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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 2 years ago

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On the Filipina “Migrant Wives”

Excerpted from Gendered Desire and Heteronormativity in the Transnational Matchmaking Process by Minjeong Kim

In the early days of the UC, the Blessing Committee collected personal information on members, including pictures, and presented them to Moon who personally matched couples and officiated at the Blessing Ceremony. Moon sought to achieve world unity through the marital unions of racially and culturally different people, and therefore arranged a large number of international matches between Americans and foreign nationals. As the scale of matching grew, the ceremonies became mass weddings and the rules became more relaxed. In 1997, the name of the organization was changed to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, a change that actively promoted the True Family Movement. Since then, non-Unificationists were allowed to be matched with UC members. This expansion of the True Family Movement has contributed to the increasing number of Filipina and Thai women marriage migrants forming unions with South Korean men (Y.-s. Kim, Kim, & Han, 2006). Unfortunately for the UC, this relatively fast expansion has not necessarily resulted in the successful conversion of Filipina members. Many Filipinas and their Korean husbands did not consider themselves UC members even though they were matched through the UC. Only 5 of 25 Filipinas in Hyowon County maintained their UC membership, and even these existing members did not demonstrate a steady commitment, often missing Sunday sermons.

Despite the Filipinas’ tenuous spiritual commitment, UC senior members seem to be satisfied with the fact that they provide a community service by helping to alleviate the ‘‘farm bachelor’’ issue. I often heard both UC members and local residents, including government officers and leaders of other religious organizations, say ‘‘how could those men have married if it were not for the UC?’’ They seem to appreciate the UC’s involvement in addressing this ‘‘societal headache.’’ In hindsight, the UC’s ‘‘contribution’’ may have helped the church maintain their stature and increase their membership. However, the secular (rather than religious) messages used in matching and in the Separation Period need critical examination.

Matching Filipinas and Koreans

In my study sample, 19 Korean men (76%) and 28 Filipinas (80%) met their spouses through the UC. With the exception of one Filipina who had been a Unificationist since college, all the respondents in the study became involved in the church mainly for the purpose of finding a spouse.

Most of the South Korean farm bachelors said that they were first approached and encouraged by family members, neighbors, friends, acquaintances, or people from the UC to find their spouses through the UC; four men voluntarily went to the UC to be matched. When asked why they married Filipinas rather than women of another nationality, some South Korean men responded ‘‘because of the Unification Church.’’ In other words, the UC determined that they would be matched with Filipinas and, if they wanted to marry, the men did not have any choice other than to follow this decision. My subsequent research on Japanese–Korean couples revealed that the UC follows certain patterns in matching. In general, Japanese women are much more spiritually involved in the UC than Filipinas, and most Korean men who were matched with Japanese women were from devoted Unificationist families (either their parents or the men themselves), lived in higher-income households, and held middle-class jobs. Meanwhile, Korean men who were matched with Filipinas had no prior UC involvement and had lower levels of educational attainment (one Korean husband said that he wanted a Japanese wife but was told that he could not because he did not have high school diploma). The UC seems to match couples based on the degree of spiritual and institutional involvement in the church; to a certain extent, the hierarchical relations inside the UC based on religious devotion and socioeconomic class overlap with the socioeconomic status of husbands and the global hierarchical standing of women’s natal countries. Thus, the church’s matching patterns reinforce the ethnic and national hierarchy in South Korea.

Even though Filipinas are matched with Korean men with lower socioeconomic status, this is not what they are told when they are recruited to the UC in the Philippines. Like South Korean men, the Filipinas who met their husbands through the UC said that it was initially relatives, acquaintances, coworkers, or strangers they met on the street, in department stores, or government offices who ‘‘witnessed’’ them.

In Manila, Filipinas recruited from all over the Philippines are matched with Korean men who have just flown in from South Korea. Korean men usually stay in the Philippines for 4 or 5 days. After their arrival, they are introduced to a partner who has been predetermined by ‘‘picture matching.’’ In most cases, men meet one Filipina at a time, and as a general rule, they can reject one match. After the initial meeting and match, the couples attend a second meeting to participate in the Blessing Ceremony in the form of a small-scale mass wedding. The respondents said that the ceremony was led by one Filipino leader and one Korean leader and only the pictures of Reverend Moon and Mrs. Han. At a third meeting, the couples, who are now husbands and wives, go on a tour to Manila arranged by the church.

