The Donation Prologue

This is a prologue to a sci-fi story called "The Donation". It is meant as a dystopia. Do not read this prologue or the following chapters, if you can not handle stories about a patriarchal regime.

"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 All remaining women's rights have been revoked.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.

Divorce laws naturally became easier on men. Alimony was history in months. Community property was soon abolished, as the judges decided to compensate mankind for the past avarice of ex-wives. Women were soon destitute, which made an increasing number of them wards of their male relatives. One evil extreme had been replaced by an equally wicked one. Fathers were allowed to choose whether or not they would retain custody, and if so, how much their ex-wives were entitled to in a divorce settlement.

In a few years, most private property was overwhelmingly in male hands. Impoverished women steadily depended upon their fathers and brothers for protection and care. The states soon began to regard women as legally equivalent to minors in status. They were consigned to the juvenile trial process for any crimes that they might commit, in the same manner as children. The only difference was that penalties could be more severe for them than for children who did the same acts.

TV and other media went from depicting men as silly and stupid to doing that about women. Some things improved, however. Incest laws were abolished, since many of these male relations couldn't resist enjoying their newly dependent siblings and daughters. Monogamy was soon a thing of the past, since most of the men who were married chose not only to fuck around, but also to lend their wives to their horny male friends for the sake of friendship.

In fact, it was now deemed a sign of insolence to refuse a husband's sexual requests, whatever they might be. If, in private, a man wished his wife to dominate him, she was expected to risk defying the anti-dominatrix laws to please him. Naturally, such things were very quiet, as they were politically undesirable now.

In time, any women who sought independent careers were shunned. Live pornography was replaced by animated and computer-generated smut. Prostitution wasn't necessary anymore, so it soon faded as an issue. Why hire a hooker, when you virtually owned your mother, your wife, and/or your daughter? If you wanted variety, you could always arrange a night to exchange partners briefly with your best friend. If the husband didn't wish to raise another man's child, well, that was where legal abortion came in handy.

Nudity was soon perfectly legal for both sexes (some men chafed at the sight of ugly members of their own sex, but that was the price that they accepted for seeing lovely women in the buff). Of course, it was more common for women than for men, since men still had jobs and the need to carry things on their persons.

Homosexual activity became more popular among both sexes. Women did it to please their boyfriends or husbands. Men did it when they craved the sexual company of one who was socially their equal.

Canada objected to all of this, which only led to the US Armed Forces invading that country and forcing the UK to accept the annexation of America's northern neighbor. Ultimately, the USA became a republic again, but a somewhat less democratic and egalitarian sort of one. Images of the revolutionary leaders and of Robert Sheaffer replaced those of Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. General Marcellus Simms, the Chairman of the Supreme Council and first post-revolutionary President, was the face on the dollar (which was now black, the color of the Revolution).

It was in this society that we will begin our story, which is to follow this prologue.