Genital integrity and gender equity

Abstract

The struggles to protect male and female genital integrity may be analyzed as parts of larger struggles for men's and women's rights. While genital integrity still lacks binding legal safeguards, individual victories have been won. A number of important gender equity cases have been decided by the United States Supreme Court affirming men's right to equal treatment. Several illuminating parallels link genital integrity and gender equity. Like genital integrity, gender equity is fundamentally a civil rights movement. Both topics seem strange at first but ultimately derive from basic principles. Both causes are relatively unfamiliar to the broader legal community, not to mention the general public. Both can be rendered easily understandable through parallels with familiar topics. Genital integrity may temporarily be less legally robust. Both movements may be on the verge of some major breakthroughs. The interconnections between gender equity and genital integrity are growing in importance. Awareness of the gender equity movement should inform our activism regardless of our personal views. Both movements are relatively neglected at this particular historical moment. The very resistance such discussions raise may represent the barriers faced by activism in gaining support for its male-protective cause. © 2006 Springer.