The Internet Revives an Old Tradition

Mail-Order Brides—

Read the following text.

During the first large wave of Asian immigration in the twentieth century, many- Japanese and Korean women came to the United States as "picture brides". The picture-bride system, according to author Yen Le Espiritu, was a form of "arranged marriage facilitated by the exchange of photographs." A Japanese or Korean immigrant man would choose a wife based on a picture and send for her. The women agreed to become picture brides because, as one Korean woman put it, "then I could get to America... that land of freedom with streets paved with gold!"

In this century, picture brides have been replaced by mail-order brides. However, the two practices are different in an important way. Korean and Japanese picture brides generally married men of the same ethnic group, whereas, in the mail-order bride system, men look for wives from countries other than their own. The homelands of modern mail-order brides also differ from those of yesterday’s picture brides. Today, the majority come from the Philippines, Thailand, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union. Most of the men who "order" these women live in developed regions, such as Australia, North America, Western Europe, and Japan.

Each year, hundreds of Internet bride services recruit thousands of women— mostly from Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and other economically depressed parts of the globe—to marry their American clients. Matchmaking Web sites feature glowing testimonials and pictures of smiling couples. The sites promote old stereotypes of foreign women as subservient, "traditional" wives. For a large fee, the typical, agency promises to connect clients with women who will "follow their husbands lead, and stick with the marriage even when times get tough and things stop being fun.”

Many Internet brides settle into happy relationships; Encounters International claims a success rate of 86 percent, just 35 divorces out of 257 marriages. But Layli Miller-Muro, a lawyer who runs the Tahirih Justice Center, which is an international women's rights group, has followed problems in the foreign matchmaking industry for years. When she surveyed 175 legal-aid groups in the United States, more than half reported clients who had been mistreated by men they'd met through marriage brokers.

Some women claim that many men who want a mail-order bride simply want an obedient housekeeper and bed partner. And the agencies who sponsor the women "sell" them that way. For instance, one agency says that unlike modern-day American women, Filipinas are completely devoted to their husbands and families. Another Web site describes Latinas in the same way. Others depict Russian women as uncorrupted by the militant feminism that they say has ruined American women. An agency based in Italy states that Filipinas are still "good Catholic girls," implying that Italian women no longer are.

These agencies also don't paint a very pleasing picture of the men in women's native countries. For example, one says that Latin men get drunk and beat their wives. Another site says the same thing about Eastern European men. The purpose of this bad- mouthing is to convince clients that these women are grateful to marry a foreigner.

Some people say that the mail-order bride business is racist. However, that charge doesn't hold. A good portion of die brides are white, generally from the former Soviet Union, and some of the men who "order" brides arc not. The movement of mail-order brides is less a flow of women from nonwhite to white countries than from poor to rich ones. The power of economics can be seen by looking at individual countries. When the mail-order bride business first caught the public’s attention in the 1980s, most of the women were Asian. Yet a glance at any mail-order bride Web site shows virtually no women from Japan or Singapore. Japanese and Singaporean women don't need to go abroad as mail-order brides to improve their economic situation.

However, even if it is not racist, the mail-order bride business is not harmless. First of all, many women get involved in it because of unfavorable economic and/or social conditions in their homelands. Feminists and minority activists are also right to say that women who go abroad as wives of men whom they hardly know and who have such enormous economic and psychological power over them are easy targets for abuse.

Portions reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2000 Emily Monroy

2) Give English equivalents to the following. Use them in the appropriate context: заказ товаров по почте, возрождать, брак по договоренности, способствовать, родина, развитый регион, экономически неблагополучный регион, набирать персонал, сватать, сват, рекомендация/ отзыв, покорный/ услужливый, плата, держаться за что-либо, становится трудным (напр. о временах), встраиваться/ интегрироваться, правовая помощь, плохо обращаться, послушный, домохозяйка(-ин), сексуальный партнер, спонсировать, преданный, неиспорченный, воинствующий феминизм, подразумевать, рисовать приятную картину чего-либо (перен.), злословие/ оговор, расистский, благодарный, обвинение, привлечь внимание публики, быть вовлеченным в, активисты меньшинств, легкая мишень, плохое обращение.

3) Answer and discuss the following questions:

What is the difference between Internet brides and picture brides?

Where do most mail-order brides come from today?

Where do many of their husbands come from?

How do men find brides on the Internet?

What qualities are many men looking for?

Does the writer believe that the mail-order bride business is racist? Why or why not?

What is the writer's opinion of the mail-order bride business? Why?

1) How are the following practices viewed in your society? Label each practice with the most appropriate term.

encouraged tolerated condemned outlawed unheard of

a. Cohabitation is_________________________ in my society.

b. Serial monogamy is_________________________ in my society.

c. Polygamy is________________________ in my society.

d. Mail-order brides are__________________________ in my society.

e. Divorce is________________________ in my society.

f. Single parenthood is__________________________ in my society.

2) Which of these practices would you...

personally tolerate or agree to?

encourage a friend to do?

encourage your sister or brother to do?

3) What, if any, practices in the list above should be against the law?

4) Who should regulate marriage—the government, religion, or communities?

5) Is our society's conception of marriage changing? Why or why not?

6) Is traditional one man-one woman marriage important to society? If so, why? If not, why not?

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29