Filipina’s strife portrayed in NBC sitcom ‘Mail Order Family’
American broadcasting giant NBC is currently developing a series entitled “Mail Order Family,” a sitcom about an American widower who purchases a Filipina mail-order bride to help him take care of his adolescent daughters.
According to Deadline, the series will be penned by writer-producer Jackie Clarke and produced by director-executive producer Ruben Fleischer and executive producer David Bernad. They are the dynamic trio behind another NBC hit, “Superstore,” which also highlighted the struggles of another Filipino.
Clarke drew inspiration for “Mail Order Family” from her personal experiences living with Pora, her father’s Filipina mail-order bride. In an interview on PBS’s “This American Life,” she said her father had a turbulent marriage with Pora and that she did not “care” for Clarke and her other sister.
In the end, Pora divorced her husband after she found out he had another family in the Philippines. Clarke’s father abandoned his life in the US and lived with his new family in the Philippines.
Social media were fuming mad with the show’s plot citing sex trafficking among Asian women, and Clarke responded to their stinging criticisms.
Really @nbc, a family-comedy about the sex trafficking of Asian women? https://t.co/7YNrndEAh6
cc: @angryasianman
— mieke eoyang (@MiekeEoyang) September 29, 2016
FUCK THIS SHOW. HOW are you gonna air a show making light of human trafficking Asian women? #CancelMailOrderFamilyhttps://t.co/SAnIuMCAtE
— The Official LLAG (@theLLAG) September 29, 2016
@ButtStallionYay I can't speak for all, of course, but supportive. My friends know my story and my work so they think I'll handle it well
— Jackie Clarke (@jackieclarke) September 29, 2016
@kulturewatchdog @rubenfleischer just an element of the show. Going to create a complex character here.
— Jackie Clarke (@jackieclarke) September 29, 2016
The sitcom plot angered women rights’ group Gabriela USA. On Thursday, it created a petition to halt the screening of “Mail Order Family,” asserting that exploitation of women was not “entertainment.”
“Mail order brides are victims of human trafficking as they are forced into sex slavery and domestic servitude. Mail order brides are vulnerable to violence because of the fundamentally unequal nature and imbalance of power where money is exchanged for an arranged marriage,” the statement read.
“Filipino women and women everywhere have the right to raise their standard of living for themselves and their families and be free from exploitation and violence.”
READ: ‘Superstore’ features the first undocumented Filipino immigrant character
Meanwhile, in Clarke’s “Superstore,” Fil-Am actor Nico Santos played the role of Mateo, a grocery employee who found out that he was “not a real US citizen” after he claimed a counterfeit green card. Gianna Francesca Catolico
