ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an empirical examination of how Filipina women construct their intimate relationships with US military men, and compares marriage migrants with those 'left behind' when the US military withdrew from their permanent bases in the Philippines. It situates the case in theories on interracial love and marriage. Some scholars use the number of interracial marriages in a society as a signal of assimilation and racial harmony, while others document how different types of interracial relationships have been regulated and/or subject to opposition from families and outsiders. The chapter uses Goffman's concept of stigma as a discredited or discrediting attribute that emerges out of interactions to focus on relationships where love is stigmatized by outsiders. It shows how Filipina women draw on love myths to frame their relationships and draws symbolic boundaries around their own relationship and others that may seem similar. The chapter discusses Swidler's analytic lens of culture and the literature on boundary-making.
