No Mail-Order Bride Promotion Here

While I don't consider mail-order brides sexual exploitation of women, others do. See, the thing is my mother was a mail-order bride, if that's what you could call it back then. She was in a pen-pal club to meet American men so she could marry and move to the United States. Isn't that old-fashioned mail order? Is it wrong that women come into the U.S. as mail-order brides if that's what they want?

I think the exploitation comes in when some of these women are promised husbands and instead end being trafficked as servants and prostitutes, but isn't that a whole another thing? The sad truth is that many of these women are desperate to get out of really bad situations in their own country, but there is no guarantee they'll end up in a legitimate mail-order company. Therefore, although I was given a sponsored ad for mail-order brides, I chose not to include it on this blog in deference to readers who might find it offensive on a feminist blog.

However, I still wonder where we draw the line between exploitation and opportunity. Would these women be happy if they no longer had the option to come to America by marrying? It's not for me, but should we judge others that want to take that route? It's a touchy issue considering I wouldn't be here if my own mother hadn't done it.