Canadian "Regionalism"

As movies like Crash and Brokeback Mountain accept their awards, and the world claps, commending their daring approach to risque topics, I sit at home and I fume. My parents raised me to be not only accepting of other cultures, but to embrace them... I'm sure only feeding my desire to travel and explore. I like to think that I am someone with relatively few prejudices. Of course, we probably all do. Yet stereotypes surround us all the same, and unfortunately, they exist for a reason. Women my age represent the first generation to spawn from the sexual revolution of the 70's. We are the first generation who looked up to our mothers and truly appreciated the tremendous amount of work they do, regardless of whether or not they were 'stay at home moms'. We are a generation that has grown up knowing and believing that our gender does not limit us to three career choices (housewife, teacher or nurse). All the same, things change faster on paper than they do in our minds. In my junior high school, boys and girls were separated for gym. The boys played football, while the girls arm wrestled. Myself, I was more interested in football. My high school didn't have a girl's soccer team, because, according to our Phys Ed department "Girls don't play soccer". They refused to start a team, even when approached by half of my soccer team, who all attended the school. I guess we're still working out the kinks. But at the same time, the stereotype of weak women comes from somewhere. It comes from the girls who giggle and say they couldn't imagine playing soccer because they'd be seen sweating. It comes from the girls who seem to be born in high heels and go for weekly manicures, leaving the rest of us to wonder how their nails stay so perfectly intact. Try as I might, my nails will break and chip with or without the manicure. And of the three or four times a year I may be caught wearing heels (usually at weddings, thanks to all you newly weds that force me into them- I hope you're happy!), you'll notice that they are quickly discarded under the table and abandoned for the rest of the evening. Maybe I'm just not strong enough to be a girly girl. But then I suppose if my parents had raised me to believe that girls were meant to be in the kitchen and not playing soccer, I may have had some serious questions about gender. Are these stereotypes the reason that some girls say they've always felt like a boy, and vice-versa? I think so. We have come to recognize a boy who plays with dolls as a warning sign of an impending sex change. Athletic girls are quickly labelled lesbians, eroticized, and the world smiles and moves on.

I use gender stereotypes as an example because I have simply never experienced racism. I've had a couple instances since arriving in Korea where I've had trouble getting taxis because I'm white, but I think it had more to do with drivers being lazy and not wanting to have to decipher my horrible broken Korean. But I can't really classify that as racism. But when it comes to prejudice, we have become hyper-sensitive. Our generation has seen the fall of terms like waitress, stewardess, Madamoiselle, chairman and fireman from our vocabulary. Eskimo has become Inuit. Indian (accept for real Indians... from India) have become Native. Black has become African American (or Canadian, I suppose). I think it's fantastic. Except for the extreme PC- I was against the Bible being edited so that every reference to God read as He/She. I was against the lyrics of the national anthem being changed to "In all thy sons & daughters command". Enough's enough, people. But why are some types of prejudice incredibly taboo, yet others are perfectly acceptable to scream from the rooftops?

I was at a housewarming party in middle of nowhere Korea (which here means an hour bus ride from the subway) last week-end, and I left fuming mad. I've always had a confused Canadian identity. Born in Montreal, raised in Alberta, sent to French Immersion and Francophone schools throughout my education. Immersed in Quebec culture in the school environment, and then tossed out into the realities of a culture-free Albertan society. Despite living in Alberta, my winters always included a good 'tire a sucre' and a mini Carnival, complete with Bonhomme. In grade ten, I was violently shoved into English school. I couldn't understand anything math or science related. All the terms were new to me. I realized that I had never in my life been taught English grammar, and to this day when someone says third person, I think Je- Tu- Il. I failed math exams because I used a virgule (umm, comma?) when answering questions relating to money. I put the dollar sign after the price. And still do. I write the date backwards in English. All of these revealing my French education, which in Alberta, was greeted with nothing but contempt, particularly since I was born in Quebec. I was constantly referred to as French, even according to the Alberta government- who claims that you're Francophone if you've spent two or more years in a Francophone school. Not that it's a negative to be called French, but it helped a lot in keeping me throughly confused about my Canadian identity. And I got grief from people because I was 'one of those seperatists'. As if my first thought upon arriving in Alberta at the age of two was "Maudit Anglais!" So I get fed-up with Alberta's lack of culture and refusal to open their eyes to anything beyond beef and oil and I move to Quebec. All of a sudden, I'm even more confused. "Are you Quebecoise?" Hmm... well, um.... no. "But how do speak French? Oh... you're from Alberta.... hmmm... (ackward pause) Well, you speak French well." In case, so I'm at this party. And the guy who's house it is, is proving himself to be your typical redneck neanderthal. He's from middle of nowhere, Northern BC, but had spent the last four years living in Calgary. And I have to admit that I have serious questions about anyone who moves to Calgary to have a cultural experience. In any case, the Koreans that were at the party were excited that I spoke French, and they asked to hear a little. And so I spoke a sentence or two in French, and they were super excited to hear something other than English or Korean. And from the other side of the room, I hear a snarky redneck voice declare "Quebeckers are nothing but a bunch of pussies." And the room paused. And I lay into him. I suppose one could argue that I'm from Alberta, so the comment wasn't directed at me, but in point of fact, it most certainly was. This is the boy who knew so little about Quebec that he was unaware that McGill was in Montreal. And he began to list off stats in an attempt to prove that Quebec is nothing more than a drain on the Canadian economy. And as we all know, anyone who has visited Quebec knows that there is a culture there that's worth keeping. The Koreans had left as the argument became more and more heated. I suppose it wasn't so much an argument as me accusing him of ignorant rednecked ideas. It was down to just the Canadians. And BC boy was left alone with one Quebecoise/Albertan and four Newfoundlanders... representing the two most marginalized provinces in the country. And as I left- fuming mad and determined never to see such an ignorant person again, I wondered why it was so acceptable for people from different regions of the country to hold prejudices against those from other regions. Why is it still okay to trash Quebec and mock the 'dumb Newfies'? And why is the West always attacking the East? The Canadian couple I work with are from Jasper. And when they arrived, I had a similar argument with the boy, Reg. The argument about separatism was so ridiculous, that he in fact made me side with the separatists. And over the next week, his argument evolved into the belief that it was not fair that I was more employable because I spoke French. Not fair? Are we five years old? Not fair that I worked for years to learn and maintain a second language? Not fair that he didn't get a free ride? What, exactly, was not fair? Without Quebec and Newfoundland, I think Canadian culture would be a pretty sad state of affairs. Montrealers will openly say that they don't like Toronto- but it seems to come from a place of slight envy. Toronto is like the older more responsible brother who stayed home on school nights and worked hard to get where he is. Made sacrifices that allowed Toronto to lose some of its Canadian Content and become more Americanized. Montreal is the younger, irresponsible brother who drinks too much, indulges in drugs, has too much sex and says 'screw the final, I'm going drinking!' And which brother would you rather be? But I don't think I have ever a full out attack on Toronto by a Montrealer, or vice versa. The problems, as far as I can see, seem to stem from the West. What does this say of our country? Our sense of national pride? Is this why there is no Canadian identity? In saying that we're Canadian, are we really just specifying that we are not American? What does it mean to be Canadian? Are there any sort of values that extend from one end of the country to the other? My generation has and will travel all over the world. We will spend years of our lives examining other cultures, without even understanding our own. How many Canadians have really experienced Canada? We have quite possibly one of the most beautiful countries on earth. Our sheer size insures it. Why are we so quick to hop on a plane and take off to exotic European or Asian destinations, without ever having seen the Rocky Mountains? What is wrong with Canadians?