Quote Originally Posted by SpiritMuse View Post
I feel this is something that people often miss. "Equal" is not "the same". You can be equal, yet different.
The issue then arises that some things are more equal than others however. The afro or pompadour is just as good a haircut as the lightning cut, right? Except that I wager over 70% of the female characters would much rather have the lightning cut. I'm being generous here, I never saw any female with an afro anywhere, not even as joke.

Even mathematically, it's nigh impossible to create equality without identity if you consider preferences. 1+5 and 3+3 are both six, but what if a more even composition is preferred? Then 3+3 is better than 1+5, because it's more even. Day shift and night shift both have the same amount of working hours and length of breaks, yet day shift is typically considered better than night shift, hence night shift often needs additional incentives. And let's not even get into the discussion of gender roles and "equal, yet different rights and duties". We really don't need to start the outrage about women wearing pants again either.

So yeah...you'll be hard pressed to ever offer two actually equal, yet different options. Chances are, one will always be inferior and which will depend on the individual evaluating them.