Mail-Order Brides: Content Analysis of Eastern European Internet Marriage Agencies

Along the lines of a qualitative inquiry, this article discusses the two dichotomous academic interpretations of mail-order-bride services; investigates the conditions under which mail-order-bride agencies have proliferated into a large-scale industry, and analyzes the content specificities of mail-order-bride agencies that advertise Eastern European brides. Methodologically, the research employs a three-level content analysis with the sample of 24 marriage agencies selected purposefully out of the 100 top entries from the Google.com search engine. The findings indicate that not only do mail-order-bride agencies merchandise Eastern European women into a trendy product, they also promote inequalities on the basis of economic condition, gender, race, and the national origin.