Demystifier: ED Original where the content is written in such a way that it is knowledgeable and easy to comprehend at the same time.
Ever thought of finding true love like you find your clothes or groceries online? The institution of Mail Order Brides is here to your rescue.
FYI, it is not totally like Amazon for people because you know, that’d be ILLEGAL. Ever heard of human trafficking bruh? But the institution’s similar enough for a valid analogy to be drawn.
Where it all began
As with all problems in today’s world, this too began in Amreeka. The US was not the huge country it is 200 years ago. Back then only the eastern states were settled and the western areas were wildlands, inhabited by the Native American population.
But when the entrepreneur Americans realized that there was a place to settle in, settle they did, inhabiting the wildlands (here is where the term Wild West comes from btw). Now, these people faced a shortage of many things, women being one of them.
This shortage did lead to entire towns propping up around brothels. But the need for a person who would cook, clean AND have sex with you was more than simply sex. So, men put out ads in the papers back east for women to come and marry them. They would correspond via letters and if a suitable match was found, wedding bells would ring.
But that doesn’t seem like anything I talked about at the beginning.
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The modern iteration
Because that all began when the USSR collapsed like a house of cards, the economic opportunities there dwindled. And women, who formed a significant workforce, found themselves in a rut.
In these eastern bloc countries, women wanted economic liberation and a higher standard of living. As a result, they began offering themselves as wives to American men, as they would get citizenship and all that they wanted over there.
And so began the modern version of this institution. Contracts were arranged via mail order services and terms and conditions were agreed upon. In some cases, the man would go and visit the woman and would come back with her to his home.
This practice slowly expanded to Asian countries like the Philippines and is now quite prevalent there. But a major concern spread that women were being literally bought from their houses and sold as their parents did not have enough money to support them. And that a vicious human trafficking chain was established that dabbled in prostitution as well.
These days, the process has taken on more of a Shaadi.com vibe with sites like russianbrides.com offering portfolios of women looking for men to marry and marriage brokers providing all the grunt work for of course, a small fee.
It ain’t cheap
Speaking of fees, that’s where it gets really interesting. This is a money-making machine. Because these brokers charge money for everything. From sending letters to gifts, everything is overpriced. And the actual cost associated can be tens of thousands of dollars.
Even though this is a formalized institution these days, there still remain concerns of a potential black market operating with a facade of legality. There remain concerns about its ethics and whether the women come into this willingly or no as there have been multiple reports of women being abused by their husbands as they believe they have some kind of right over them.
Image credits: Google Images
Sources: Wikipedia, The Guardian, The New York Times
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