Capitalizing Mail-Order Brides: American Hegemony and a Return to Pre-Feminism

Contrary to popular belief, mail-order marriage is not left behind in history. With technological advancement, globalism, and capitalism, mail-order relationships in the modern world have become a capitalist venture through the form of a global marriage market with Internet websites (Starr & Adams, 2016, pp. 968-969). Currently, the common practice operates internationally in between different nations and ethnicities (Merriman, 2012, p. 87). However, the mail-order bride market is distinct from the regular intercultural dating business: a clear power structure exists between the grooms (capitalist along with mail-order marriage companies) and the brides (commodities). This paper examines how this dating market serves Western men (I will be using this term interchangeably with American men) to reinforce traditional Western masculine hegemony and ethnic dominance in a global setting (Starr & Adams, 2016, p. 972).

Appropriating Stereotypes of Kin, Romance and Gender: An Ethnographic Study of Filipina Migrants Married to or in De-Facto Relationships with New Zealand Men

<p>Transnational marriage migration is an emerging area of interest in anthropology, and contemporary scholars have written extensively on the international movements of Filipina women who have married non-Filipino men. Extending this research into an antipodean context, this thesis is based on interviews with Filipina migrants married to or in de-facto relationships with New Zealand men. Through an examination of narratives of love and romance, identity, and kinship, this work highlights the ways participants undertook identity work in their interviews. In particular, this thesis reveals the strategies employed by Filipina migrants in constructing narratives in which they distance themselves from negative stereotypes, while incorporating more positive typologies into their identities. Stereotypes included Filipina women as mail-order brides, domestic workers, subservient wives, and good family members. These narrative strategies demonstrated the ways participants sought to control and manipulate stereotypes in order to present themselves as successful and virtuous migrants. This thesis applies current scholarship on identity work and stereotypes. It also contributes to literature on marriage migration by expanding a contemporary focus on participant agency through acknowledging how migrants utilise identity resources, in this case stereotypes, available in their host society.</p>

Appropriating Stereotypes of Kin, Romance and Gender: An Ethnographic Study of Filipina Migrants Married to or in De-Facto Relationships with New Zealand Men

<p>Transnational marriage migration is an emerging area of interest in anthropology, and contemporary scholars have written extensively on the international movements of Filipina women who have married non-Filipino men. Extending this research into an antipodean context, this thesis is based on interviews with Filipina migrants married to or in de-facto relationships with New Zealand men. Through an examination of narratives of love and romance, identity, and kinship, this work highlights the ways participants undertook identity work in their interviews. In particular, this thesis reveals the strategies employed by Filipina migrants in constructing narratives in which they distance themselves from negative stereotypes, while incorporating more positive typologies into their identities. Stereotypes included Filipina women as mail-order brides, domestic workers, subservient wives, and good family members. These narrative strategies demonstrated the ways participants sought to control and manipulate stereotypes in order to present themselves as successful and virtuous migrants. This thesis applies current scholarship on identity work and stereotypes. It also contributes to literature on marriage migration by expanding a contemporary focus on participant agency through acknowledging how migrants utilise identity resources, in this case stereotypes, available in their host society.</p>

'I do' belong to you : debating the vulnerability of Filipino mail-order brides in Canada

This qualitative essay examines to what extent mail-order brides are a vulnerable population, concentrating on Filipino mail-order brides in Canada. The literature on mail-order brides has generally been polarized between two positions, one that tries to victimize all mail-order brides and one that tries to presume that all mail-order brides are in control of their own destinies. This paper aims to asses these polarized positions on the basis of empirical information proided in the literature and two interviews done with representatives from organizations that work with the Filipino community in Canada.

