Mail-Order Brides

Statistics concerning Mail-Order Brides

Hundreds of worldwide agencies, almost all on the Internet, offer the names, pictures, and, for a price, the addresses of Mail-order brides. Mail-order bride companies reap the benefits of this exchange not only by selling women's contact information but also through arranging vacations to the women's home countries. Since U.S. immigration law requires that U.S. citizens meet their immigrating fiancées at least one time, these trips are an integral part of the Mail-order bride process. In general, most male clients pay Mail-order bride services between $6,000 and $10,000 dollars for addresses, traveling to the bride's home country, and other service fees.

The number of women who are available as mailorder brides is estimated at over 100,000 annually. Of these, only about 10 percent, or about 10,000, successfully find husbands through marriage broker services, and nearly half of these are U.S. men. The remaining women generally marry Australian, European, Canadian, or Japanese clients. An analysis of catalogs displaying 1,400 Asian Mail-order brides found that 20 percent were 16 to 20 years old, 41 percent were 21 to 25, 24 percent were 26 to 30, and 11 percent were 31 to 35. Only 4 percent of mailorder brides were over 35 years old.

Mail-Order Brides, Societal Stereotypes, and Domestic Violence

Sources indicate that most Mail-order brides want American husbands because they will be able to have a “better life,” with more educational and employment opportunities in a developed country. Poverty, political upheaval, and a limited amount of choices in their home countries' job markets force many foreign women to seek alternative sources of income. However, deeply entrenched gendered and racial notions about American men as excellent husbands and superior to native men also motivate these women to search abroad. They often believe that American men are handsome, faithful, and kind to their wives. Men in their native countries, on the other hand, are perceived by many Mail-order brides as philandering and cruel.

[Page 498]Issues of gender and racial stereotypes also are evident in the Mail-order bride business. Generally white, middle to upper class, much older than the women they seek, and often divorced or embittered about relationships, men from the United States seek mailorder brides because they believe they possess traditional values that American women, who are too “liberated,” are lacking. Mail-order bride businesses exploit Western stereotypes about Asian women, representing them as delicate, traditional, and without career ambitions. One Web site, expressing disenchantment with changing gender roles in American society, makes the following

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