Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mail order brides'

In this thesis, I explore two works from Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., A Public Message for Your Private Life (1998) and Mail Order Bride of Frankenstein (2003), that take into account the histories and identities produced within Filipino/a American Communities. I use Sarita Echavez See and Emily Noelle Ignacio's theories on parody to analyze the performative aspects of M.O.B's artworks. According to See and Ignacio, parody can be utilized as a tool to simultaneously form solidarity within Filipino American communities. By examining these ideas, I argue that M.O.B. performs appropriated representations of their ethnic and assimilated cultures by using parody to critique and problematize often-misrepresented individual and cultural identities.

This research explored the stereotypical representations, images, and expectations surrounding the relationships of Filipino women and American men. Within the context of the mail-order bride phenomenon, Filipino women have been largely depicted as victims of racialized and gendered representations of mail-order bride agencies. Similarly, romantic relationships between Filipino women and American men are reduced to mere business at which romantic love and desire is absent. However, such depictions fail to acknowledge other factors at play with Filipino women’s intention to seek relationship with Western men. Within the Filipino society, Western men are constructed as better marriage partners in contrast to that of Filipino men. Findings revealed that the desire to seek relationships with one another is driven by their desire based on the preconceptions they perceive one another to possess.

Online international introduction sites that offer romance tours to American men in search of a foreign bride are an important and rapidly growing component of the internet dating industry; the number of these agencies in the U.S. tripled from two hundred to six hundred in the past 10 years. Previous scholars have examined the so-called ‘mail order bride’ industry in order to demonstrate that the women involved are agents and not victims. Many scholars have also highlighted the importance of race in shaping American men’s desires in one particular region or country. My dissertation provides an important addition to the literature surrounding romance tourism by including participants from all three major regions associated with romance tourism: Eastern Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia. I collected the data for the dissertation by becoming a participant observer of a romance tour in Ukraine, Colombia, and the Philippines. I argue that romance tourism is an important example of the global intimate, and the ways in which globalized processes are created and sustained through everyday intimate emotions and interactions. By examining the ways in which the emotions of desire, disgust, and anxiety influence individual romance tour participant’s constructions of racialized hierarchies, the links between individual emotions and global systems are revealed. The concept of the global intimate challenges the hierarchy of scale that places the body, the home, and the intimate on a much lower level than the scale of the global or the national, and at the same time challenges the binary that divides the individual from the global. Through highlighting the different emotional negotiations that are constantly occurring in the romance tour industry, I highlight the important ways in which individual emotions and affects influence global processes on a large scale and vice versa.

In 2005, following the deaths of several marriage migrants known as â mail-order bridesâ , the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act was created. Designed to regulate the international matchmaking industry and provide women with the information to make informed, safe decisions about their future partnership in an attempt to decrease instances of violence, this law was the result of an increase in awareness, collaboration between interested parties, and incorporation into a broader bill. For years, marriage brokers had operated using stereotypes about submissive foreign women to attract customers, recently bringing business onto the internet and creating websites marketing women as purchases. Five years after the passage of the law, however, the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act fails to address six key vulnerabilities faced by female marriage migrants. For this reason, women immigrating to the United States to marry a spouse after introduction through a marriage broker still face an increased likelihood of domestic violence and even death. The author concludes with a discussion about future improvements in both legislation and operation to address violence against immigrant women.
Master of Arts

This thesis examines issues related to “mail-order brides” as these pertain to my mother who emigrated from Ukraine as a “mail-order bride” in August of 1998. This thesis incorporates both critical and creative analyze of the topic of “mail-order brides” and international dating industries. The problematic term “mail-order bride” implies a specific ‘type’ of woman who is often represented as domestic, subservient and affectionate. The consumers of the “mail-order” industry are fed images that are essentializations of the Eastern European woman and her habits. By ‘selling’ traditional values to Western male consumers, mail-order sites reinforce stereotypes associated with Eastern European women and create an unrealistic image of a hyper-feminine woman that is problematic to both “mail-order brides” and to the men that seek them. In this critical and creative essay, I examine my mother’s letters as testaments to the unrealistic expectations placed on her through the stereotypes created by the “mail-order” industries. This thesis also examines the so-called “mail-order brides” in light of Western feminism and problematizes the perceived lack of agency associated with “mail-order brides.” Furthermore, I will analyze the commoditization of the female body as is seen through the international dating agencies. This thesis argues that it is through the capitalist mentality projected by the “mail-order” agencies that the female body becomes trafficable and accessible to the Western male consumer.

Telemetry system, Optimisation, Sensoric networks, Smart Grid, Internet of Things, Sensors, Information security, Cryptography, Cryptography algorithms, Cryptosystem, Confidentiality, Integrity, Authentication, Data freshness, Non-Repudiation.

