‘To Sir with Love’: A Critical Analysis of the Transnational Community Communicated through the Mail-Order Bride Industry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/mjc.v4i0.235Keywords:
Transnational communication, mail-order bride industry, culture shift, third world women, gender studies, the foreign female, otherness, the American marriage, the profit of power,Abstract
The clichéd notion that the United States of America is the power of authority has long been criticized by theorists. However, in such critical analyses, the gendered authority exerted by America is rarely discussed. The patriarchal presence that is continuously encouraged in mainstream culture can be traced to the center of this power of authority. This paper intends to examine how such an emphasis on American power was created and how this image is being communicated to the international community through the lucrative mail-order bride industry. In particular, this paper will analyze how the mail-order bride trade sets to profit from the Third World woman's culturally imperialistic vision of America while catering to the needs of the patriarchal First World male. In examining the mail-order bride industry's reliance on the theme of nostalgia, it will be shown that a profitable market has emerged as a result of catering to a culture that prioritizes the patriarchal male individual, rather than those deemed as minorities in today's western society.
