A mail-order bride is a woman who lists herself in catalogs and is selected by a man for marriage. In the twentieth century, the trend primarily involved women living in developing countries seeking men from more developed nations. Men who list themselves in such publications are referred to as “mail-order husbands”, although this is much less common. As of 2002, there were an estimated 100,000–150,000 mail order brides worldwide.[1]
The term mail-order bride has been criticized by international marriage agencies, who nevertheless continue to use it as an easily recognizable term.[2] Women of Asian descent have also criticized the term, which they consider stigmatizing to women in such relationships. Consequently, some researchers have rejected the term.[1]
Rise of Mail Order Bride Business
In the 1990s, with the proliferation of the Internet, the mail-order bride
industry shifted from a relatively obscure business, conducted through black-
and-white catalogs, to a multibillion-dollar worldwide industry. (Starr, E., & Adams, M. (2016).)
Recent estimates show that more than 150,000 women advertise themselves through agencies as available for marriage to Western men (Tran 2012).
A result of Globalization
Mail Order Brides could be seen as a manifestation source, quite literally coupled with intimacy: the transnational romance industry, facilitated by dating websites, seeks to pair Western men with women from, most commonly, the former Soviet Union, Latin America, and Asia (Perez 2003; Jehle and Miller 2010).
These mail order brides hinges on the patriarchal ideology of love and romance, encouraging foreign women to fit into the Nuclear family structure. A last ditch effort in trying to save it from increasingly unfit 1st World Women. (Schaeffer-Grabiel 2006; So 2006; Johnson 2007)
Singapore’s position as a hub for migrants and global economic activity makes it the ideal place to find such brides.
From an article from today, The number of Singaporean women who took non-resident grooms in the last two decades had jumped by 75 per cent, from 989 in 2000 to 1,727 in 2019, government data showed.
- More Singaporeans are marrying foreigners — 6,153 in 2019 versus 4,823 in 2000
- The increase is more apparent for Singaporean women in the last two decades
- As for foreign brides, the demographic has changed in the last two decades
- Their median age increased from 27 years old in 2009 to 29 in 2019
– (Nabilah Awang, 2021)
Professor Paulin Straughan from the Singapore Management University (SMU) said: “As women continue to prefer to marry grooms who match their education level, the pool of eligible men (in Singapore) is small.
“Thus, expanding the pool to those beyond Singapore will improve the likelihood that they may find a significant other and life partner.”
At the end of the day, its all about power, or the traditional family structure. Men want a women that he can provide for and raise a family. While women want a man that is better than her depends on her own definition, but there is a pattern.
Globalization has opened up the door for intimacy, the pool of people who want to marry is no longer localised to the village or town, but by the airlines they take and whichever continent is most popular to visit.
As the world becomes increasingly connected, such business models may actually become more common place as people struggle to connect socially in our high connection 5G society.
I decided not to include any images of actual places with mail order brides. From some preliminary research, not all but some are connected to syndicates and criminal organizations. I don’t want to be assassinated
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-order_bride
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1486&context=jil
Starr, E., & Adams, M. (2016). The Domestic Exotic: Mail-Order Brides and the Paradox of Globalized Intimacies. Signs, 41(4), 953–975. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26552860
