Mail order brides
The other day I saw a documentary about American men procuring wives from other countries, namely the Ukraine and Russia.
Fine. I'm all about international relations in all senses, and these kinds of exchanges can be productive.
However, what was dismaying was that both the men of America and the women of Russia/Ukraine could not resist disparaging the opposite sex in their respective countries. American women were described as shrill, ungrateful, fat, and unkempt. The Eastern European women described their men as flighty, lazy, and occasionally abusive.
Maybe American women and E. European man deserve each other, too?
The positive stereotypes of American men were that they were wealthy, ambitious, and kind. Eastern women were idealized as beautiful, domestic (read: submissive), and feminine. Perhaps there is some truth to all of these stereotypes, but I find them unjust. Do these American men not have American mothers and sisters, and the Ukrainian women not have Ukrainian fathers and brothers? Alternatively, one could stereotype these American men as old "losers", guys who could not pick up women in their own country and had to buy their brides. One could describe the European women as shallow gold diggers.
One thing of note in these exchanges (the men would go in groups to Eastern Europe and engage in socials with the women, who heavily outnumbered them, to their great pleasure), the men were ALWAYS at least ten years older than the women. More often than not, they were in their fifties (never married or divorced) and the women were still in university (thus, in their twenties). Hmm.
Fine. I'm all about international relations in all senses, and these kinds of exchanges can be productive.
However, what was dismaying was that both the men of America and the women of Russia/Ukraine could not resist disparaging the opposite sex in their respective countries. American women were described as shrill, ungrateful, fat, and unkempt. The Eastern European women described their men as flighty, lazy, and occasionally abusive.
Maybe American women and E. European man deserve each other, too?
The positive stereotypes of American men were that they were wealthy, ambitious, and kind. Eastern women were idealized as beautiful, domestic (read: submissive), and feminine. Perhaps there is some truth to all of these stereotypes, but I find them unjust. Do these American men not have American mothers and sisters, and the Ukrainian women not have Ukrainian fathers and brothers? Alternatively, one could stereotype these American men as old "losers", guys who could not pick up women in their own country and had to buy their brides. One could describe the European women as shallow gold diggers.
One thing of note in these exchanges (the men would go in groups to Eastern Europe and engage in socials with the women, who heavily outnumbered them, to their great pleasure), the men were ALWAYS at least ten years older than the women. More often than not, they were in their fifties (never married or divorced) and the women were still in university (thus, in their twenties). Hmm.