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ismnotwasm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-18-07 08:01 PM
Original message
Bride Buyers?
I know this has been kicked around DU for a couple of weeks. It's a hoax. But here it is, in Newsweek, on the front page of MSN.com. Evidently there are cretins out there taking it seriously. What fucking country do I live in again?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20781129/site/newsweek/?GT1=10357

A paragraph from the article:
"It's impossible to know how many of the proposals are real. But sifting through the Gmail account where they've all been directed, it's hard to believe there aren't at least a couple hopeful grooms—or parents of hopeful brides. The site’s creator, John Ordover, a viral-marketing consultant based in Brooklyn, N.Y., gave NEWSWEEK access to that account, and we sorted through hundreds of e-mails—some outraged, others, well, creepy. “Darling Makayla, Seeing your bright smile among the other girls on this site was a joy among joys—to see someone so obviously full of life and laughter made me keep coming back to your profile,” writes one suitor, who identifies himself as Mark B. “I want to provide you with everything you need, I want to have a partnership that will last a lifetime. You love to laugh, and I would love to make you laugh for the rest of our lives ... Please consider me as a husband"

And another one:

But what about a real site? Mail-order-bride sites are legal under international law, as long as the bride is of age, says Andrea Bertone, the director of HumanTrafficking.org. And depending on state laws, requiring a specific dowry for an underage girl—with parental approval—would appear to be just fine. But at some point, dowry crosses over to bride price crosses over into selling—which crosses over into trafficking. “It's complicated, because child marriage is quite common around the world," says Bertone, whose research center is based at the Academy for Educational Development in Washington. “It might be interpreted under the U.N. Trafficking Protocol to be illegal (although there is nothing in the U.N. Trafficking Protocol or the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child that mentions anything about marriage or brides), but there is little that can be done if countries do not outlaw it and then enforce their own laws.”


What fucking YEAR is it again?
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mrreowwr_kittty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-18-07 10:18 PM
Response to Original message
1. Just another year in the patriarchy. Same old same old. n/t
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bliss_eternal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-19-07 12:31 AM
Response to Original message
2. I just saw this...
Edited on Wed Sep-19-07 01:10 AM by bliss_eternal
When I read about this, my jaw dropped. :wow: I'm not kidding.

The first time I saw an Oprah episode about women being bought and sold in other countries, I thought "...well people do that HERE--they call them mail order brides." Right? :shrug:

Granted "bride" sounds better than "slave," but is it reallyTHAT different?

I've read and heard some stories of women brought here as "mail order brides." :scared: That's all I can say. Really scary stuff. I'm not knocking the attention brought to the plight of women around the world. It's important and I appreciate the effort to do so. But shit, could we shine a fucking light on women HERE?! :grr::mad:

WHY is it LEGAL to purchase a bride from overseas? ...a human being? ...a person that happens to be of the female gender?

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ismnotwasm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-19-07 11:34 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Which brings up another thought
Thin line here between bride buying--which most would condemn (in public anyway), and prostitution, where folks come out in droves to defend "the right" to sell sexual services. (The vilest examples outside of pedophilia being the Girls Gone Wild series to my mind) The typical schizophrenic logic of patriarchy.
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bliss_eternal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-20-07 02:51 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. Absolutely...
...I see it as human trafficking and definitely yet another form of "legalized" prostitution of women. Why is this ok with people in the U.S.? Because these women presumably come from "third world countries"? Because this will give them a better life? Are these not the same arguments people make AGAINST immigration?

:crazy:
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MountainLaurel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-19-07 09:30 PM
Response to Original message
3. In the library where I work
I have had to assist occasionally a guy accessing one of these mail-order bride sites. I believe it advertised itself as a "dating" site featuring "Russian, Asian, and Latin women." I get incredibly skeeved every time I see him. In addition, we have at least two other patrons who I'd bet obtained their brides through similar means.
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bliss_eternal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-20-07 02:47 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. Sites like that aren't considered "adult"...?
...by your library?

I ask because our local library has blocks on the computers w/internet access--which don't allow people to peruse sites considered "adult" in nature. Not sure why, but dating sites fall under that definition for our library. Maybe some people just abused the system, so they enforced a block. :shrug: I seem to recall a time when there wasn't a block at all.

Apparently there were some complaints from people (primarily guys)that could no longer access such sites at our library. Library staff posted little signs on all the computers explaining the change and asking people to call administration w/concerns and/or complaints. (To cut back on staff harrassment and questions, I'm guessing).

A friend that works in a neighboring city told me more men than I could imagine do this. :scared:
He realized it through his work as an esl teacher. Apparently a lot of the men go to the adult school esl programs(most are low to no cost), demanding that they teach their wives english--super fast. :eyes:
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MountainLaurel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-20-07 07:35 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. Not at our place
On the the site he was viewing, everyone was dressed (but barely). It doesn't meet the threshold for porn, though generally we did keep an eye on him.
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ismnotwasm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-20-07 11:46 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. Got this from the NOW newsletter

Stop the Sale of Women: Combat Trafficking in the U.S.
Trade, a new feature film starring Kevin Kline, tells the story of a 13-year-old girl who is kidnapped by sex traffickers from her home in Mexico City and the brother who works desperately to find her. NOW is working with Roadside Attractions to promote the film and bring attention to the epidemic of sex trafficking in this country. There is a special screening organized by NOW-NYC on Friday, September 21 in Manhattan. The film opens in select cities on September 28 and NOW activists are encouraged to see the movie opening weekend, as large opening attendance encourages wider distribution.

Sadly, the subject of Trade is not fiction. Instead it is the tragic reality for an estimated 800,000 people worldwide, primarily women and children.

Traffickers lure women with promises of jobs as nannies or in restaurants, promising them a better life in a new country. Often the women pay significant sums of money in a desperate attempt to escape extreme poverty or dangerous living conditions, or simply for the "opportunity" presented by the traffickers. Some are kidnapped and transported across borders.


http://www.now.org/issues/economic/070919trafficking.html

Not bride buying, but not much different. I'm going to check out the movie.
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