Cultural Stigmas Against Mail-Order Brides and Pen Pals

In Romance on The Global Stage, author Nicole Constable produces a collection of information that primarily pertains to international pen-pal relationships, or "mail-order bride" marriages. Due to the perceived artificiality and general mystery of seemingly acquiring a life partner (particularly an Asian female) through what is seen as simply ordering a wife, there is generally a stigma attached to pen-pal relationships. The main focus of this paper will be to examine the stereotypes associated with the parties involved in such relationships and correspondence, in relation to Constable's book and self-analysis.

The two parties involved in said relationships are for the most part American, middle-aged, Caucasian men and young Chinese and Filipina women. Some of the American ideas of mail order brides involve Asian depictions of characters known as the "Lady Dragon" and the "gold-digger." These characterizations of the female Asian population pertain to stereotypes of submissiveness to men and the lack of agency, or hyper-agency (which speaks to the idea that some Asian women have ulterior motives, and use cross-cultural marriage to American men as a means to enter Western territory). The root of the gold-digger mentality can be traced to the thought that Asian female pen-pals are not so much opposed to their relationships being associated in some way to their societal status in relation to their countries' politics (unlike the thought that American men don't like to mix business with pleasure). In reality, Constable depicted images of American-Asian couples who were both tied to strong conservative concepts of American Republican government and Communist government, and used those two seemingly combative viewpoints as a springboard for health debate among their relationships; this is a contradiction to the original thought of the Asian woman, based largely on the idea of the Orient.