When one Googles the term “Filipina”, one will be immediately flooded of dating sites catering to mail-order brides. This industry, which started on the early 1980s in the United States costs multi-million dollars and has been been steadily profiting through-out the years. The Asian bride market received its strongest push through a program on Phil Donahue and also through a front-page story on Wall Street journal entitled “american men find Asian brides fill the unliberated bill” which came out in the public in the early 1980’s (Constable, 2003, p.70). Through the aforementioned, the mail-order bride business was further popularized by the Western media through American television such as the talk shows of Oprah, Donahue, Nightline, and 20/20; radio programs and magazines.

The Philippine mail-order bride sites often depict Filipinas in their most seductive poses, and in other instances almost nude and pornographic photographs. The Filipina is very famous among Caucasians due to the notion of being a “perfect wife” that came about because of certain underlying notions of the former’s natural inclination to take care, nurture, and unconditionally love their spouses. Perhaps the Filipino culture indeed was able to mold a seemingly ideal icon of women that are able to fit the neo-capitalistic society. The Filipina, though now excelling in the corporate world, is still able to multi-task and do her role in the family as a home maker. Besides her work, she is still able to cook, take care of her offsprings, her husband, and even her in-laws.On taking the Western perspective, it is a sad reality that most Asian women are often stereotyped most specially in Hollywood films as “oriental doll” or “lotus blossoms”. These metaphors seemingly creative at a glance however creates an idea of a “distorted” perfect woman due to the containment of the opposites- possession of both the yin and the yang. It is often the case that Asian women are viewed as “sweet, innocent, sexual romantic, conniving, devious and shrewd” (Constable, 2003, p.13).

Such a highly sexist and problematic projection of the character of the Filipina has become the cornerstone of its popularity in the international dating market. The so-called E-Trafficking or the use of the latest technology in order to cater to the growing international demand for sex has paved the way not only for pornography but for mail-order brides in developing countries (Worden, 2001). The rise of trafficking through the advent of the internet is only a proof that until now, the state of affairs of women being objects of men has barely changed. The feminization of poverty, a concept that is highly evident on third world countries is still in existence, and worse being perpetuated through the rise of the Internet as a the primary venue to purchase and market sex. It is a fact that the Filipina being family oriented, desires to do nothing but help her family ascend from their marginalized state of affairs. Being such, they have become a perfect target of on-line sex trafficking that is camouflaged by matchmaking sites.

The mail-order bride business is primarily characterized by Asian women who are in pursuit of greener pasture in trade for sex and marriage. Such a business perpetuates the idea that Filipinas are willing to do anything just to have her liberated from her “poverty stricken bondage”. As such, this creates a sense of social reality that Filipinas are still incapable to assert themselves hence further perpetuating a “collage of economic, sexual, and racial hegemonic discourses [that] celebrate dominant Anglo patriarchal capitalist ideology by fashioning an ideal product—the colonized Pilipina ‘Oriental Butterfly’ doll” (Meng, 1994).

“The bodies of Asian women have often been seen as erotic and exotic in the Western discourse of “the Orient. ” Their smallness has been associated with timidity and subservience, traits that have made them desirable to many men in Western societies. This perception has even led to the development of mail-order businesses in which Asian women are sold to Western male consumers as brides” (Mascia-Lees and Black, 2000).

This new form of sexual slavery has been camouflaged by a number of internet sites as mere dating venue or a place to explore one’s social network. The capacity for fraudulent advertising and cunning play of words has paved the way for these on-line businesses to escape the rule of law, hence perpetuating the cyber-reality that “Filipinas” are synonymous to marginalized new-age cyber sexual objects. It could be significantly noted though that Republic Act 6955 which was approved on June 13, 1990 aims to “declare unlawful the practice of matching Filipino women for marriage to foreign nationals on a mail order basis and other similar practices including advertisement, publication, printing or distribution of brochures, fliers and other propaganda materials…” Hence it is with this respect that one could significantly note that indeed the dating sites, mail-order bride sites and other forms of such are illegal; and being the case, they should be held liable and accountable not only for their disobedience to the law but also to their fornication, disrespect, and oppression to the Filipina.

This cyber-social reality is something that is not yet fully communicated to the public. The Arroyo government boasts on growing strength of the peso, and the congress is calling for a moral revolution. This current state of affairs is something that our leaders capitalize upon in order to project a good image within the international market to have investors flock and our economy to further boom. Albeit, these things would not matter if our women are still projected the way she has been three or more decades back. Technology or the internet for that matter has paved the way for a relatively free and homogenous market. At the same time, such also creates a borderless culture wherein people all over the world can transact without the prying eyes of the law. As such, having this reality all over us, there is a moral responsibility for us to protect the image of our women, and significantly contribute to her empowerment. The liberal ideology that the West had introduced to us in addition to the further widening gap between the rich and the poor has created a reality that is made to arrive at a disposition of women back in the middle ages- wherein the meaning of life and happiness could only be attained through a man. This myth is further worsened by redefinition of the man who is involved- rather the rich and the Western man has become the source of the marginalized Filipina’s search for meaning.

Despite this, a number of Filipinas have proven herself to be successful on the field that she is in and even those fields that are highly dominated by men. Albeit there are still a significant number of the aforementioned who lack proper education, the right opportunity, or simply the capacity to escape poverty; hence it is with this respect that their reality must be communicated and made known to the society so that the issue of the cyber feminization of poverty could be dealt at and addressed at the national levels.

What can we do now?

As simple cybercitizens, we can contribute to the creation of a different reality through what we blog about- a reality that aims to erase e-trafficking and the paradigm of women oppression. On minute ways, we can make a change and the voice of cyber advocacy to fully liberate our women within the grassroots can soon be heard by the government and finally be something more than the formality of our statutory laws.

Literature Cited:

Eddy Meng (1994), “Mail-Order Brides: Gilded Prostitution and the Legal Response, ” Michigan Journal of Law Reform 28.

Mascia-Lees, Frances, and Nancy Johnson Black (2000). Gender and Anthropology. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press.

Constable Nicole (2003). Romance on a Global Stage: Pen Pals, Virtual Ethnography, and “Mail-Order” Marriages. Berkely, CA: University of California Press.

Worden Scott (2001). E -Trafficking. Foreign Policy, p.92.

I support the campaign for the reshaping of the image of the Filipina online. This is a collaborative effort between WikiPilipinas and Filipina Images.

This is my official entry to the WikiPilipinas, Filipina Writing Contest; and the Philippine Encyclopedia Filipina Writing Contest.

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