How Polly Barton Approaches Conversations about Porn

One of the essays in my private canon of great essays that no one else seems to have read is philosopher Nancy Bauer’s essay “Pornutopia,” which first ran in the winter 2007 issue of N+1 and then was included in Bauer’s 2015 book How to Do Things With Pornography.

I don’t talk much about my enthusiasm for this essay because it’s embarrassing. You can’t r…