From comparators to dignity: Recasting sex discrimination adjudication through relational equality

This article reconceptualizes sex discrimination as communicative demeaning that violates equal civic status, and shows that comparator-led tests often fail to register this harm. Bringing together relational equality - which addresses relations of domination and subordination - and a dignity-as-status account, it articulates an operational Message–Structure–Justification (MSJ) analysis. Stage A (Message) assesses the objective social meaning of state action via a reasonable-recipient standard; Stage B (Structure) examines whether the measure contributes to cumulative, cross-domain disadvantage; Stage C (Justification) requires enhanced, evidence-based proportionality and forbids justificatory reasoning that itself demeans. The analysis remains compatible with Article 14 ECHR and EU equality doctrine while correcting comparator-centrism. Applications to intersectional harms show how MSJ identifies qualitatively distinct forms of subordination beyond additive models; analysis of “reverse discrimination” demonstrates how properly tailored positive action can promote equal citizenship without denigrating dominant groups. Finally, the article outlines evidentiary and institutional requirements - expert evidence, equality-data infrastructures, and judicial training - that secure democratic legitimacy and practical feasibility, and sets an agenda for empirical validation of MSJ in adjudication.