 Louise Antony challenges Langton's use of speech act theory to explain the apparent self-verifying nature of pornography. Antony argues that a speech act cannot both describe a state of affairs and bring that state of affairs into being. Langton's account, Antony argues, conflates "power" with "authority," and while pornography may have the power or ability to impact the world, it is not vested with the authority to do so. Antony points out that authority comes about through social agreement or conventions, and pornography does not, in this sense, have the authority of an umpire (or the law) to impose its commands or view of reality, though it may at times succeed in influencing the beliefs or behavior of viewers (Antony 2017; see also Stewart 2019).