Let’s get one
thing very clear. There’s literally nothing
funny about mail order brides.
Loosely
based on writer-producer Jackie Clarke’s life, the show was to feature a family
whose widowed father orders a mail-order bride from the Philippines to “help raise
his pre-teen daughters.”[1]
In the latest
incidence of media’s open bigotry, NBC has proposed and subsequently aborted a
show about Filipina mail order brides. The
New Republic’s Sukjong Hong explains that the introduction of this
catastrophe of a T.V. show was met with stunned disbelief—rightfully so. How
anyone in their right mind could conceive such a stupid idea is beyond me. It’s
2016 and people of color are still bearing the brunt of xenophobic comedy. Can
we all just grow up a little and find something actually funny to laugh about?
What is even
more messed up than the show itself is what these mail order bride programs
actually are. Though essentially being
brought over to be a non-paid nanny and mate, what’s worse for these poor women
is that a lot of mail-order bride programs are a façade for human trafficking. Having
a laugh at the expense of a disadvantaged group of people isn’t just
immature-it’s immoral.
Gabriela
USA, a feminist Filipina alliance that petitioned for Mail
Order Family’s cancellation, noted that it is an industry where women who
“are economically disadvantaged and living in poverty” are “forced into sex
slavery and domestic servitude.” Others feared that the show would only
compound the stereotype of Asian women as subservient, sexualized objects,
especially since this is the fantasy that propels many men to choose this
route in the first place.1
Clearly, the
show’s producers aren’t cognizant of the fact that mail order brides are a
symptom of the Philippines’s socioeconomic ills as a country.
There
are so many untold stories on this end of this migration chain. They stem from
a national economic system that is disproportionately dependent on migrant
remittances, where the government has encouraged and lionized overseas migrants
while reaping exorbitant fees from their hard-earned wages. The Philippines is
also one of the top exporters of female “entertainers” or sex workers to the
South Korean and Japanese red light districts surrounding U.S. military bases,
where they work in zones that serve as buffers between servicemen and the local
population. These are some of the choices that make life as a mail-order bride
a feasible option.
This bullshit
excuse for a television show exemplifies just how much writers and show
developers are out of touch with what is ethical, acceptable, and funny. Don’t
get me wrong, shows about broken families have the potential to be funny (e.g.
by Hong: Arrested Development). What crosses the line, however, is one that
makes fun of people who are from one of the planet’s worst-off countries
economically speaking and of women who are brought here to essentially be
peddled as slaves. What’s more is that the release of this type of material
just encourages further bigotry, discrimination, and racism. That doesn’t sit
right with me and it sure as hell shouldn’t sit right with you either.
I completely agree with you. There are Filipino American novels (one of them being The Mango Bride by Marivi Soliven) that specifically address the nuances of being a mail-order bride. I'm sure there are many instances where this happens and the relationship within the family that's created is genuinely positive, hence writers like Jackie Clarke. Yet at the same time, having such entertainment that makes light of an issue is like a roadblock into addressing the problems regarding the issue, such as the festishization of Asian women and the exploitation of poor women who have no other means to provide for their families other than having a Western husband who can afford to send remittances.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I go back to the Philippines and I see an Asian woman with a white man, I can't help but briefly wonder at whether their affections are real. I'm sure the majority of the relationships I see are genuinely loving and happy...but when there's an obviously large age gap that's when I start feeling really, really sick.
This is an interesting subject to touch up on.
ReplyDeleteMail-order brides i'm assuming are much more common in third world country, but regardless it's unbelievable how it can be an actual thing. The concept of mail order brides just highlights the issues surrounding exploitation and the incredibly difficult circumstances that are dealt to these women.
Really is a sad thing - makes you appreciate the norms of our own society.
Culture and media play such a big role in shaping people’s perceptions and I think it’s so disgusting that corporations and producers feel that they can make fun of someone else’s misfortune and make a profit out of it. The disadvantages mail-order brides face is clearly because of socioeconomic and cultural reasons. They didn’t want to be mail order brides, in fact it’s quite the opposite. They had little to no say in the career path they would take and this is one of the few ways to escape that cycle of poverty. It’s definitely cool to portray someone who has been systematically disadvantaged their whole life in this light.
ReplyDeleteI am happy you wrote about this issue. Lately, there have been many criticisms on the lack of minority roles in movies and TV shows - particularly seen in the #OscarsSoWhite campaign - but there has been a lack of recognition that Asian cultures specifically have been more neglected than any other race in Hollywood. I think this show is NBCs way of trying to save their asses from backlash from not having any shows relating to the Asian culture, but this is in no way how they should be trying to accomplish that goal. It is truly disgusting that they are playing up to stereotypes of mail order brides.
ReplyDelete