Masculinity, femininity, and the unmodified body with Clare Chambers

For so long, the female body has been limited by the patriarchal notion of femininity, an ideal which is impossible for women to meet. Clare Chambers calls for a radical new framework that can help us keep our bodies intact, unmodified, and as canvasas for joyful expression rather than as vehicles of control. Join the Cambridge University philosopher as she discusses how this framework can help men as much as it can help women, and how the ideals of masculinity are becoming more and more dangerous thanks to our digital culture. 

You can watch the interview here.

I gave a talk about INTACT and answered questions from a really engaged audience at the Jesus College Intellectual Forum. You can watch the video of the event here.

Julian Baggini and I had a long conversation about Intact for the Bristol Festival of Ideas. You can watch the interview here.

I’ll be discussing INTACT at the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye on 5th June 2022. You can buy tickets here.

I’ll be discussing INTACT at the Oxford Literary Festival on 26th March 2022. You can buy tickets here.

Philosopher Clare Chambers argues that it is time for men, women and children to reclaim their bodies and that an unmodified body is a key principle of social and political equality.
Chambers ranges across a variety of areas from bodybuilding to makeup, male circumcision, breast implants, motherhood and childbirth. She argues that social pressure to modify your body sends a message that you are not good enough, and it reinforces inequalities of sex, gender, race, disability, age, and class.
Chambers is professor of political philosophy and a fellow of Jesus College in Cambridge. She is regarded as one of the most original philosophers in the UK today and is a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. She is author of Against Marriage and specialises in feminism, bioethics, contemporary liberalism, and theories of social justice.

I’ll be discussing INTACT with Rachel Cunliffe of The New Statesman at the Cambridge Literary Festival on 23 April 2022. You can buy tickets here and watch the event online here.

In the hit BBC TV series ‘Fleabag’, a feminist asks a room-full of young women whether they would trade five years of their life for the so-called ‘perfect body’. In this rousing talk, best-selling author and political philosopher Clare Chambers makes a passionate case for why loving the body we were born with is a radical act. Arguing that our choices – even the most personal ones – are not made in a cultural vacuum, Clare illuminates how ingrained sexist norms, ageism and social media distort our perceptions of our selves.