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INTRODUCTION
Throughout western history, Asian women have been characterized as being erotic and exotic. Bridal agencies promote this image, capitalizing on and perpetuating the stereotype of the Asian woman as the subservient "china doll" 一 a silent, dutiful, sexually accommodating object devoted to serving her man.
MAIL-ORDER BRIDES
Newspaper and magazine advertisements in the United States promise male readers potential brides who resemble "Gorgeous Pacific Women" and "Pearls of the Orient". The mail-order bride agencies that place these advertisements also offer catalogs filled with pictures of women from Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe, complete with information on each woman's age, weight, height, and interests. The advertisements and catalogs are parts of an expanding multi-million dollar industry that markets women from developing countries as potential brides to men in western industrialized nations.
HARMS OF BRIDE BUYING IN ASIA
While international marriages have become a thriving industry in Asia, a dark underbelly also exists: human trafficking plays a role in this migration, which has led some countries to enact restrictions on marriage brokering. The marriage trade isn’t always transparent. According to human rights groups, some women are entrapped under pretenses, coerced, or even sold into marriage against their will by family members.
ASIAN TRAFFICKING
Mail-order bride agencies claim that they are not in the business of trafficking women across national boundaries. However, catalog descriptions of the women the companies market do not differ much from a department store’s listing of merchandise.
EXPLOITATION OF ASIAN STEREOTYPES
The mail-order bride business relies on stereotypes of the "traditional" foreign woman and the charming American man to create both demands for foreign brides and a supply of women looking for American males. Stereotypes prevail on both sides, influencing the decisions of consumer-husbands to purchase brides from particular countries and attracting women to advertise themselves in bridal catalogs.
They depict the Asian mail-order bride as a naive, sweet, traditional, virginal, God-fearing, and a submissive young woman who speaks excellent English. The men are shown to the women as honorable, romantic, knights-in-shining-armor, much like the western men they see in movies and on TV. But, once the courtship and pretense are over, it’s often a completely different story.
THE PAINFUL REALITY OF BRIDE BUYING
Even though the toxicity of the mail-order bride industry is well-known, little action is being taken because there are millions at stake. As long as western men are willing to pay to have brides come to their countries to be their wives, IMBs will keep providing the service. And there will always be willing women ready to escape poverty and have the chance at a better life, even if they know there is a chance the man they marry may not be who he says he is.
HOW TO HELP
For now, the mail order bride industry will continue to do business because there is money changing hands, and nothing speaks louder than the almighty dollar. The onus is on us, the consumers, to check that these transactions don’t end up with a bride being raped, abused, exploited, or murdered. We need to protect the Asian women who go to western countries for a better life, only to be slaves to their spouse and the immigration policies of their new home by creating legislation and speaking out about the indignities and exploitation.
REFERENCES
Barry, Kathleen. Female sexual slavery. NyU Press, 1984. Lloyd, Kathryn A. "Wives for sale: The modern international mail-order bride industry." Nw. J. Int'l L. & Bus. 20 (1999): 341.
Chun, Christine SY. "Mail-order bride industry: the perpetuation of transnational economic inequalities and stereotypes." U. Pa. J. Int'l Econ. L. 17 (1996): 1155.
Bizkaia, Bilbao. "How the Internet Gave Mail Order Brides the Power." Bilbao Bizkaia (2019).
Weiland, Jason. “You Can Still ‘Buy’ an Asian Mail-Order Bride on the Internet.” Medium, 21 Sept. 2020.
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