Mail Fantasy: Global Sexual Exploitation in the Mail-Order Bride Industry and Proposed Legal Solutions

Mail Fantasy: Global Sexual Exploitation in the Mail-Order Bride Industry and Proposed Legal Solutions Donna R. Leet Ms. Lee asserts that the trade in Asian mail-orderbrides is premised on the male consumer's racializedexpectations of sexual anddomestic labor services to be provided within the privacy of the home. The mail-order bride industry rests on the same foundation as the more visible trade in military prostitution and sex tourism-exploitation of the economic desperation of women in many Asian countries. Ms. Lee argues that an artificial shroud of legitimacy associatedwith marriagemasks the exploitative nature of the mail-order bride business. She investigates the possibility that existing laws againstprostitution and involuntary servitude can be applied to combat the industry's operations, concluding that anti-prostitutionlaws holdsome promise. "The Philippines' most valuable overseas export is the Filipina-those exotic, dark-eyed, raven-haired, English-speaking girls who, as virgins 1 still at the age of 25 or beyond, marry men from all over the globe." -Kenneth Morgan, War of the Sexes INTRODUCTION This Comment examines the international mail-order bride industry, which enables men in industrialized nations to procure wives from developing countries through agencies that specialize in marketing available women. Over the past two decades, the industry has steadily gained popularity as a vehicle for marriage, resulting in the migration of thousands of women to the United States. While mail-order brides hail from countries throughout the world, the discussion herein focuses on women from Asian Pacific countries, who constitute a significant portion of the market for mail-order brides.2 © 1998 Asian Law Journal, Inc. t J.D., Columbia University School of Law, 1997; Fulbright Research Scholar in the Philip- pines, 1997-98. Cravath, Swaine & Moore (New York), June 1998 to present. 1. Quoted in Ramon Isberto, Philippines Trying to Stem "Wife Trafficking" to Australia, Inter Press Service, May 21, 1993, available in LEXIS, News Library, Wires File. 2. Although virtually all mail-order brides are subject to sexual exploitation fueled by classism ASIAN LA WJOURNAL [Vol. 5:139 The mail-order bride business promotes a form of sexual exploitation that resembles both prostitution and involuntary servitude. Nevertheless, while the law of this country seeks to eliminate prostitution and involuntary servitude, it does not prohibit the mail-order bride business, and, until recently, did not even impose any regulations on its operations. It may be possible, however, to utilize existing legal remedies to address this exploitative industry, and this Comment therefore takes the necessary preliminary step of examining what relationship mail-order bride marriages bear to prostitution and to involuntary servitude. Though both are explored here, I submit that laws aimed at combating prostitution provide a more appropriate starting point than those prohibiting involuntary servitude. The mail-order bride business rests on the same historical, social, and cultural institutions that have been and continue to be the genesis of prostitution. In fact, the mail-order bride industry is but one specific manifestation of the international prostitution of women and a direct outgrowth of that institution. While the mail-order bride business also possesses attributes of involuntary servitude, the dynamics of the industry more closely parallel those of prostitution. Part I sets forth the external forces and motivations that lead male clients to seek mail-order brides and women to advertise themselves, the promotional techniques used to market the women and attract male consumers, and the transnational aspects of the business. Part II demonstrates the conceptual identity between prostitution-particularly transnational prostitution-and the mail-order bride business by examining several analogous elements of the two institutions. The close alliance between the mail-order bride business and prostitution becomes more apparent in light of the history of prostitution of Asian Pacific women in this country during the nineteenth century, as well as the modem-day commodification of these women through military prostitution and sex tourism in Asian Pacific countries. Part III examines the concept of mail-order brides as victims of involuntary servitude. This Comment maintains that several aspects of a mail-order bride's experience could be construed as involuntary servitude. Under judicially-defined standards of involuntary servitude, however, mail-order bride marriages cross the line into involuntary servitude only in narrowly-prescribed circumstances. Finally, based on the conclusion that the institution of mail-order bride marriage is more appropriately analogized to prostitution than to slavery, Part IV offers recommendations for employing existing legal instruments to combat the mail-order bride industry. and sexism, the sexism with respect to Asian Pacific women is heightened by racial and/or ethnic stereotyping, explaining in part the higher demand for these women. Thus, the dynamics of sexual exploitation in the mail-order bride industry are particularly evident in Asian Pacific mail-order brides. 1998] EXPLOITATION IN THE MAIL-ORDER BRIDE INDUSTRY 141 Regardless of how one characterizes the mail-order bride business, the fact remains that women who decide to enter into mail-order bride marriages are generally seeking to escape adverse home-country socioeconomic circumstances through one of the few avenues open to them. After settling in a new country, language barriers, unfamiliarity with local social and legal institutions, and the husband's power to dissolve the marriage (and hence the woman's basis for residency), allow the husband to exercise significant control over the newly-arrived bride's daily life. In addition, men who utilize mail-order bride services often possess inaccurate expectations of their prospective partners; such expectations are based in part on mail-order bride agencies' racialized and gendered representations of Asian Pacific women, as well as enduring Western stereotypes of such women. Thus, for Asian Pacific mail-order brides in particular a lack of viable alternatives in the home country works together with an inherently unequal power dynamic to create a situation rife with sexually exploitative potential. In recognizing the structural factors that create conditions for sexual exploitation, I do not wish to suggest that Asian Pacific women are the wholly passive victims of a larger process of racial and sexual subjugation, nor do I deny their potential capacity to defeat such exploitation. Asian Pacific women, both in the United States and abroad, through their individual daily lives and collective efforts, continuously demonstrate the ability to deal effectively with their life circumstances. It would likewise be improper to portray all cross-cultural or tra (...truncated)