Five Reasons Equality Won't Work

If like me something about the drone of equality makes you feel uncomfortable, there are probably plenty good perfectly logical reasons for your unease:

We Are Unique. It’s far better surely to understand that we are all singular. Men and women are not the same. She’s a she, he’s a he, unless of course either is transgender. In addition dividing us simply by our genders is far too restrictive. Every child experiences a different start in life. Consequently every start line is never equal no matter how even we try to make it and once the race is run, everyone crosses the line in a staggered formation. In short, there will always be a different outcome no matter how hard people strive to enforce parity.

Life Isn’t Fair. The modern mantras of equality and diversity originated from a good place but seem to have been distorted, exposing a darker side. Mild questioning on the subject or any remark about the negative impact of positive discrimination is often met with childlike anger and frustration. I’m constantly amazed by the number of supposed grown adults who appear to keep on stamping their feet and protesting loudly about the lack of equality. Their continuous bleating reminds me of the toddler in the sweetie aisle who can’t reach. If we relent and hand down the smarties, the kid will always want more. Everyone knows that’s a bad situation. Life, is never fair and our general lack of gratitude for all that we do have is excruciating.

Change Is Constant. Equality is a falsehood, an aspiration birthed ironically by a generation who have lived in a time when many more opportunities are open to them than ever before. Look back just a few decades and the idea of choice was laughable. Look back further and according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the vast majority were still on the bottom tier, expending all their time and energy trying to obtain enough food, water and rest. Unfortunately security and safety, our other basic needs, are still not being met in many parts of the world. I would argue that it’s not equality we need to address the balance but a reborn recognition of something else altogether; humility. We are not special. No one is. Instead we are just lucky or unlucky. That’s life. How we respond to adversity as individuals is what counts.

The Young Are Confused: Equality tells young girls that they are born leaders even if they are not. It tells young boys that they should shut down their inner wild man every time he comes calling. Both sexes are extremely anxious because being who they are feels wrong somehow. Throughout their adolescence many only see a future of continuous failure. We are teaching them to repress their natural instincts and abilities. In Western Society, the closest a young man gets to his initiation into manhood is when he passes his driving test with a stranger. Passing through physical adolescence these days does not turn the boy into a man. He needs the constant company of other grown men and the benefit of learning from their lifelong experiences to achieve this. Mothers often pile their angst and fears into their daughters who must now be career over achievers as well as mothers, wives and carers. The once ever present feminine wisdom of a grandmother is largely absent from the family nucleus.

It Can't Be Enforced. Equality implies that those who’ve found their element, are off and flying in whatever capacity should be dragged back down to some level of normality. Ironically the unequal will have to made more like others who are somehow beneath them. What gives anyone the right to be a lawyer, a professor of Physics, an internet sensation or a positive distrupter when so many others can't achieve the same? This is especially true if they are the "wrong gender". Success in all its forms will be scrutinised and questioned, looked down upon instead of being celebrated and encouraged. Gender will be the most important thing rather than the talents of the individual. I was fairly recently told at interview “well, it would be much better for us if you were a woman”! Having explained that unfortunately I didn’t think I could do anything about that, I decided to grow a beard, tinker with my bike for hours, think of nothing in particular for even longer and watch the golf on telly during the weeks that followed.

Good luck with being equal, much better perhaps to concentrate on being you. Wouldn't you agree?