# He Fa on the Diagonal-Hem Debater

Symmetry Does Not Automatically Bring Fairness

Canonical: https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/hefa-on/hefa-lun-n12-n05
Language: en

The images and texts were developed collaboratively by He Fa and AI. The first-person voice belongs to an experiment in character; costume, posture and props are used to develop creative arguments, not as quotations from or summaries of the thought of the figures referenced.

![He Fa on the Diagonal-Hem Debater: Diagonal-Hem Debater, generated character image](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/hefa-on/media/b117de2ba7583e3f935d.webp)

Four dark-green square buttons run diagonally from the left shoulder to the right hip; the ochre-orange long garment extends into a triangular panel on one side, while the other stops around the thigh. Dark-green shorts, cream-white long socks and enormous square-toed shoes bring the diagonal firmly to the ground. I seem to have cut the argument into the coat first, giving even words not yet spoken a slant.

A slant readily raises suspicion of unfairness, just as symmetry often misleads people into believing fairness has arrived. Yet whether both sides receive the same length cannot alone describe how wearing feels. One side may need more room to move, while the other may bear more pulling from the long panel. Judgment should enter particular movements, rather than stop at a frontal image's geometric balance.

The square buttons repeat four times, but have not straightened the diagonal into a horizontal. They make me think that consistent procedures can likewise fall in different places, making people bear different results. Shared rules deserve keeping, but need an explanation of what happens after they pass through bodies. If only each button's sameness is checked, the long panel's drag disappears from evaluation.

On the other hand, following everyone's particular differences too closely may deprive shared judgment of a basis for comparison. I am willing to acknowledge that difficulty. What should be fixed, then, is a method for explaining differences, rather than every dimension: let both parties know what reasons are needed to request an adjustment, while allowing reasons to change positions already buttoned up.

I leave the triangular panel on one side, without rushing to cut both sides level. Those oversized black square shoes remind me that every sharp argument eventually needs a point of support. Fairness, if it occurs, need not look like a finally symmetrical coat. It may look like those four apparently correct buttons still being allowed to open again after someone says this side is constricting them.