To Have and to Hold: A Postmodern Feminist Response to the Mail-Order Bride Industry

This article uses postmodern feminist legal theory to analyze the mail order bride industry and its legal framework. It provides an overview of the industry and legal responses to it, focusing on the Philippines as a source country and the US as a destination country. The postmodern feminist response to the mail order bride phenomenon and gaps in legal responses to the industry is also analyzed. The author concludes that recent legal approaches have failed to address the multiple factors underlying the growth of the industry. She argues that "the postmodern approach, which acknowledges the interplay of these [cultural, economic, racial and sexual] factors, is the most appropriate". [Descriptors: Migration - Trafficking, International]