Vietnamese immigrant women’s agency: a qualitative study of resistance to traditional gender roles and western stereotypes applied to the mail-order bride industry

Abstract

Described as desperate women who must be saved from the dangers of “mail-order marriage,” accounts of “mail-order brides” in the extant literature has failed to recognize that through the decision to seek a “mail-order marriage,” women can take control of their own lives and destinies. Based on Western racial stereotypes, the rhetoric used by International Marriage Brokers (IMBs) to market women as objects of exchange to male consumers perpetuate false narratives about the types of women who use these services. The power imbalance created between genders are driven by this Western narrative and racial stereotypes. This study will display the agency of Asian immigrant “mail-order brides” where the extant literature surrounding these women has portrayed them as vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking. Not only using their initiative to liberate themselves from social and economic constraints, these women use marriage as a strategy in reaching their personal goals.