This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our supporters at patreon.com and by Verso Books,

which has loads of great left-wing titles, perfect for dig listeners like you. One that you

might like is, Rape, from Lucretia to Me Too, by Me Too Sanyal. Thanks to Title IX cases, Me Too, and Times Up, the issue of rape seems to be constantly in the news. But our thinking on the subject has a long history, one that cultural critic Me Too Sanyal elegantly reconstructs. She narrates a history spanning from Lucretia, whose legendary rape and suicide was said to be the downfall of the last Roman king, to second wave feminism, Tarzan, and Roman Polanski.

Sanyal demonstrates that the way we understand rape is remarkably and alarmingly consistent across the ages, even though the world

has changed beyond recognition. It is high time for a new and informed debate about sexual

violence, sexual boundaries, and consent. Mitu Sanyal shows that our comprehension of rape is closely connected to our understanding

of sex, sexuality, and gender. Why is it that we expect victims to be irreparably damaged?

When we think of rapists, why do we think of strangers rather than uncles, husbands, priests, or

boyfriends? And in this era of Me Too,

what should justice look like? Rape from Lucretia to Me Too examines the role of race in the

recurrent image of the black rapist, the omission of male victims, and what we mean when we talk about rape culture.

Sanyal takes on every received opinion we have about rape, arguing with liberals, conservatives, and feminists alike.

Rape from Lucretia to Me Too by Me Too Sanyal.

Out now from Verso Books.

Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin magazine. My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm temporarily broadcasting from Santiago de Chile.

But by the time you hear this, I'll be back in the USA.

What is it that you find so disturbing about commercial surrogacy?

An industry that employs women, often poor women in a poor country, to gestate fetuses carrying the genetic

material of more affluent people, often in the West, to whom the baby is then transferred,

or may be sold. My guest today is Sophie Lewis, and she argues in her new book, Full Serragacy Now, Feminism Against Family,

that something is deeply wrong with commercial surrogacy, but it's just not what you might think.

What's wrong is the brute labor exploitation taking place at the reproductive crossroads of a racial global capitalist order.

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