This report includes the process of developing and writing the feature length screenplay Derailment, a thriller about Vietnamese mail-order brides murdered in Taiwan. In addition to the evolution of the screenplay, I have offered the summation of my learning experience in the UT screenwriting M.F.A. program
text

This study focuses on the population of women voluntarily entering the United States via arranged, often through the Internet, marriages. A congressional report (Immigration and Naturalization Services 2006) on “International Matchmaking Organizations” reports that the number of immigrants coming to the United States with a “K-1 fiancée visa”, the temporary visa status used to have a nonnative individual enter the United States for the purpose of marriage, to be growing rapidly. Of these individuals, 79% are women, referred to in both government data collection and sociological literature using the century old moniker of “mail order brides”. Through first-hand experience, over a period of 20 years teaching and acting as an administrator for English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, I have found this population of women, International Mail Order Brides (IMOBs), to present significant English language and literacy needs. Demonstrating inconsistent attendance in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, they exhibit low-level English language fluency skills. This study of six International Mail Order Brides, all of whom live in rural settings within Pennsylvania, emanated from these observations. Participants were located through their attendance in community based, adult ESL programs. Research conducted used the case study method offered the participants the opportunity to share the lifelong progression of their biliteracies. Each of the narratives is transcribed in the words of the participant to assure the critical element of authenticity. The biliterate lives presented through this restorying is interpreted using Hornberger’s Continua of Biliteracy theory in order to identify the multidimensional International Mail Order Bride biliteracy. Analysis revealed five of the six participants to be monolingual, with no agency given to their L1. All developed their biliteracies successively, living currently with the L2 in the majority power position. Five of the six IMOBs function at the less powerful oral-vernacular end of the Continua, with few literate abilities. The value of shared life stories formulates an in-depth representation of how the specific life choice of this population drives the need for highly contextualized English language opportunities, providing clear data to guide the field of Second Language Literacy in creating a pedagogical response.
Dr. Dan J. Tannacito Dr. Gary J. Dean Dr. Gian S. Pagnucci

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
This thesis is a feminist exploration of how violence against Filipino women in Australia is represented in the Australian and Philippine media and the relationship between the women’s lives and media images of their abuse. It is fundamentally concerned with the problem of the absent and silenced voices of Filipino women in media portrayals of violence. It aims at creating a space in which the women’s stories can be told. Based on interview data and discourse analysis of Australian and Philippine newspaper articles, the study investigates how the homicides and disappearance of seven Filipino women are represented. Case studies drawn from interviews with family members and friends of these women comprise the core of the study. An exploration of additional articles and interviews further reinforces the issues and themes that emerge in the case studies. The case studies contextualise the women’s experiences. Analysing media images in light of the interviews reinstates the absent and silenced voice in media accounts of violence. By charting the lives of these seven women, their hopes and aspirations as well as the pain and fear they suffered at the hands of abusive male partners, the case studies illuminate the way media accounts have largely misrepresented their experiences. Many of the Australian articles, in particular, bore little resemblance to the women’s lived realities. Juxtaposing Australian with Philippine portrayals further illuminates the racism and sexism of a large section of the Australian print media. A major theme to emerge out of this study is that the relationship between media image and actual violence also involves struggle and conflict over constructions of identity. It is a site of contested realities. Most of the articles analysed in this study failed to tell the story from the deceased woman’s perspective. It is argued that to hear these women's voices, journalists need to move beyond using sexist, racist and class-based stereotypes, such as mail order bride, to describe Filipino women or explain their abuse. It also means accounting for the history of domestic violence that was a large part of their lives.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
This thesis is a feminist exploration of how violence against Filipino women in Australia is represented in the Australian and Philippine media and the relationship between the women’s lives and media images of their abuse. It is fundamentally concerned with the problem of the absent and silenced voices of Filipino women in media portrayals of violence. It aims at creating a space in which the women’s stories can be told. Based on interview data and discourse analysis of Australian and Philippine newspaper articles, the study investigates how the homicides and disappearance of seven Filipino women are represented. Case studies drawn from interviews with family members and friends of these women comprise the core of the study. An exploration of additional articles and interviews further reinforces the issues and themes that emerge in the case studies. The case studies contextualise the women’s experiences. Analysing media images in light of the interviews reinstates the absent and silenced voice in media accounts of violence. By charting the lives of these seven women, their hopes and aspirations as well as the pain and fear they suffered at the hands of abusive male partners, the case studies illuminate the way media accounts have largely misrepresented their experiences. Many of the Australian articles, in particular, bore little resemblance to the women’s lived realities. Juxtaposing Australian with Philippine portrayals further illuminates the racism and sexism of a large section of the Australian print media. A major theme to emerge out of this study is that the relationship between media image and actual violence also involves struggle and conflict over constructions of identity. It is a site of contested realities. Most of the articles analysed in this study failed to tell the story from the deceased woman’s perspective. It is argued that to hear these women's voices, journalists need to move beyond using sexist, racist and class-based stereotypes, such as mail order bride, to describe Filipino women or explain their abuse. It also means accounting for the history of domestic violence that was a large part of their lives.

