Page 374 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

352 Ingrid Piller

Much of what is said about Western women is said by implication, through con-
trasting them, implicitly or explicitly, with Filipinas, as in “they rarely lose their
figures when they age”, which implies that Western women do.

Filipinas

Foreign women are everything that Western women are not, or are no longer.
They are the ideal of conventional femininity: beautiful, petite, devoted, relig-
ious, obedient, submissive, and sexy. Previous research has shown that Orien-
talist images (Said 1978, 1993; Spurr 1993) predominate in the images of Asian
women in the West, and particularly in the US (Marchetti 1993; Uchida 1998).
The image of Asian women is dominated by the “Madame Butterfly”, or, more
recently, “Miss Saigon” stereotype, which portrays Asian women as exotic, sex-
ually available, submissive, obedient, domestic, sweet and passive. For her hon-
ours thesis, Mooring (2004b) collected generalizations about Filipinas from six
14
different mail-order bride sites, and found that they largely coincide with the
image described by Uchida (1998). The following is typical:
Filipina women are renowned for their beauty, femininity and traditional family
values. They are sincere, devoted and they believe in a lasting marriage. The major-
ity of our members are in the Philippines. Our personal opinion reflects the fact that
Filipina women stand out among Asian women in terms of charm, openness, intelli-
gence, education and trustworthiness. In addition, Filipina women make excellent
wives, and they excel and value their husbands as their priority. They are very affec-
tionate and romantic, and their focus and goals is giving their man tender loving care,
surpasses all the women in South East Asia. They are well educated in their different
respective professions and you’ll find them very mature in their thinking. They are
mature for their age and view older men as more stable and responsible partner.
These ladies are very feminine and gentle, cultured and passionate. They enjoy the
outdoors as much as indoor activities. Their outer physical beauties coupled with
their wonderful personality, high level of intelligence, sense of humor and sincere
devotion to their man creates one of the strongest relationships you could ever hope
to find. 15

On many sites, as on this one, there is also evidence of defending the “Filipina
brand” against competitors, namely other Asian women. The strongest “selling
points” in this respect are their English ability and their Christianity, but other
differences that make Filipinas more attractive to Western men than other Asian
women are mentioned as well:
We are different from most Asian cultures. We are loyal to family unit more than
country. We are comfortable loving and marrying men of other race, while most
Asians “lose face” if marry outside their on culture. […] Marry a Filipina, and you
not have to eat with chopsticks or bow all time. 16