East-European Brides in the West: a Study of Cross-Border Marriages in the United States

Анотація

The present article analyzes stereotypes about international marriages in the American mass media, particularly about couples where husband is native-born American citizen and wife comes from one of the post-Soviet East-European countries. In mass consciousness, masculinity is seen as a model of authority and, by extension, becomes a metaphor of the American state. In this case, wives from Eastern Europe are almost exclusively represented through their sexuality and their relationship to men, their identity is constructed as deviant, as one that undermines mainstream intra-ethnic male-female equilibrium. The image of a woman then functions as an epitome of cultural otherness that is transmitted by both gender and national symbolism.