ABSTRACT
Objective
This study examines power and status, as constructed by producers on the reality television show 90 Day Fiancé, that comes from being a US citizen on the international marriage market. We investigate what show producers present each partner as offering the other and what this suggests about gender and power in cross-national relationships.
Background
Previous research on assortative mating and status exchange considers how individuals choose partners. Findings on how US women may use various types of capital on the international marriage market is scant.
Methods
Using content analysis and grounded theory, we analyze five seasons of The Learning Channel’s 90 Day Fiancé. We analyze how producers socially construct gendered narratives about status and capital related to degrees of homogamy.
Results
Three main types of couples emerge from this analysis: “Two of a Kind,” “Fair Trade,” and “Uneven Exchange.” Unlike prior status exchange research in which women seem to trade on youth and erotic capital, women on the show who are in increasingly heterogeneous relationships are depicted as trading US citizenship for erotic capital.
Conclusions
Our findings indicate that when American women on 90 Day Fiancé pair with foreign men, they may be constructed by producers as using citizenship capital to create a “pull” force for foreign men.
Implications
Examining citizenship capital as a potential resource for US women provides a new perspective on family formation and power differentials. Insights will provide policymakers, demographers, and family scholars substantive understanding of ways marriage migration is socially constructed in the United States.