Men and Women Are Equal

Before begin my rebuttal, I must clarify a debate-breaking mistake. My assertion is the claim that no traits inherently characteristic of either sex make them unequal, and the claim "men and women are equal" is pragmatism based on this. This blatant goal-shift is not tolerated in any respectable debate forum, and I apologise to con for this mistake and any confusion it may have caused. I find your first point on biology a bit misleading, but I understand what you meant to say and why you said it. Not every difference makes an inequality. Nowhere in the definition of difference is there anything to link it to inequality [1]. Take that ball metaphor; they are different colors, but their color is just a quality, not a metric. Now, if you were to measure their diameter, mass, and surface texture and find them to be the same, then they'd be quite equal for playing catch. Any other distinction would be arbitrary. "Equal in colour" is quite a confusing way of putting it, as colour isn't any kind of quantity or measurement. Now, if you could prove, for example, that the red ball's manufacturer made balls that were more rough and massive than those made by the green one's manufacturer, then you could use color to infer that there was an inequality. In that case they wouldn't be equal, but the difference in color isn't what made them unequal. Onto the next point. Yes, women are very much more likely of developing breast cancer, men are infinitely more likely to get testicular cancer (not taking into account trans people, that is.) But this particular disease statistic doesn't account for mortality or the overall probability of getting seriously ill at all. For example, men are the only ones capable of dying of testicular cancer, but it can be treated. In addition, while there are different body parts the sexes can get cancer in, they still both get cancer. Onto your next point- breastfeeding fights infections. So do antibiotics. And dietary supplements. And a myriad of other modern health products that don't come from female glands. I also don't like the way you're treating the data, and that leads me into my next point. The data you're using does not confirm your point. All these numbers definitely correlate, so it's tempting to conclude in favor of con. However, an important fact of logic that con seems to forget is that correlation does not imply causation. I'll suspend this thought process, as I need to advance into my next point before I can do this topic justice. You stated that we both could agree that there were mental differences between the sexes. Well, I for one can't. I would very much like con to present evidence of these mythical differences. Or is that what Con's statistics were supposed to prove? I beg to differ. The study demonstrated a trend. It didn't account for anything else, such as surveyor errors or school population by sex, and even then it wouldn't prove anything other than the obvious; Among students polled, women scored higher. There's no answer to "Why" or "how," and such my confusion with con concluding "because they are male/female." You said that this might be due to personal preference and that the sexes prefer different things, but the data you showed doesn't say anything to support such speculation. So then, Con, I bid you- prove your assertions and speculations. Where is your evidence that these are related to sex? [1] http://i.word.com...