Mail Order Bride
That's the title of the poem that is posted on Babaylan speaks, written by Rebecca Mabango-Mayor(a.k.a. Rebecca Saxton)
A very moving poem, with imagery that reminds us that not all Filipinas married to foreigners do so out of free will or out of selfish reasons. More often than not, it's the desire to help the ones back home that drives our girls to commit the ultimate sacrifice.
What amazes me is that many people back home fail to see the sacrifice that a lot of women go through. They imagine that we who live and work abroad live a life of luxury. If they only knew the truth. And how demeaning it is for a woman to have to beg her husband for cents to send back home, which is why you will meet professionals who do what they would never do back home. They clean out latrines, and do heavy factory work, they do the dirty jobs that white people refuse to do because back home there is the family waiting and if they are women with pride, they do not want to spend all of their lives begging for every single cent from their white-skinned husbands.
Happily, this is not always the case and there are lots of women who have bright and successful marriages. But I have seen my share of women who are treated like slaves because their men know why they made the loveless choice for a foreigner...
Before I forget, here's the link to that poem.
The title is,Mail Order Bride
A very moving poem, with imagery that reminds us that not all Filipinas married to foreigners do so out of free will or out of selfish reasons. More often than not, it's the desire to help the ones back home that drives our girls to commit the ultimate sacrifice.
What amazes me is that many people back home fail to see the sacrifice that a lot of women go through. They imagine that we who live and work abroad live a life of luxury. If they only knew the truth. And how demeaning it is for a woman to have to beg her husband for cents to send back home, which is why you will meet professionals who do what they would never do back home. They clean out latrines, and do heavy factory work, they do the dirty jobs that white people refuse to do because back home there is the family waiting and if they are women with pride, they do not want to spend all of their lives begging for every single cent from their white-skinned husbands.
Happily, this is not always the case and there are lots of women who have bright and successful marriages. But I have seen my share of women who are treated like slaves because their men know why they made the loveless choice for a foreigner...
Before I forget, here's the link to that poem.
The title is,
posted by rcloenen-ruiz at 5:52 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home