Les nouvelles technologies, tel l’Internet, nous permettent d'obtenir tout ce que l'on désire en appuyant sur une simple touche. Elles procurent des plateformes inédites de communication, comme des espaces virtuels de rencontre, aux gens en quête d'un époux ou d’une épouse et ainsi permettent aux agences virtuelles spécialisées dans ce type d'union de proliférer. Ces nombreux sites de rencontre offrent aux hommes de rencontrer une femme peu importe d'où elle vient. Les femmes de l'Asie du sud-est sont très populaires auprès de ces hommes. Bon nombre d’études ont démontré que des difficultés économiques jouent un rôle de prime importance dans une décision de faire appel à ces agences pour émigrer par le biais d’un mariage avec un étranger. Par contre, en Asie du sud-est, la Thaïlande se distingue par ses réussites économiques régionales et par sa tradition matrilinéaire. Dans ce contexte, qu’est-ce qui induit des femmes thaïlandaises à chercher un mari à l'étranger ? Je tenterai de répondre à cette question en examinant les influences des facteurs suivants: hiérarchie sociale (ethnique et régionale); facteurs économiques (classes sociales); matrilinéarité; conception locale de l'amour, du sexe et du mariage et, enfin, l'importance du trajet personnel de chaque femme dans son évaluation des facteurs influents menant à son choix d’épouser un étranger.
New technologies, such as Internet, allow us to obtain anything we desire almost immediately by a simple click. They provide a novel platform for encounters, new meeting spaces for people wishing to find a marriage partner through Internet correspondence and provide a flourishing business to agencies specialized in this type of union. These countless web sites allow foreign men to meet women from every part of the world. Southeast Asian women are particularly popular among these men. A number of studies have demonstrated that the economic difficulties of countries in this region play an important role in the women’s decision to call upon these agencies in order to marry and to emigrate. In Southeast Asia, Thailand differentiates itself by its regional economic success and by its matrilineal tradition. In light of this, what induces Thai women to look for a husband abroad? I will attempt to answer this question by examining the influences of the following factors: social hierarchy (ethnic and regional); economic factors (social class); matrilinearity, local conception of love, sex and marriage and, finally, the importance of each woman’s personal path to determine which factors influence their choice of marrying a foreigner.

Os Corpos de Bombeiros (CB) contam com uma rede de quartéis implantada em todo o território nacional, atualmente organizada por um modelo baseado nos limites territoriais das NUTS (Nomenclatura das Unidades Territoriais para Fins Estatísticos). Será, portanto, possível rentabilizar a rede de CB no patamar sub-regional, através da implementação de critérios de desempenho dos CB, entre eles, a população abrangida dentro dos tempos de resposta convencionados. O objetivo deste trabalho é propor uma reorganização operacional da rede de quartéis já implantada nas Sub-Regiões da Lezíria do Tejo e Médio Tejo, tendo como base um modelo da Rede Principal dos Serviços Operacionais dos Corpos de Bombeiros em Portugal Continental. Para tal, definiram-se critérios com vista à constituição de Agrupamentos de CB, que partilhando entre si áreas de atuação, permite priorizar o despacho de meios baseado no tempo de resposta dentro dos limites dos Agrupamentos. A aplicação dos critérios contemplando a rede viária existente e a distribuição da população residente, permitiu, recorrendo ao software QGIS®, aferir as zonas com necessidade de reforço da rede de quartéis. Aplicado o modelo à área de estudo, verificou-se um aumento de 18,4% (1.401 km2) de área e de 6,1% da população (30.524 habitantes) abrangidas dentro dos tempos de referência (10 e 20 minutos). Para garantir a atividade operacional nos 24 municípios abrangidos, a rede de CB contaria 24 quartéis sede e 22 postos avançados (reforço da atual rede com 8), guarnecidos no mínimo por um efetivo total de 1.897 bombeiros profissionais. O facto da rede de quartéis já se encontrar implantada no território alvo de estudo e apenas necessitar de reforços pontuais, deveria ser atualmente um fator desencadeador de interesse na sua rentabilização por parte das várias entidades envolvidas.
Fire Departments (CB) have a network of barracks deployed throughout the national territory, currently organized by a model based on the territorial limits of the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes). Therefore, it will be possible to improve the fire department network at the sub-regional level, through the implementation of fire departments performance criteria, including the population coverage within the settled response times. The objective of this work is to propose an operational reorganization of the barracks network already implemented in the Sub-Regions of Lezíria do Tejo and Médio Tejo, based on a model of the Main Network of Operational Services for Fire Brigades in Mainland Portugal. To this end, criteria were defined with a view to the constitution of CB Groups, which sharing areas of activity among themselves, allows prioritizing the dispatch of means based on the response time within the limits of the Groups. The application of the criteria covering the existing road network and the distribution of the resident population, allowed, using the QGIS® software, to assess the areas in need of reinforcement of the barracks network. Applying the model to the Lezíria do Tejo and Médio Tejo sub-regions, there was an increase of 18,4% (1.401 km2) in area and 6,1% of the population (30.524 inhabitants) covered within the reference times (10 and 20 minutes). In order to guarantee operational activity in the 24 municipalities covered, the fire departments network would consist of a total of 24 headquarters and 22 outposts with a minimum of 1.897 professional firefighters. The fact that the barracks network is already implanted in the study target territory and only needs occasional reinforcements, should be a triggering factor of interest in its profitability by the various entities involved.