Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband
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Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband by Ericka Johnson
In the American media, Russian mail-order brides are often portrayed either as docile victims or as gold diggers in search of money and green cards. Rarely are they allowed to speak for themselves. Until now. In Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband, six Russian women who are in search of or have already found U.S. husbands via listings on the Internet tell their stories. Ericka Johnson, an American researcher of gender and technology, interviewed these women and others. The women, in their twenties and thirties, describe how they placed listings on the Internet and what they think about their contacts with Western men. They discuss their expectations about marriage in the United States and their reasons for wishing to emigrate. Their differing backgrounds, economic situations, and educational levels belie homogeneous characterizations of Russian mail-order brides.Each chapter presents one woman’s story and then links it to a discussion of gender roles, the mail-order bride industry, and the severe economic and social constraints of life in Russia. The transitional economy has often left people, after a month’s work, either unpaid or paid unexpectedly with a supply of sunflower oil or toilet paper. Women over twenty-three are considered virtually unmarriageable in Russian society. Russia has a large population of women who are single, divorced, or widowed, who would like to be married yet feel that they have no chance finding a Russian husband. Grim realities such as these motivate women to seek better lives abroad. For many of those seeking a mail-order husband, children or parents play significant roles in the search for better lives, and they play a role in Johnson’s account as well. In addition to her research in the former Soviet Union, Johnson conducted interviews in the United States, and she shares the insights—about dating, marriage, and cross-cultural communication—of a Russian-American married couple who met via the Internet.
“Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband provides a rich and well-researched account of Russian brides, who, because of the lackluster economic conditions in Russia, hope for a better marriage and life by marrying foreign, mostly US., men.”—Felicity Schaeffer-Grabiel, University of California, Santa Cruz
“Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband is a pioneering work of broad interest and significance. It fills an important gap in information about the burgeoning ‘traffic’ in mail-order brides from Russia.”—Jehanne M. Gheith, coeditor of A History of Women’s Writing in Russia
“Well-written, well documented . . . and a pleasure to read. It can be enjoyed by the lay person as it vividly portrays the cultural phenomenon of the Russian mail order husband. It is also appropriate as a text in a college-level course, one in which the themes and issues raised in the book can be expanded, discussed and analysed more thoroughly through use of the extensive bibliography.” -- Linda S. Fair * Population, Space and Place *
“The book, vividly placed within the specific socio-economic and political context of the former Soviet Union, fills a gap in our understanding of these women’s motivations. It challenges underlying presumptions on the international matchmaking industry and the stereotypical images of Russian women (and men) and American men (and women).” -- Lorena D. Arocha * Social Anthropology *
“What Johnson is arguing in this carefully researched and beautifully written volume is that the notion of Russian women as victims in the mail-order bride business tells only part of the story. What her own experience has shown is that the women she interviewed were ‘active driven individuals with agency’ (p. 158) who wanted the stability of home and family denied them in their own country. Therein lies the wisdom of the title Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband. Clearly, the internet works both ways.” -- Adele Barker * Russian Review *
"[T]he volume is an easy read and will no doubt spark lively discussion, particularly among readers well-acquainted with contemporary Russian culture and society." -- Olga Mesropova * Slavic and East European Journal *
“Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband is a pioneering work of broad interest and significance. It fills an important gap in information about the burgeoning ‘traffic’ in mail-order brides from Russia.”—Jehanne M. Gheith, coeditor of A History of Women’s Writing in Russia
“Well-written, well documented . . . and a pleasure to read. It can be enjoyed by the lay person as it vividly portrays the cultural phenomenon of the Russian mail order husband. It is also appropriate as a text in a college-level course, one in which the themes and issues raised in the book can be expanded, discussed and analysed more thoroughly through use of the extensive bibliography.” -- Linda S. Fair * Population, Space and Place *
“The book, vividly placed within the specific socio-economic and political context of the former Soviet Union, fills a gap in our understanding of these women’s motivations. It challenges underlying presumptions on the international matchmaking industry and the stereotypical images of Russian women (and men) and American men (and women).” -- Lorena D. Arocha * Social Anthropology *
“What Johnson is arguing in this carefully researched and beautifully written volume is that the notion of Russian women as victims in the mail-order bride business tells only part of the story. What her own experience has shown is that the women she interviewed were ‘active driven individuals with agency’ (p. 158) who wanted the stability of home and family denied them in their own country. Therein lies the wisdom of the title Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband. Clearly, the internet works both ways.” -- Adele Barker * Russian Review *
"[T]he volume is an easy read and will no doubt spark lively discussion, particularly among readers well-acquainted with contemporary Russian culture and society." -- Olga Mesropova * Slavic and East European Journal *
Ericka Johnson is a researcher in the Department of Technology and Social Change at Linköping University in Sweden. She is the author of Situating Simulators: The Integration of Simulations in Medical Practice.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780822340294 |
| ISBN 10 | 0822340291 |
| Title | Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband |
| Author | Ericka Johnson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Duke University Press |
| Year published | 2007-07-13 |
| Number of pages | 208 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |