There is a controversy over one UK dating agency's offer to connect men with
Czech women "unspoiled by feminism." Feminist domestic violence advocates
are protesting, and one politician said, "Material like this is frankly
disgusting and I am certain that everyone will share my revulsion."

My feeling about international dating agencies in general is that I wouldn't
do it, but I wouldn't criticize it. If that's what men want, fine, it's
their lives. As for the comment that has generated the controversy--women
"unspoiled by feminism"--I have a few thoughts:

1) If it really is an advertisement for doormat women, then yes, it's
offensive. But I doubt that's what the agency meant, and I doubt that's what
most men who go to these agencies are looking for. While I'm sure these
agencies do sometimes serve the "keep 'em barefoot, pregnant and in the
kitchen" type of male, probably the vast majority of the men just want a
woman who doesn't buy into the woman good/man bad Western feminist
worldview. Do you really want to go through life with someone for whom it's
always his fault? I can understand men wanting to avoid this.

2) For the men at these agencies, "unspoiled by feminism" may well be code
for "wants an intact family, isn't fond of divorce." Divorce is rampant in
the West, and it is women, not men, who initiate the vast majority of
divorces. Yes, sometimes the women have good cause or the relationship
really is nonfunctional, but sometimes that is not the case. I can see why a
man who's been through the "I had no idea she wanted to divorce me"
scenario--complete with concomitant restriction of access to his children
and financial misfortune--would look for a crop of women who are less
inclined to divorce.

3) Another way to look at it is this--if anybody, male or female, is
considering marriage, and could choose from crop of potential partners #1,
where the divorce potential was 1 in 2, and crop of potential partners #2
where the divorce rate was maybe 1 in 4, wouldn't he or she be quite right
to choose group #2? (BTW, does anybody know what divorce rates in the Czech
Republic actually are?)

4) That being said, I'm skeptical that these foreign marriages work all that
well. I've received plenty of letters from men who went for foreign brides
and hooked up with the stereotypical beautiful and much younger spouse, and
thought they had found true love, only to find that their foreign wives were
more interested in their money and citizenship than them as people. If
you're one of those guys who wants her mostly for her beauty, don't be
shocked if she wants you mostly for your money.

5) I'm skeptical that Czech women are so unfamiliar with feminism. The
Eastern Bloc countries employed many of the ideas that feminists recommend,
including low-cost, 24 hour child care, free abortion on demand, and an
emphasis on women having jobs and careers. I traveled throughout the East
Bloc in the early '80s, including Czechoslovakia. While it was obvious that
the country's economy was stifled by what Trotsky accurately called the
"dead hand of the bureaucracy," the women there were well-educated, and were
hardly clueless naives.

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