IMBRA: Anatomy of a feminist hoax… your thoughts on IMBRA?
IMBRA: Anatomy of a feminist hoax
Carey Roberts Carey Roberts
September 26, 2007
Want a textbook example how the Left manufactures a crisis, passes a law that rolls back Constitutional protections, snookers card-carrying conservatives, and bilks American taxpayers? Look no farther than IMBRA, the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act.
A little background: It’s no secret that conditions in post-socialist Russia are grim. Author Sonya Luehrmann recounts how women desperately search to find a husband "to put one’s personal life in order, to settle down with a stable family."
And here in the United States, some men find American ladies to be a little too, shall we say, high-maintenance for their tastes.
Before long over 200 match-making services around the world had sprouted up like a clutch of springtime tulips.
A few years ago University of Pittsburgh professor Nicole Constable set out to probe the inner workings of these dating agencies. In her book Romance on a Global Stage, Constable revealed the international match-makers were simply responding to a human need for companionship and love. Many men who marry foreign brides "went to great lengths to ensure their partner’s comfort and happiness in the United States," she noted.
But feminists are rankled by any hint that their nostrum for female liberation may be curtailing American women’s marriage prospects. Worse, some of these foreign women actually aspire to be mothers and homemakers. Imagine that!
So the Sourpuss Sisters conspired to put the kibosh on the operation. They knew convincing Congress to regulate romance would be a hard sell. So they resorted to their tried and true formula of hackneyed stereotypes, outright demagoguery, and appeals to male chivalry.
It was Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington who quarterbacked the legislative strategy. First she brandished the notion of "mail-order brides," casting foreign women as victims of predatory males. Then she dubbed international dating services as "marriage brokers," conjuring up the image of a rogue operation trading lives for dollars.
On July 13, 2004 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee scheduled a hearing to air the issue. No dating services or happily-betrothed foreign women were invited to testify — their comments would not likely fit the script.
During her testimony, Cantwell made the startling claim that match-making services serve as a nefarious front for international human trafficking. She concluded, "there is a growing epidemic of domestic abuse among couples who meet via international marriage brokers." As proof of that "epidemic," she highlighted the cases of three abused women.
Cantwell’s depiction of comely maidens being seduced into prostitution rings was more than Sen. Sam Brownback could resist, and before long he signed on as a leading co-sponsor of the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act. With liberals and conservatives now on board, IMBRA’s political star was rising.
But it turns out that Senator Cantwell’s supposition that dating services drag women into a life of sex slavery and indentured servitude was nothing more than a feminist tall-tale.
There was the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service report that revealed, "less than 1 percent of the abuse cases now being brought to the attention of the INS can be attributed to the mail-order bride industry." [http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=9ba5d0676988d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=2c039c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD]
A second analysis soberly concluded that foreign brides are "dramatically less likely to be involved in domestic violence as calculated by the Intimate Partner Murder Rate." [www.online-dating-rights.com/forum/index.php?topic=544.0]
And earlier this week the Washington Post reported that early estimates of up to 100,000 human trafficking victims being secreted into the United States each year were grossly exaggerated. Despite more than 0 million of taxpayer dollars diverted to a massive search and rescue effort, it turns out the actual number of trafficking victims is closer to 200 annually. [www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20929223]
But in the politically-correct atmosphere that envelopes Washington these days, agendas count for more than the truth.
So after the gavel fell on the Senate hearing, the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act was bundled into the Violence Against Women Act. That law was signed into law on January 5, 2006. A few days later, Fox News columnist Wendy McElroy castigated the act as branding all American men as "abusers." [www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2006/0111.html]
Now, any man who wishes to go through an international dating company must submit to an extensive background check. That’s right, guys, get ready to tell them about your arrests, criminal history, restraining orders, how many times you’ve been married, and even how many children you have. For good measure, don’t forget the sex offender registry check.
So thanks to Senator Cantwell’s artful dissembling and Senator Brownback’s white-horse chivalry, men are presumed to be a threat to foreign women. And Cupid’s arrow now falls under the watchful eyes of green-visored bureaucrats.
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/070926
- Where can I meet single guys for dating outside on-line services? I'm 22 years old from TX. I was wondering where I can find a good single guy about 22 to 28 years of age outside of the online dating services because I know there are more options out there. Guys, I would like to have your input on this, but......
- Has anyone ever heard of a cell phone dating network called lifestyles? My friend who is single and just turning 50 is chatting with strange men on a phone dating line. It is a swinging singles cybersex line. I'm concerned for her safety. I met my husband online but I checked his background before I would ever meet him. I've heard of......
