4 ms·
>Men and woman ARE equal. I used to believe so, until I discovered there were thousands of studies suggesting that statistically, men and women aren't equal.
by throwerway 9y ago
>Men and woman ARE equal.
I used to believe so, until I discovered there were thousands of studies suggesting that statistically, men and women aren't equal.
Each one of these points is backed up by dozens of statistical studies.
Are there statistical differences between males and females in height? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in athletic ability? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in memory recall? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in visuospatial ability? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in short-term mating strategies? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in long-term mating strategies? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in partner selection? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in partner commitment? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in parental investment? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in life expectancy? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in aggression? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in neuroticism? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in suicide? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in infancy and play? Yes
Are there statistical differences between males and females in wealth inheritance to children? Yes
I could make this list 200 items long, it's crazy how many studies there are out there. There's at least 50 years of research on this topic.
- didgeoridoo 9y agoYou're not parsing the difference between "equality" and "identicality". Equality is about the rights one has, and how one should be treated as an individual — equality before the law, and before society. We strive for a society where men and woman are equal, blacks and whites are equal, straights and gays are equal. Universal equality, however, does NOT require us to believe that people are identical in personality, in intelligence, or in any of the other dimensions you've listed above. We don't even have to believe that specific groups, taken together, are identical to all other groups in mean, median, and standard deviation on these attributes. People can be EQUAL without being THE SAME. Edit: really bummed I missed the opportunity to make a JavaScript joke about == vs ===.
- throwerway 9y agoEdit: New accounts cannot reply so I rewrote my comment I'm talking about equality in terms of attributes. The distribution of traits in males and the distribution of traits in females, are not equal. So I will not say males and females are equal. They do qualify as equivalent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_relation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_relation I believe people should be treated as individuals, if you take two distinct persons A and B, I don't believe they are equal. The only person equal to person A is person A. On this vein, you can't say Group A is equal to Group B, unless Group A and B are the same group. You can apply equivalence relations to groups, which is basically a lower threshold for equality.
- didgeoridoo 9y agoI'm not sure where "equivalent" came from, and haven't really heard it used in this context before. What do you mean by that? Anyway, I think you've got it backwards. "Equivalent" suggests that men and women are functionally interchangeable, which neither of us believes. "Equal", on the other hand, has a long history of being used to carry social and political meaning.
- IshKebab 9y agoThat may be what "equal" means to hard-core feminists but to everyone else it is a synonym for "identical". Wiktionary defines it as "the same in all respects". If you are talking in non-feminist circles you probably want to use standard language, e.g. "treated equally". You'll get fewer arguments about words that have been redefined by a small group.
- dang 9y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14965216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14965216 and marked it off-topic.