'they should be accepted for who they are and what they bring into the mix. Praised for their strengths, for what makes them unique in terms of personality and what not.' - Precisely! I couldn't have worded it better myself!

Additionally, it's important to realise that prejudices go both ways. Women have prejudices against men, black people have prejudices against white people, gay against straight, Muslim against Christian - we're all as bad as one another!

What about an across-the-board equality day? Not a day for any specific group of people - a day for everybody? Surely that would be more appropriate?

'I would say a "praise for uniqueness" day would be more appropriate. We should celebrate that we are all different instead of always trying to be the same as everyone else.'

Ah, well said! We're all entitled to equal rights, but we're all unique as well - different tastes, religions, beliefs. In fact, we have a right to be unique!

'Because lets be honest, what fun would it be if we were all exactly the same?' - Precisely. It would be boring. I used to remember back in high school where you'd have cliques of people who'd all follow the same trends, wear the same clothes, listen to the same music, all to fit in. I suppose that's part of growing up; in hindsight, though, why should you have to be someone other than yourself to be a part of something?

I was probably a bit unclear on that - I think that we feel the need for hierarchy because higher-ups have drummed it into us so that they can stay where they are.

I'm still unsure about the actual need for hierarchy, myself. On one hand it's unfair that we have these people lording it over us, but then where would society go without clear leaders? You only need to look at some of the rioters in Britain recently - people with no sense of right or wrong, because there's been nobody above them to teach them otherwise. People who aren't afraid of the law because they treat it like it isn't there.

A hierarchy might be needed in the sense of the family, but in terms of law and politics Britain in particular should rethink who's higher up in our social structure. Our current leaders are useless people who care more about money and PR than improving the country!

But then without hierarchy we'd be able to truly stand as equals. If people were all responsible and acted creatively, then it might just be possible - it could be a society leading itself. Or it could be a simplified hierarchy with a few genuine leaders to keep things in check but who stand as equals with the people.

It's a pretty interesting argument, really!

That's what I was trying to get at in my original post: that while society feels the need for the equality day, we don't actually need one. Because society feels the need to have one, we clearly haven't totally leveled things out between men and women yet. I was quite vague in the way I wrote the entry, admittedly - could have done it better :P

You're definitely right that society doesn't always know best - in fact, since 'society''s opinions tend to be based on that of the majority (i.e. a good portion of Indian society's views on abortion based on gender), there will always be that minority who disagree. In this case, the minority in India who disagree with gender-selective abortion have got the backing of the majority of the West, whose society is more, but not entirely (yet), accommodating of women's rights.

On abortion in India, it shouldn't be allowed based on gender. Not only does it threaten a dangerous skew in the ratio of men to women in future, but it conveys this idea of women as worthless. It's quite sickening that people would abort a child because it's a male heir they want.

Interestingly, a patriarchal structure in society (i.e. males favoured as more powerful and 'earners', where the women are simply married off) is sometimes a factor in gender-selective abortion, and again hierarchy comes into it - does hierarchy work for the good of society? What kind of hierarchy would work best? Is it needed at all?

I think it's because we've known no different for years and years. What we need is a revolution, but Britain especially seems to meek to actually take action rather than just talk about what it wants and what it could be.