Russia: the home of communism, vodka, long winters and beautiful women. Russia has been featured in the news a lot lately, from the “Russia Investigation” to the doping incident resulting in their team being disqualified from the 2018 Winter Olympics. Instead of talking about politics however, we shall look at another aspect of Russia which has garnered both negative and positive press.

It is no secret that in North America, Russian mail order brides and arranged marriages are a thing. The very fact that they are called “mail order brides”, if anything should signify everything that is wrong with the system. Not only does it dehumanize and devaluate women, but is represents a larger problem facing society; it is becoming harder to find some one organically. There is often a profile for the type of guy that would find a Russian bride. There was a documentary not to mention a show that looked at long distance relationships that showcased this. The men are lonely and have lost hope in finding someone at home and thus they look to finding someone abroad.

These days, it is interesting to find that these Russian women are focusing their attention on China. Many of these women are now immigrating to China in the hopes of finding a rich businessman who would be willing to look after them. The impression one perceives of Russian women is such that they are high maintenance and require a tremendous amount of pampering. Therefore the allure of moving to China, is that there are men who would be willing to do this simply to have a gorgeous Russian or Eastern European wife.

The daily mail has even covered an article on this titling it “‘They want brides with white skin and blue eyes'” whereby Chinese businessmen actively go to Serbia and Russia to look for the “perfect” wife. The article calls it “wife tours” because of China’s one child policy and the shortage of women in the country as a result. This idea of finding the perfect white wife originated in the US with the idea of the trophy wife. It was stated in the article, that Chinese men find it is more comfortable to find a Eastern European bride because of the similar cultures.

What is the appeal of Russian women? They are beautiful because they adhere to the western ideal of beauty which is why most of these women are successful in North America. According to an article in the Business Insider entitled “Everything you wanted to know about Russian mail order brides”, the Russian women who join match making sites online seek an “adventure” or want to “expand their dating pool”. This does not necessarily mean that they are easy to get or that they do it out of boredom.
Beauty is their currency because they know how gorgeous they are and use it to their advantage. While some are born with natural beauty, others enhance their own bodies with fake boobs and Botox to look “beautiful”.

It is to a degree understandable why women in Russia are resorting to online dating websites, firstly because there is a great gender imbalance in Russia. There are 86 men for 100 women or in terms of total population, around 11 million more women than men. Women generally have a longer life expectancy and so this is a contributing factor to the gender disparity. There are simply too many online agencies for Russian and Eastern European women that they have become like commodity, being traded across boarders.

For further reading check out the links below:

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/russian-bride-faq-2012-6?r=US&IR=T#q-do-you-have-an-moral-objections-to-the-type-of-business-that-you-do-1

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/06/politics/whistleblower-flynn-told-colleague-removing-russia-sanctions-priority/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/sports/olympics/ioc-russia-winter-olympics.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/europe/russia-vladimir-putin-president.html

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1013098.shtml

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3832111/They-want-brides-white-skin-blue-eyes-Rich-Chinese-businessmen-pay-thousands-pounds-wife-tours-Siberia-shortage-women-country.html