After the matching, the Blessing Ceremony, and the one-day tour, husbands return to South Korea and wait for their wives to come ‘‘home,’’ while Filipinas go back to their Philippine home to begin the Separation Period. After returning to their hometowns, Filipinas stay at or regularly attend a local Unification Center. As UC members, Filipinas study UC doctrines and are prepared for their lives in Korea by learning about South Korean society and traditional cultures including Korean gender roles.

Between 1 month and 1 year after the Blessing Ceremony, women travel from the Philippines to South Korea and are placed at a local UC in their husbands’ town. After the Separation Period, Filipinas are allowed to move into their husbands’ house, and the Three-Day Ceremony is conducted. According to the UC calendar, the couples have another mass wedding, which takes place in or near Seoul and is officiated by Reverend Moon. When the husbands’ families can afford to and/or are willing, they have a private (nonreligious) wedding with their family members, relatives, and friends.

Vivian’s Experience as a Filipino Migrant Worker Recruited by the Unification Church

The Conditions of the Japanese-Korean Moonie-Brokered Marriages

6,500 women missing from Moon mass weddings

UC mass wedding of 1,000 couples probed for recruiting prostitutes, nannies

Korean UC leaders made lots of money from “selling” hundreds of pure, faithful, Filipino sisters

Korean Unification Church Reverend takes $10,000 from a farmer for finding him a Filipina wife.

Moonies demanded $2,000 from Koreans who wanted to have Filipinas as “housemaids and sex partners.”

Many non-UC Korean men and Filipinas are recruited or urged by local UC members and matched through UC ceremonies

Republic of the Philippines – Office of the President. Documented Unification Church cases include women eventually sold into prostitution upon arrival in Korea.

Catholic Church helps Filipinas running from violent UC marriages in Korea

UNESCO Report: Korean-Filipino marriages under the UC sparked controversy and animosity

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ghost-proofbaby · 4 months ago

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foolishness and all

summary: your boyfriend puts your love to the test when his heart is set on a certain unsightly purchase.

pairing: eddie munson x gn!reader

warnings: jar jar binks. not edited, i was laughing too hard.

wc: 1.8k+

a/n: this is the product of a very insane conversation that occurred in the middle of the night last night with @emmaisgonnacry, @lokis-army-77, and @emma-munson. forever sad we can't get the jar jar watch </3 (but at least emma got the darth maul one!) ((thank you for making me laugh until i cried last night, friends.))

“If you buy that thing, I’m breaking up with you.”

“No, you aren’t.”

“Yes, I am.”

“I’m getting the watch.”

“And I’m getting a new boyfriend.”

You glare at your boyfriend for several beats of tense silence, narrowing your eyes as if it’ll do anything to change his mind. His heart is already set – there’s no stopping what’s about to happen.

“Edward Munson,” you stress, hand shooting out to hold his wrist, but he’s already whipping it out of your reach, “That thing is hideous. We’re shopping for a nice watch for Steve’s wedding, not that.”

“This thing has a name, sweetheart,” Eddie smiles toothily, tilting his head tauntingly at you, “And I think it fits the theme perfectly.”

“In what fucking world?”

You're whispering harshly now, trying to keep from causing a commotion in the middle of the store and garnering any more unwanted attention. The workers had given you strange enough looks when Eddie had first laid eyes on his prize, his little yelp of excitement seemingly startling them.

The less people who witnessed the atrocity on Eddie’s wrist currently, the better.

Eddie goes against that wish entirely, holding his wrist high in the air for the entire mall to see at this point, “In my world. He did say it was meant to be open for interpretation-”

“Not like this.”

“And my interpretation is buying this absolutely priceless Jar-Jar Binks watch.”

The thing looks down at you, almost as if it’s laughing at you just as Eddie was right now.

Part of you wonders if it’s all a bit – something Eddie noticed set you off, and he’s now making it into an entire catastrophic situation solely for his own enjoyment at your irritation. But part of you also knows that even if it is a bit, Eddie Munson will commit wholeheartedly to it.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a joke or not. He’ll be leaving this store as the owner of that watch, and the thought mortifies you.