'I do' belong to you : debating the vulnerability of Filipino mail-order brides in Canada

This qualitative essay examines to what extent mail-order brides are a vulnerable population, concentrating on Filipino mail-order brides in Canada. The literature on mail-order brides has generally been polarized between two positions, one that tries to victimize all mail-order brides and one that tries to presume that all mail-order brides are in control of their own destinies. This paper aims to asses these polarized positions on the basis of empirical information proided in the literature and two interviews done with representatives from organizations that work with the Filipino community in Canada.

Canadian Newsprint Portrayals of Foreign Brides/ “Mail Order Brides": Comparing Representations Surrounding Policy Changes in 2002 and 2012

Despite the small amount of Canadian literature on the topic of “mail order brides”, authors have argued that women in this situation often face abuse at a heightened rate, which highlights the need for more research. Focusing on the time periods of 2000-2004 and 2010- 2014, Canadian newsprint stories were gathered in order to compare media portrayals of “mail order brides” surrounding two important policy changes. Findings indicate that surrounding a policy amendment in 2002, more positive portrayals of “mail order brides” can be noted, whereas more emphasis on fraudulent cases of “mail order brides” are present in press surrounding a second policy change in 2012. As well, blaming the individual is constant over both time periods, with minimal focus on broader structural issues that disadvantage “mail order brides”. Future research is needed to expand understanding on this topic with the goal of promoting more progressive immigration policies.

Canadian Newsprint Portrayals of Foreign Brides/ “Mail Order Brides": Comparing Representations Surrounding Policy Changes in 2002 and 2012

Despite the small amount of Canadian literature on the topic of “mail order brides”, authors have argued that women in this situation often face abuse at a heightened rate, which highlights the need for more research. Focusing on the time periods of 2000-2004 and 2010- 2014, Canadian newsprint stories were gathered in order to compare media portrayals of “mail order brides” surrounding two important policy changes. Findings indicate that surrounding a policy amendment in 2002, more positive portrayals of “mail order brides” can be noted, whereas more emphasis on fraudulent cases of “mail order brides” are present in press surrounding a second policy change in 2012. As well, blaming the individual is constant over both time periods, with minimal focus on broader structural issues that disadvantage “mail order brides”. Future research is needed to expand understanding on this topic with the goal of promoting more progressive immigration policies.

Imagining the Filipina Trafficked Woman/Sex Worker

The discourse of the Filipina trafficked woman collapses together women who perform multiple kinds of commodified sexual and domestic labor within a global capitalist economy, from Filipina mail-order brides to migrant sex workers. This chapter focuses on the diasporic circulation of the figure of the Filipina trafficked woman / sex worker within three sites of Filipina/o American cultural production: the web site for Gabriela Network’s Purple Rose Campaign, the Filipina American documentary film Sin City Diary, and the Pilipino Cultural Night vignette National Heroes. These sites reveal the tension in representing the Filipina trafficked woman / sex worker, from her portrayal as a victim to be saved by her Filipina American sisters, to her discursive construction by the Philippine state as a “national hero.”

Queering the Global Filipina Body

The “global Filipina body” is a ubiquitous sign of the Philippine nation that represents the exploitation of racialized and gendered Filipina migrant labor in a context of neoliberal globalization and US neoimperialism. Focusing on multiple iterations of the global Filipina body--the “mail-order bride,” the sex worker / trafficked woman, and the overseas contract worker (OCW)--within contemporary Filipina/o diasporic cultural production and global popular culture, this book argues that the global Filipina body represents both the failure of the heteropatriarchal Philippine nation to achieve sovereignty and the catalyst for discourses of anti-imperialist and revolutionary Filipina/o diasporic nationalism. The first half of the book critiques the heteronormativity and masculinism of representations of the global Filipina body as a sign of the Philippine nation, focusing on heritage language programs for Filipina/o Americans (chapter 1) and the Filipina/o American film Sin City Diary (chapter 2). The latter half of the book argues that the Filipina/o American artists the Mail Order Brides / M.O.B. and Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa queer the figure of the global Filipina body through their visual art and performance, presenting a queer and feminist intervention in the politics of nation and diaspora.