In keeping with last week’s theme of all things Slavic and creepy, I decided to turn my focus on mail order brides after repeatedly seeing ads for the totally reputable AnastasiaDate.com. One of the heart-warming stories the website features is that of 45-year-old Utah-based Nathan Adams and 34-year-old Elena Adamchiyk. Tired of American women, Adams enthuses that life with the Odessa-born blonde “…is like dating a model…with the values of my grandmother.” Well, who wouldn’t want a break from those promiscuous, ball-busting Utah ladies?
Should you choose to visit the website, you will have to put up with numerous pop-ups advertising 20-something year-old Olgas, Annas, and yes, Anastasias, interested in chatting. This may or may not be a good thing from your perspective. I’m pretty sure my computer has an STI.
Also, you don’t have to limit yourself to former Eastern Bloc beauties to exploit sexually—by which I mean romance—and create a “stable” relationship. Be sure to check out some demure Oriental lovelies and fiery Latinas as well!
Rosebrides.com is a site which offers women from around the world, though it focuses on ladies from the former Soviet Republic. The site straddles the fine line between emphasizing the intellect of Russian women, their English-language ability and the fact that they are definitely not pushed into a risky situation because of poor financial prospects. A clear selling point is their commitment to home and family over a high-paying job and the fact that they “…are much more patient than Western women and can tolerate things others could never bear. They are partners, not competitors.” As an added bonus, “they may also have low self-esteem and be insecure.”
Perhaps the insecurity stems from moving from a sexist, politically oppressive communist culture to a sexist, politically oppressive capitalist one? Either way, the pimp-entrepreneur-thinks this is a selling point. And, unbeknownst to everyone, Russian women also “…come from a culture of people who are generally laid back, friendly, open-minded, accepting and not quick to judge.” Well, provided you’re not Jewish. Or Roma. Or, god forbid, homosexual.
But what about the men, you must be thinking? Won’t those Soviet strumpets just leave them in the dust after they obtain their green cards? Bill Ronan of the National Coalition for Men and the too-cute-by-half-sounding Domestic Violence Legislative Project at Stop Abuse and Violent Environments (SAVE), which “actually seeks to shield abusive homes from police intervention,” is unafraid to speak truth to power, fighting laws that allow immigrant women to leave abusive American husbands and still obtain green cards. Such heroism.
According to Ronan, foreign hussies are trapping hapless American men into marriage, lying about abuse and still becoming citizens. Ronan believes the solution to this gender injustice “..is to eliminate laws that allow for abused women to seek green cards without spousal sponsorship.” The fact this means abusive men can use the threat of deportation to control their victims doesn’t appear to bother Ronan.
As Amanda Marcotte of Slate argues, these claims by “activists” that they are simply opposed to fraud and dishonesty in the immigration project are …specious at best. Shouldn’t they lobby to shut down mail-order bride services if they believe men are being systematically defrauded? But in fact, SAVE actively supports the industry: its own treasurer founded a matchmaking service for American men to meet Russian women. Marcotte goes out on a limb to suggest that the entire industry is based around the idea that feminism has ruined American women for marriage by making them all uppity and wanting equality and stuff, and that men who want a “traditional” marriage should look abroad. She even suggests that abusive men might be attracted to a financially struggling woman who is entirely dependent on her husband and risks deportation should she leave a violent home.
Evidence bears out this wacky feminazi’s theories. Kyrgyzstan national Anastasia Soloyeva, married at 18, was strangled to death by her American husband in 2000. Katerina Brunot of Siberia endured emotional and later physical abuse by her ex-husband and likens her situation to being a “house slave.” Nor are Soloyeva and Brunot alone. According to a 2005 study, nearly 50 percent of immigrant women have been abused by a partner.
But ultimately, I’m a romantic at heart. If pushy American women aren’t your thing, check out the aforementioned Brideroses.com, AnastasiaDate.com or even BigBadChineseMama.com. She’ll surely set you up with the docile, exotic beauty of your dreams.