“Please,” you finally resort to begging, feeling a bit childish as you give a pitiful hop to reach his wrist. It’s useless. He only stretches higher, shirt riding up to expose that strip of pale skin beneath the fabric. Your eyes catch on it momentarily, but you force yourself to not get distracted, “Eddie, baby-”

“Nuh uh,” he’s quick to shake his head, taking a full step back from you, “Nope. That baby shit isn’t working on me this time. I’m buying it. End of discussion.”

Fine. The sweet talk route didn’t work. That’s fine.

You had more than one weapon in the arsenal.

Before he can even think to step any further away, you reach out and hook your finger through one of his belt loops, giving a tug that further exposes the band of his boxers all while forcing him closer to you.

You’re back on your tip-toes, no longer reaching for the watch, but to let your lips barely graze over his as your whispers, “What if I ask you not to very, very nicely?”

That has him faltering. Complete hesitation as he takes a deep breath and visible gulp, arm beginning to drop ever so slightly.

“I would… I’d…” he trails off, clearly losing focus as your lips stay hovering just out of touch, “I’d probably… I-”

“Probably not buy it – right, handsome?”

And just as quickly as he’d fallen victim to the game you’d started playing, he’s pulled from it.

He leans back as far as he can with your finger still clinging to his pants, scrunching up his nose, “I see what you’re doing. Not fucking fair. It’s only thirteen dollars, anyway. I bet if Steve was here right now, he’d tell me to get it.”

“He wouldn’t!” you whisper-yell, giving up and pulling back as well, “It’s his wedding, Eddie. He told us to get something nice to fit in with the black tie dress code,” you can see him ready the argument of interpretation once more, and nip it in the bud, “No amount of interpretation can ever qualify the head of Jar-Jar Binks turned into a watch as something that fits into black tie attire.”

He’s not convinced. Not of the point you’re trying to make – no, you know he agrees with you and is just being a little shit at this point – but of not buying the watch.

“What if I just bought it?” he barters, “Maybe I don’t wear it to the weddin-”

“There’s no maybes about it. You can’t wear it to the wedding. You’re one of the groomsmen.”

He lifts his other hand just as the one adorning the eyesore finally drops to be eye level once more, “Fine! Fine. I won’t wear it to the wedding, but I’m still getting it.”

It’s a compromise. Or as close to a compromise as you and Eddie were going to get to right now.

With his wrist finally lowered, you can finally get a proper look at the thing. It’s Jar-Jar’s head with a band to mimic his skin, no clock in sight until it’s flipped open. The inside might be even worse though. Vivid font curling to spell out Jar-Jar, a light orange background with darker swirls, and the world’s smallest sliver of a screen to display the digital time.

It absolutely blows your mind that anyone thought it was a good marketing idea. But then again, people like your boyfriend exist. He was the intended audience, not you.

“It’s not even that cool,” you weakly still try to fight the losing battle, gingerly grabbing for the wrist this time with your free hand. Your finger hasn’t left Eddie’s belt loop, now resting comfortably in it, just growing fond of the closeness rather than weaponizing it against him.

And maybe as a way of keeping him from running up to the counter to complete the purchase. Maybe.

“It’s the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” he proudly proclaims, right there in the middle of the Radio Shack, never having looked more satisfied with himself, “It can just be a conversational piece. I promise, I won’t break out the secretly evil little shit-”

“What?”

“Unless the occasion actually calls for it.”

“I’m sorry, can we go back to where you just called Jar-Jar secretly evil?” you ask, more perplexed than concerned at this point.

He was getting it. You were hating it. You had bigger wars to win with the man before you at a later date, surely.

His grin makes you regret asking, “Oh, you haven’t heard the theory about Jar-Jar being a Sith lord, have you?”

Your finger slips from his jeans, and your eyes nearly roll out of your head.

“Go buy that thing. I’m waiting in the car.”

“Wait, babe, no!”

“Nope. I’m not listening to this.”

You turn from Eddie to walk away, making sure he can’t see the corners of your mouth twitching with a smile you’re so desperately fighting, but it’s no use when he grabs onto your elbow to spin you back around.

“Eddie, I’m not-”

You’re interrupted with his lips on yours, an unexpectedly genuine kiss ensuing. The kind that reminds you why you’d ever deal with someone who wants a Jar-Jar Binks watch, the kind that reminds you why the occasional embarrassment Eddie purposefully puts you through in public is all worth it.

