Men & Women are not equal and should not be considered as such

My thanks to Con for the acceptance, I'd like to divide my argument for this debate, firstly addressing that Men and Women simply do not meet the prerequisite criteria to be what is defined as equal to one another, followed by my rationale behind discrediting the idea that society can dictate an equal standard that should be followed, and finally my logic behind why Men and Women should not be considered equal. Throughout these points I'll make my best attempt at simultaneously addressing why Men and Women cannot be rationally compared as equal by definition and why a social acceptance of equality between the two sexes would be more problematic than beneficial. I. In order for two things to be equal they must be the same, Equal is synonymous with Identical and is defined as being the same in quantity, size, degree, or value. In its Adjective form, "Equal" is a difficult term to place on two of anything, I cannot fathom how one would even go about measuring a Man and Woman for consideration of the title: Equal. Having established the meaning of Equal and the degree of difficulty in understanding how two things could possibly be equal, I would suggest to Con that any movement by either sex to establish such a difficult title between Men and Women couldn't possibly be an attempt to establish the true meaning of Equal. Instead I suggest that any such attempt is actually an attempt at assigning a modified and personalized version of Equal, a "Subjective" Equal, which wouldn't make it equal at all. I'd like to take this opportunity to insert some humor in the form of sarcasm when I say "Words MEAN things". The reason our vocabulary is defined so clearly with rules is so that we do not confuse one another, but to assign additional meanings to a word and remove portions of it's original meaning could only cause confusion and is highly suspicious. Can anyone truly be expected to stand for one side of something versus the other and argue against someone who chooses to redefine words to suite their own need in justifying their side? I certainly wouldn't. Now in it's Noun form, equal can simply mean a person or thing "Considered" to be the same as another in status or quality. It's important to note that the literal definition specifies that this is what is Considered to be. I won't speculate on who considers this but I presume that it's society as a whole. I honestly don't have an issue with classifying something in this manner because there isn't a requirement for precision, merely a specification for a majority opinion or substantial support. In this case however, I find rational way to consider a Man or Woman Equal to each other based on their sex. In this case, sexism swings in my favor against equality...how can a Man and Woman be equal based on sex? What does sex have to do with being equal? If Men and Women are considered equal, then our Sex has been overlooked during the equating process, and if our Sex isn't taken into consideration while determining whether we are equal...then what is? If you approach me as a Woman and tell me that you are equal to me, I would ask you "How"? If you respond with "Because Men and Women are equal" then I would have to retort with "Obviously not, our Sex has been overlooked if we're considered to be equal because you would have to overlook our obvious differences to assign equality, we are different from one another (Reproductive organs)". This is where the popular argument "We're equal in certain ways" came from. It's not possible to argue that Men and Woman are equal because the basis for that argument would have to be that Sex doesn't play a part in determining equality, and if that was true...then we would all be measured against one another with demonstrated skill being the only factor. II. The Difference: Men and women have different communication skills, different uses of emotion and even different perceptions of pain. However just because men and women are different does not mean that one is better than the other, in fact the very existence of humanity depends on these differences. These differences are what we might call complementary and they are part of the richness and design of humanity. The issue stemmed largely from Australia, when a new Liberal Prime Minister was voted into office and the inner cabinet contained only one woman. The uproar across media lasted the better part of a week with the new cabinet being compared to the political cabinet of Afghanistan which has three women. The Liberal party had no quota on the number of women hat must be selected, basing itself on merit alone, whereas the outgoing Labor party had a self-imposed policy that aimed to preselect women as candidates in a minimum of 40% of seats. Imposing quotas though seems to be a rather disingenuous way to respect women. How is a woman selected under a quota regime supposed to know if she is there for her particular talents or simply to meet a politically correct criteria? This is where society is getting it wrong; a false notion of equality. It begins at a subliminal level where the message is diffused that one's gender is a social construction, meaning that a Woman is a Woman because she was dressed in a skirt and given dolls as a child, and a Man is a Man because he was dressed in trousers and given toy trucks. It is worth remembering that the term "Gender" came about in the early 1960s in an attempt to differentiate between one's biological sex and imposed sociocultural roles. When a society fails to understand the nature of men and women it is true that everything can look unfair but we set rather arbitrary standards of where fairness lies. If we were sincere about the equality issue we would insist that besides a quota of women in leadership positions, a set number of Men become carers to the disabled and work at home raising children. However this is not an issue about genuine equality, it is an issue about power, we all want to be out there doing what is seen to be the most important job at the time, but meanwhile we so often forget where the important things lie. Men and women are not"Equal" in their gifts but both sexes have a multitude of specific gifts and we always remain equal in our dignity as human persons. The more we focus on false notions of power and equality the less happy and satisfied we will be. Better that we realize and highlight the complementary that Men and Women share and use it to make our world a better and more just place. III. Men and Women should not be considered equal: By the standards of fairness in equality, I present the following as logical reasoning as to why equality between Men and Women would be more problematic than beneficial: 1. Any reason for a Man to protect a Woman would become equal reason for a Woman to Protect a Man and would have to be justly expected of both sexes to do so. Can you imagine a Woman defending her Husband's honor? 2. Any reason justifiably good enough to hit a Man would become equally justifiably good enough to hit a Woman. In today's society, physical violence between two men can result in wounds and legal consequences but physical violence between a Man and a Woman is treated with far more seriousness and heavier consideration simply because there is a Woman involved. This would no longer be the case and understanding the the penalty would likely never lower, Women would become just as heavily penalized for being involved in physical assault as Men are. 3. Women only programs would have to immediately be annihilated, such as all the "Woman only" scholarships for college. http://www.carrollk12.org... 4. Cultural double-binds would somehow have to be done away with, such as : a) Men and women are expected to be equal, but men are often expected to be the sole monetary contributors towards expenses (for example, buying expensive jewellery, paying for meals, etc.). b) Men are taught from a very young age that women are to be kept "on a pedestal" and revered, but the same cannot be said about women to men. c) The increasingly popular cultural focus on the importance of having an above-average penis size, while simultaneously depicting focus on breast size, waist-to-hip ratio, and other attributes of female sexuality as sexist. 5. The U.S. Draft and Selective Service Registration would have to include Women as well as Men. I am a Father of 4 daughters, they are my entire world, I am all for Women having their day, but one of my many reasons for refusing to follow the equality movement is that I know War, it is my craft...and no one is drafting my Daughters into that...no matter how fair it is. 6. Chivalry would have to Die, there would be no funeral. Holding doors open, pulling out chairs, offering a hand across wet surfaces, intervening when things simply look bad or unsafe...this would all have to end because it is only done for Women because they are Women...no other reason. Manners would be redefined forever and chivalry would be a history book. 7. Women and Children First would have to be shunned, a time when people were idiots would need to be the phrase used to describe the era in which it was coined. The thought that a Woman's life is worth more than a Man's or that a Woman should receive more opportunity to live than a Man is no equal...not in the least. Strangely, I've honestly never heard a Man complain about this one. Running out of room, that will have to suffice for now, I will look forward to hearing from Con on this subject, and only offer the one reference above for the citation of Women only colleges as the rest of my points above are rested on mere logic alone and don't include anyone's logic save my own. To you Con.