?
9:40–19:06
3
What is Bauer’s radical reinterpretation of J.L. Austin’s speech‑act theory and why does it matter for pornography debates?
19:06–26:54
4
How does Bauer critique Martha Nussbaum’s objectification framework?
26:54–35:46
5
What arguments does Bauer make about the limits of anti‑porn feminist philosophy?
35:46–45:13
6
How does Bauer connect pornography to broader cultural and technological changes?
45:13–54:24
7
What concerns does Bauer raise about the gender and racial composition of academic philosophy?
54:24–1:03:25
8
What future projects does Bauer envision after publishing *How to Do Things with Pornography*?
1:03:25–1:11:28
Speakers
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