When immigrants come to our country, what are they often seeking? A better life? Freedom? A healthier environment? For now let us just focus on freedom. They come seeking freedom, but what do they bring with them? Their own social conditioning. It tells them things like men are superior to women. Even if they don't actively do anything, we feel threatened. They embody things that we as a people have tried to get away from. In countries such as Canada where immigration is so great, this fear is even greater. What are we Canadians so afraid of? Loss of our culture? Not exactly. (Some would argue that we don't have a culture and others just don't care) Loss of our freedom from gender roles which we are still struggling to overcome. How can we win the battle against forced gender roles and social mental conditioning (socialization) when the other side is receiving reinforcements? We see women from Asia wearing high heels (look for "High Heels: Equality's Greatest Enemy" coming soon) and tight revealing clothes and we see them as dependant and so entrenched in their gender role, that they not only enjoy it but shame those who don't conform. Look at yourself. What do you consider to be, for example, oriental fashion? Compare that to Canadian fashion. See my point? Canadian women see this and have to adapt. For example, immigrants make up both employers and employees. So Canadian women must play within the potential or present employers' value system just to survive. So it spreads. The fashion. The dependence. The inequality. Where are the feminists throughout all this? That poor misunderstood group could be our only hope. We need them. To fight the battle for equality on an all new front. Aren't these women subjugated? Where is their freedom? What are their values? Ask them. Many new immigrants will spew dogma from the 1950s, only slightly modified. "My husband will work and I will�" So men's backs get up. Our gender roles are being forced back upon us not long after we declared ourselves free (90s men who weren't afraid to cry) by people who didn't even originate here. See where the anger comes from? It's a defense mechanism. I doubt many immigrants would look at a man crying and see him expressing his emotions; they would see a weak person, just as they were brought up to see. If a man were staying at home to raise the kids, they would no doubt laugh, or at the very least pity him. They often believe any woman who supports herself must be dreadfully unhappy. These are things we are trying so hard to break free of. We haven�t won the gender role battle and we're smarting from our latest wounds. They are the salt in our gender role wounds and thus we get angry. We have anger and don't know where it comes from but we certainly see where it's going. We know racism is not right and so we try not to do anything rash. But the feelings remain and often get mislabeled or redirected. Some say they impose their culture on us. But ask them, they aren't. They simply aren't accepting our way of doing things and by sheer numbers are suppressing it. The worst part is, it's not even malicious, evil, or planned. It's simply the way it's always been for them. What about Asian guys who are overconfident, cocky, and believe that they are "all that". They are brought up to believe they are better than women and that it is a good idea to remind women of it. After all, what better why is there to keep the "lesser sex" down? That ideology has mutated into a bizarre form of cockiness, and it just puts people off.

There are two official languages in Canada. It is your duty as a citizen to know at least one of these. It's not that us anglophones want English only. Speak French, we don't care! Those who refuse to learn at least one of our languages are refusing to follow our laws. It's that simple. Take a walk into HMV sometime. Count the number of titles on the top 20 in neither of the official languages. I hope those CDs can be found in the world section or I must be in Asia. Here's a test for you: Next time you are surrounding by people talking loudly in an Asian language try to observe how this makes you feel. Then compare that to the next time you are surrounded by people talking loudly in the other official language, which you don't know. I tried this and found myself much less annoyed with the francophones. Read the Charter of Rights and Freedoms sometime. Only two official languages. It's the law. If they don't like it they can learn a Canadian language and then try to change it. We need to send a message to those who refuse to speak Canadian (English or French) that it is not acceptable for them to break this law and it will not be tolerated. And if they cannot understand this message, that's fine too. They just better pray they have whomever they depend on around when the evacuation order is issued or when the Emergency Broadcast System becomes more than just a test. But whatever you do, please tell them peacefully and remember to respect those who are trying.

So now to answer the question on everyone's mind: What does this have to do with CoW mAn? This IS documentation after all: Well, I have been attracted to immigrants. Dated immigrants. Had immigrants as friends. Worked with immigrants. But every now and then this hostility would emerge and sometimes makes those relationships difficult. It is for them as much as for me that I am truly glad to have finally figured this out for myself. Soon as I realized it wasn't all immigrants, I didn't need to worry about being racist. Now that I know where it comes from, it bothers me much less and is almost tolerable. I hope it helps you as well. Good luck.