Prologue

"The Gender Reconstruction Act was narrowly approved today. All remaining women's rights have been revoked. Leading feminist protesters were arrested today, on charges of 'inciting emasculation', a capital offense under the Anti-Emasculation Act, enacted in 2025," the telecomputer announcer declared. He grinned secretly at this thought.

After the Christian Republic was overthrown in 2015, the feminists had played a leading role in the revolutionary government for a brief time. They were trusted for a while by most people, on the grounds that they participated heavily in the Second American Revolution. It was certainly a necessary alliance between regular revolutionaries and feminists at first, given the tyranny of the CR.

However, evidence of infiltration of the new regime by leading radical feminists had provoked a new confrontation and a brief uprising when the radicals knew that they were exposed. The fact that more men than women were armed and trained in weapons quickly doomed the rebellion. Proof had been found that the most militant feminists conspired to castrate any men who opposed their agenda and turn the rest of the male population into celibate sperm donors. Sadly, the old concept of "guilt by association" caused the more moderate factions of the women's lib movement to be punished as well.

In what was known as the American Reign of Terror, feminists were rounded up, regardless of the degree of their fanaticism. The Supreme Council of the USA imposed emergency edicts, stripping feminists of their civil rights. Since it was hard to define just who was a feminist and who wasn't, the numbers of women turned in as suspected feminists grew daily. Eventually, the Council defined a feminist as any woman who sought a position of authority over a man. It was harsh and extreme, but paranoia determined the policies by that point. The Revolution had to be defended at all costs from its enemies, before political freedom could be restored.

The secret ballot was abolished, for fear that closet feminists might still vote and elect some of their own kind, even after the first elections were held under the Supreme Council's auspices. The government was naturally purged of female civil servants at all levels, which allowed for full employment among men, an extremely popular consequence of the new regulations. The states soon chose provisional legislatures that drafted very anti-feminist constitutions and passed some very unfriendly laws regarding the women's movement. Since no openly feminist slates or candidates were allowed to run for office, this was no surprise. Sympathetic women of any prominence were cowed into voting for pro-revolutionary politicians, for fear of being arrested as traitors or counterrevolutionaries.

All-male tickets ran for the provisional Congress as well, so that the new Constitution officially excluded any protection of women's rights. Any freedoms that they retained were at the discretion of the states and the Federal Government. Women were soon formally barred from holding public office or voting altogether. They were disqualified from juries. Sexual harassment laws were completely revoked. Women were soon denied tenure as educators. They were soon prohibited from keeping any weapons.

The 1st Amendment of the new Constitution of 2021 abrogated the right of women to trial by jury, as well as any rights to defense counsel, confrontation of the accused, and freedom from self-incrimination and unreasonable searches or seizure. The 2nd Amendment rescinded their rights of privacy and travel. This was followed by other exclusionary amendments, which chipped away at their remaining liberty.

Under the authority of these amendments came even harsher specific laws. Congress began to define emasculation as a capital offense. Soon, verbal abuse was classified as "emotional castration" and given a slightly more lenient penalty. Incitation to emasculation was eventually deemed a capital offense under the 2025 statute, which was more comprehensive and severe in its impact. Abortion was made a man's right to choose, not a woman's.