# Whats the appeal of Filipina women? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 13, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623 "2012-09-13T19:05:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/21 "2012-09-14T01:12:00Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Or you could just tell us? Or you can just google it with safe search off like I did. Lots of porn of Asian women. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/22 "2012-09-14T01:13:20Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Or you could just tell us? From google it seems it means “little brown fucking machine”. Stay classy whoever came up with that. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/23 "2012-09-14T01:19:38Z")
You guys seriously never heard of LBFM? Have you never read any Vietnam histories? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/24 "2012-09-14T01:24:12Z")
Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/25 "2012-09-14T01:25:17Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > You guys seriously never heard of LBFM? > > Have you never read any Vietnam histories? No, and no. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/26 "2012-09-14T01:48:12Z")
Maybe Filipina women like certain types of white guys too?? My senior citizen neighbor told me that lots of Filipina women go to hang out at the VFW halls and places like that. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/27 "2012-09-14T01:48:29Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#): > > Not generally. > > And certainly not the ones that most foreigners end up being with. Old foreigners invariably hook up with the ugly ones. I’ve known some slimy guys, and I’ve heard people state a distinct preference for homely partners when they are looking for an unequal relationship with foreign women. People with low self-esteem have lower expectations. It makes for less competition and fewer hassles (assuming that you don’t plan to talk to her much or concern yourself much with her mental well-being.) Gorgeous women usually learn how to make their own way in life. A woman who has been beaten down and feels she is worthless is more likely to take what what she gets, desperately trying to please even when she is treated poorly. (Note: I don’t think all cross-cultural or even mail-order bride relationships are like this. Indeed, I think the whole “oppressed mail order bride” meme is way too simplistic.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/28 "2012-09-14T01:55:32Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > As far as I know, there is no other Asian nation where English is an official language. Try Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, [and](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Anglospeak.svg/2000px-Anglospeak.svg.png) Singapore. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/29 "2012-09-14T02:07:32Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > 1. Immigration is fairly easy between the US and the Philippines, so it isn’t as hard to get a Filipina over here legally as it is, say, a Mexican woman. Good point–try marrying a Canadian girl and see where you each end up living. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/30 "2012-09-14T02:09:53Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Try Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, [and](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Anglospeak.svg/2000px-Anglospeak.svg.png) Singapore. Malaysia and Singapore are affluent nations where the women are less likely to be looking for a way out. The others are mostly not Christian. Different religions would make it less likely for the Western men to want to marry the women, or for the women to want to marry them (or for their families to allow it). The Phillipines is VERY westernised compared to most countries in Asia, but much poorer than other countries like Malaysia. The level of English proficiency across those countries differs a lot too, though I’m only going on personal experience rather than actual data. Just because a language is one of the official languages doesn’t mean that everybody speaks it proficiently, especially the poor. In the UK, at least, people from those countries often have other routes into the UK rather than marrying some old bloke, because of the Commonwealth, which the Phillipines isn’t in. Two of my step-mum’s sisters married older men in the US, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/31 "2012-09-14T02:11:55Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > You guys seriously never heard of LBFM? > > Have you never read any Vietnam histories? I have to add two nos to this too, just because I’m surprised that you think this is so universal. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/32 "2012-09-14T02:26:24Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Maybe Filipina women like certain types of white guys too?? My senior citizen neighbor told me that lots of Filipina women go to hang out at the VFW halls and places like that. My evil little mind translated “senior VFW=likely to kick the bucket sooner”. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/33 "2012-09-14T02:36:35Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > My evil little mind translated “senior VFW=likely to kick the bucket sooner”. Now that the cat’s out of the bag… there is nothing stopping you from elbowing the Filipinas out of the way and doing the same thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/34 "2012-09-14T02:47:04Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > You guys seriously never heard of LBFM? > > Have you never read any Vietnam histories? I think I’ve only come across the term in the book _Jarhead_. Apparently, (according to the book, so I can’t verify) the U.S. Marine Corps uses its Philippine bases as an R&R center with the expectation that there will be plentiful amounts of local prostitutes for the soldiers. The memoir was set during the first Gulf War, so it’s not like it’s only a Vietnam-era thing. I have only a hazy recollection, but in the book _Matterhorn_, a novel set during the Vietnam War, I believe the black American soldiers were depicted as wanting to go to Thailand for the Thai prostitutes, and the white soldiers wanted to go to Japan. I might have mixed those up, though. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/35 "2012-09-14T02:51:59Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Now that the cat’s out of the bag… there is nothing stopping you from elbowing the Filipinas out of the way and doing the same thing. 🙂 Eh, I’ve already got a husband all broken in and everything. Got him trained to give me Godiva chocolates several times a year, and to browse my Amazon wish list. I’d NEVER get another guy trained like this. And, for the record, the training goes both ways…I know EXACTLY how he likes his chicken fried steak, and his pasta, and his pork chops, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/36 "2012-09-14T11:20:44Z")
I was in the Philippines while in the navy in 1987. This was the same deployment that inspired Robert Clark Young’s novel [One of the Guys](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_the_Guys). Mr. Clark was a civilian teacher onboard, helping sailors and Marines earn their GEDs. For a lot of reasons, I personally remained celibate during my time there: I had been raised to think that guys who jacked off or paid for whores were loser who couldn’t get laid; I was faithful to my girlfriend back in Hawaii (_way_ better looking than I deserved, and who’d been a little girl in Vietnam during the war and, knowing the score, had granted me carte blanche. Intended or not, that put a chip on my shoulder that kept me faithful); Filipinas are short and less developed which triggered my anti-pedo inhibitions; I was revolted by the First World sexual exploitation of the Third World (but was smart enough to keep my Marxist thoughts to myself), etc. etc. But mostly it was because I was 27 and had already been married and divorced. The average sailor or Marine on his sacred rut-quest was 19. The attraction for these guys was this: “they’ll fuck your brains out!” As a 27 year old, I’d already learned that most women will “fuck your brains out,” for the first few weeks of the relationship. But these were the young guys whom American society values slightly better than its incarcerated subpopulation. If they’d been able to go to college or get good jobs out of high school, they wouldn’t be in uniform. By that same token, by American society’s standards they didn’t merit girlfriends, either. Navy recruiters actually used the lure of plentiful and exotic sex to get them to sign up; as they’d done for centuries. So while most of them weren’t virgins, they’d never really been enthusiastically loved by a woman. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/37 "2012-09-14T11:32:15Z")
I was on some immigration forums and I used to wonder what was the deal with the large amount of posters specifically dealing with the Philippines, the husband was always American too. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/38 "2012-09-14T11:40:29Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > (Note: I don’t think all cross-cultural or even mail-order bride relationships are like this. Indeed, I think the whole “oppressed mail order bride” meme is way too simplistic.) No shit, the stereotypes in this thread are running wild even(wants a wife that doesn’t fluently speak english to feel superior?!) and I’ve become convinced some people think any foreign spouse aside from maybe Canadians are mail order wives/husbands. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/39 "2012-09-14T12:46:52Z")
Who’s to say that many of these young women did not— upon seeing a fat, sweaty, balding, sunburnt middle-aged foreigner loudly complaining about his food being too spicy— simply feel the natural stirring of desire in their loins? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623/40 "2012-09-14T12:51:16Z")
Older guy gets female companionship, good cooking sex, etc. Filipina gets lifted out of poverty, better life, and a nice estate when the old man croaks. Sounds like a good deal for all concerned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-filipina-women/634623.md?page=3)