In the unironic way. I expected it to exist in some form, but being this formalized? wow.
Anyway it's apparently still a thing https://inspirationalwomenseries.com/mail-order-bride-sites/ yikes-2

And you used to be able to get them from Ukraine! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3249478/

  • LaughingLion [any, any]
    ·
    17 hours ago

    before the invasion ukraine was the sex trafficking capital of europe

    uh, unfun fact, i guess

  • TheVelvetGentleman [he/him]
    ·
    1 day ago

    In the unironic way. I expected it to exist in some form, but being this formalized? wow.

    The image you posted is fake. It's using a modern typeface. The photo is taken from the internet. Mail order brides are and were definitely a thing but this is a joke.

    http://tinyurl.com/28bo9lcr

    • RoabeArt [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      I was gonna say the text for the "ad" looks way too clean and straight, and doesn't match the artifacting of the rest of the image.

  • videogame [he/him]
    ·
    1 day ago

    It's kinda weird how this was a normalized joke in TV/movies

    Because this is just like, slavery right

    • CleverOleg [he/him]
      ·
      1 day ago

      I was there at the time (the 90s). It was a very common “joke” and no one ever made the connection that hey, that’s weird how we just destroyed the Soviet economy and now all these women from the former USSR are available to be purchased…

      • Thallo [love/loves]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        I got into a spirited debate with someone who was saying that it's basically a transaction that benefits both parties

        Actually, it benefits the women more because they get to move to a nice country, and her kids will be set up for success.

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 day ago

    I saw an ad from the like 1930s for buying "healthy" indigenous children from those residential schools to do farm/house work and "raise" until adulthood.

    settler colonial states and their affection for slave labor are inseparable.

  • propter_hog [any, any]
    ·
    1 day ago

    I went to college with a russian girl whose mom was a mail order bride.

  • Mardoniush [she/her]
    ·
    1 day ago

    Oh man yeah. Did you know literal bride selling (as in selling a wife you didn't want) was a thing in England until the 1800s (admittedly often used as a way of mutual divorce)

  • FlakesBongler [they/them]
    ·
    1 day ago

    Forget everything you think you know about "mail-order" brides and get ready for an outrageously funny, touching and unforgettable look at the extreme lengths people travel for love.

    Sex trafficking, how quirky!