Mail Fantasy: Global Sexual Exploitation in the Mail-Order Bride Industry and Proposed Legal Solutions

Ms. Lee asserts that the trade in Asian mail-order brides is premised on the male consumer's racialized expectations of sexual and domestic labor services to be provided within the privacy of the home. The mail-order bride industry rests on the same foundation as the more visible trade in military prostitution and sex tourism-exploitation of the economic desperation of women in many Asian countries. Ms. Lee argues that an artificial shroud of legitimacy associated with marriage masks the exploitative nature of the mail-order bride business. She investigates the possibility that existing laws against prostitution and involuntary servitude can be applied to combat the industry's operations, concluding that anti-prostitution laws hold some promise.