- Are Free Online Dating Services Safe For You? It’s a fact that online dating services have dramatically changed the way people date. The old way of meeting someone for a blind date is quickly being replaced with these Internet dating services. The most popular of these are the free online dating services which offer their services to men......
- How do you assess Christian online dating services? Good way 2 weigh folk up B4 U agree 2 meet up? How best 2? Christian Dating vs. Other Dating Services Spiritual Maturity Assessment. Spiritual Gifts Inventory. Discipleship Requirements ... our free online Christian dating advice services and relationship builder http://www.singlesoffaith.com/christian-dating.html Safety Dating Tips for Christian Singles " Christian-Dating-Service-PLUS ... you've decided to try Online Christian Personals. Great! Now let's talk about safety dating tips......
- Is my USPS Parcel lost or was never shipped? Hi..I am from Pakistan and my uncle who lives in US bought a guitar for me on eBay..He told me that the seller has told him that he shipped the guitar on august 10th through USPS Priority Mail International Service..My uncle gave me a tracking number to track..Its been 16......
- Review: The Tennis Drill Book by Tina Hoskins Title - The Tennis Drill Book Author - Tina Hoskins Format - Paperback, 256 pages ISBN - 0736049126 and 978 0736049122 Publisher - Human Kinetics Publishers Release Date - September 2003 This is an extensive tennis manual that touches on a total of 245 different drills that can be integrated......
- Carole Caldwell Graebner Remembered Carole Caldwell Graebner passed away at the age of sixty five following a brief but courageous battle with cancer on November 19, 2008. Carole Caldwell Graebner served as a chair of the United States Tennis Association's Fed Cup Committee. Graebner was born on June 24 in 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,......
- Meeting and Dating Asian Women, 3 Myths Exposed If you’re a man who’d like to meet and date Asian women for friendship or marriage, you’re definitely not alone. The Asian woman, with her beauty and traditional values is very desirable, especially to a society that seems to be losing its way with happiness in relationships. Not many will......
- Weakon 127: The United States Postal Service 656,000. Would you believe that is how many pieces of mail are delivered every day? I'd hope not because the actual number is 660 million. 656,000 are the number of employees at the United States Postal Service. That is second only to Walmart in civilian employees. Here are a......
- Dating Tips For Guys - Information Every Guy Needs To Know Many times guys can have a hard time feeling comfortable with dating but using some of these dating tips for guys can be enough to get you over that hurdle and into your comfort zone. It always pays to be prepared and with these tips you will come of confident......
Filed under: Single Dating Services
Gee, I’m so disappointed Sam Brokeback’s presidential campaign was DOA. </sarcasm>
And don’t get me started on Maria Cantdo$&!+well.
The lesson American men may take is to move to where the foreign women are instead of bringing them here. Fine by me.
Feminist lies about domestic violence are nothing new, sad to say e.g. the Super Bowl Sunday fiasco http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/superbowl.asp
The tragedy is that people remember the lie and forget the debunking, then go on to proudly call themselves feminists.
That’s funny cause I married out of my race so that I could be a stay at home mom; remember too that if push comes to shove I can work a full day and come home and do the laundry. Anyways more feminists blatant lying and forcing the bottle to spin their way; their new motto today is my way or the high way. What they’re saying is that all men are supposed to love strong independent women who don’t roll over to get their bellies scratched. So, now that they’ve found out the opposite; they don’t like it; not one little bit; like I said, "it’s their way or the highway.
Its funny how the major dating sites are extempt from it. I suspect its those major sites bashing the smaller competition using feminism as an excuse rather than a full blown feminist movement. Want to bypass IMBRA ? Just use match.com or the like.
"here in the United States, some men find American ladies to be a little too, shall we say, high-maintenance for their tastes."
Ahh…code for "misogynistic losers who can’t find doormats in the U.S., so they have to import them from countries with a low level of human rights, so they can at least get a woman to be a house slave for a few years, until she figures out that she doesn’t have to put up with being a doormat in this country."
Aren’t these the same kind of questions we answer on job applications or for adoptions? For major commitments, such as employment or parenting, don’t we regularly allow people to ask these kind of questions that will determine if we have a bad history? We don’t go around complaining about these questions on jobs applications, do we? These questions seem very reasonable if you are looking at matching people up for marriage. Just because we ask a questions doesn’t mean we assume the answer falls a particular way. Would you want to be married off to a serial rapist anyway?