This work would not have been possible without the help and support of my incredibly patient and ... more This work would not have been possible without the help and support of my incredibly patient and unwavering committee members Joya Misra, Naomi Gerstel, Laura Briggs, and especially my chair Robert Zussman. I owe a great deal of thanks to my friends and chosen family members, each of whom contributed with inspiration and motivation throughout the years, including Ghazah Abbasi,
“Mail-order bride” is a term applied to women of the Global South looking for husbands in the Glo... more “Mail-order bride” is a term applied to women of the Global South looking for husbands in the Global North. These women participate in commercial marriage migration by listing their pictures and profiles on International Marriage Agency (IMA) websites used to attract men of the Global North into initiating courtship. IMAs, which collect fees from men who purchase women's email addresses, expanded profiles, and other services, are complicit in promoting racial/ethnic stereotyping of women on their sites setting up unrealistic expectations in their future husbands. Women looking to immigrate through IMAs are less conservative than men expect, often wanting full employment outside the home in order to send money back to their families. In contrast, men are looking for “traditional” women focused on marriage and family they feel are no longer available in the Global North. Ultimately, the symbol of the “mail-order bride” both consolidates Northern anxieties about globalization in the bodies of “foreign” immigrant women and assuages those anxieties through the simultaneous recapture of the traditional homemaker. Keywords: marriage; immigration; objectification; cyberspace
I begin with two quotes on queerness and futurity. The epigraphic quotes above concisely summariz... more I begin with two quotes on queerness and futurity. The epigraphic quotes above concisely summarize the tension between Edelman’s “here and now” of queerness—queerness as it is lived, exiled from normality, the family, and the future as imagined through heterosexual procreation—and Munoz’s “then and there” of a queerness not yet realized. The figure of the Child lies at the heart of both perspectives though it is only clearly articulated in Edelman’s critique of so-called “reproductive futurism.” While Munoz’s theory posits that “queerness is not yet here,” the unspoken but necessary component of his theory is the Child, or a future realized through procreation. Though, with medical advances, creative conception practices, and chosen parenting, procreation and childrearing have ceased to be limited to heterosexual sex,3,and Census figures indicate that around 110,000 gay and lesbian couples are currently parenting.4 For these reasons, any theory of queerness and futurity, or queerness and utopia, must consider the place of the Child within it. While some theorists address the Child’s queer potentialities,5 a more holistic approach considers the role of parents, in particular queer parents, in the fostering of a queer future.
This work would not have been possible without the help and support of my incredibly patient and ... more This work would not have been possible without the help and support of my incredibly patient and unwavering committee members Joya Misra, Naomi Gerstel, Laura Briggs, and especially my chair Robert Zussman. I owe a great deal of thanks to my friends and chosen family members, each of whom contributed with inspiration and motivation throughout the years, including Ghazah Abbasi,
“Mail-order bride” is a term applied to women of the Global South looking for husbands in the Glo... more “Mail-order bride” is a term applied to women of the Global South looking for husbands in the Global North. These women participate in commercial marriage migration by listing their pictures and profiles on International Marriage Agency (IMA) websites used to attract men of the Global North into initiating courtship. IMAs, which collect fees from men who purchase women's email addresses, expanded profiles, and other services, are complicit in promoting racial/ethnic stereotyping of women on their sites setting up unrealistic expectations in their future husbands. Women looking to immigrate through IMAs are less conservative than men expect, often wanting full employment outside the home in order to send money back to their families. In contrast, men are looking for “traditional” women focused on marriage and family they feel are no longer available in the Global North. Ultimately, the symbol of the “mail-order bride” both consolidates Northern anxieties about globalization in the bodies of “foreign” immigrant women and assuages those anxieties through the simultaneous recapture of the traditional homemaker. Keywords: marriage; immigration; objectification; cyberspace
I begin with two quotes on queerness and futurity. The epigraphic quotes above concisely summariz... more I begin with two quotes on queerness and futurity. The epigraphic quotes above concisely summarize the tension between Edelman’s “here and now” of queerness—queerness as it is lived, exiled from normality, the family, and the future as imagined through heterosexual procreation—and Munoz’s “then and there” of a queerness not yet realized. The figure of the Child lies at the heart of both perspectives though it is only clearly articulated in Edelman’s critique of so-called “reproductive futurism.” While Munoz’s theory posits that “queerness is not yet here,” the unspoken but necessary component of his theory is the Child, or a future realized through procreation. Though, with medical advances, creative conception practices, and chosen parenting, procreation and childrearing have ceased to be limited to heterosexual sex,3,and Census figures indicate that around 110,000 gay and lesbian couples are currently parenting.4 For these reasons, any theory of queerness and futurity, or queerness and utopia, must consider the place of the Child within it. While some theorists address the Child’s queer potentialities,5 a more holistic approach considers the role of parents, in particular queer parents, in the fostering of a queer future.
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