All the butterflies, all the sweetness, all the tenderness. The way his thumb traces over your skin as his hand stays wrapped around your elbow, the way his other hand comes up to cradle your cheek. You can still taste whatever sour candy he’d bought moments before walking into the store all over his tongue and lips, hiding his last cigarette from hours ago.

It’s a good enough kiss to forget the entire interaction that had just occurred.

When he pulls away, you’re a little breathless, all fluttering eyes glazed over as you look up at him, “What was that for?”

His smile could melt your entire existence. Turn you right into a puddle of all the love you struggle to contain, just for him.

“Just because,” he shrugs, but then he continues on, “And for putting up with me. Thank you for that.”

“I don’t put up with you,” you say immediately, and mean it.

Even when he’s being insufferable. Even when he’s still wearing the goddamn Jar-Jar Binks watch. You don’t put up with him – you love him. Foolishness and all.

Your finger returns to his belt loop, and this time, you tug him in for another kiss. Something short and sweet, something just because.

“You know,” he mumbles against your lips, arm wrapping around you so you can’t leave him just yet, “They have a Darth Maul one, too…”

Your hand comes up between the two of you, only a slight struggle, just for you to smack him in the center of his chest, “You can only have one, Munson.”

“We could match!”

“I am not wearing that thing.”

He throws his head back and cackles, a certain glee only born of being with the one you feel safest with flooding his features. All those wrinkles in the corners of his crinkled eyes, the stretch of his lips that bring on the appearance of dimples you could bury yourself in if given the chance. A boy made up of stardust and felicity. Your boy made up of every good thing that could have ever existed in this lifetime.

You’d rather bicker over the useless things with him a hundred times over than ever live a life without him.

“It’s fine,” he finally sighs dramatically, “I’ll just wear the Jar-Jar Binks watch to our wedding one day.”

Our wedding one day.

Your heart just about explodes, and the only thing you can do to not choke up is smack him even harder.

Our wedding.

It has a nice ring to it.

“I’m going to fucking kill you,” you tell him instead.

There’ll be plenty of other moments to talk about that. Now, when he still wears the ugliest watch you’ve ever laid eyes on, is not the time.

“Gotta catch me first,” he teases as he slowly backs away, a twinkle in his eyes that makes you question if he knows how you’d secretly felt about that joke. That makes you question if he and Steve Harrington had really only been shopping for Steve’s rings for the last year.

He doesn’t even run to the counter, knowing that you won’t be chasing him. You’re content to stay back and wait. You’ll always wait on him, really.

Even if it meant waiting for the day he wore that goddamn watch on your wedding day, because at the end of it all, you’d probably let him. You’d even wear the Darth Maul watch to match if he insisted.

You’d let him wear whatever he wants, and you’d wear whatever he insists upon, because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t matter – it’d be enough to simply marry the dork that just tripped on his way up on the counter while giggling over a watch on his wrist, and know that he’s yours, forever.

eddie's taglist: @capricornrisingsstuff @thisisktrying @mediocredreams @vol2eddie @corrcdedcoffin

@ches-86 @alovesongtheywrote @its-not-rain @feralchaospixie @cheesypuffkins87

@thebook-hobbit @babez-a-licious @eddies-acousticguitar @aysheashea @kellsck

@cosmorant @billyhvrgrove-main @micheledawn1975 @eddiesxangel @siriuslysmoking

@witchwolflea @tlclick73 @magicalchocolatecheesecake @mizzfizz @nanaminswhore

@mikiepeach @ali-r3n @hawkebuckley @alwaysbeenfamous @darkyuffie-blog

@vintagehellfire @lilmisssiren @elvendria @loveryanax @stylexrepp

@princessstolas @fangirling-4-ever @eddiesguitarskills @babez-a-licious @josephquinnsfreckles

@writinginthetwilight @trixyvixx @kittydeadbones @munson-addict @bluejeangenies

@cryingglightningg @joannamuns9n @missmarch-99 @rhirojo @findmeincorneliastreet

join my taglist!

#holy fucking shit i just love eddie munson so much #i'm actually eddie in this. i want the watch.#ghost's stories #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson one shot #joking one shots like this with him always end with me turning to mush at the end truly #it just reminds me why i love him #and why i love fandom at times #sorry to make you all have to endure the jar jar binks watch- actually im not sorry i WANT THE WATCH #also forever sad because i couldn't get the original photo i wanted of eddie to match. i wanted the deranged :D photo #just know that's the face he's making this entire one shot