NBC stopped the development of their new comedy show "Mail Order Bride" after it was strongly criticized online due to its story plot which suggests racial women stereotypes and human trafficking.
According to Huffington Post, the show has been cancelled only three days after it was reported that the station has bought the comedy series. "Mail Order Bride" is about a widowed father who sought a Filipina mail-order bride to help raise his daughters.
The story based on executive producer and writer Jackie Clarke's family life has drawn the ire critics and activists who turned to social media to call out the show "for making light of human trafficking and racial stereotyping of Asian women".
An NBC spokesperson released a statement on NBC News in response to the backlash the network received. "We purchased the pitch with the understanding that it would tell the creator's real-life experience of being raised by a strong Filipina stepmother after the loss of her own mother. The writer and producers have taken the sensitivity to the initial concept to heart and have chosen not to move forward with the project at this time."
In addition, Clarke responded to a critic on Twitter last Thursday, "hoping to make the stepmom a fully realized strong activated character. Only so much complexity from a press [releases]," Huffington Post reported.
Advocacy group Gabriela USA had organized an online petition, led by Irma Salvatierra Bajar and posted last Sept. 29, to address sensitive issues raised by half-hour comedy show "Mail Order Bride".
The petition said, "The mail order bride industry exploits and trafficks women who are economically disadvantaged and living in poverty. Filipino women make up one of the largest segments of mail-order brides in the world. Due to an economy ravaged by U.S. imperialist economic policies dictated upon the Philippines, Filipino women lack employment opportunities in the country and are forced to leave their homeland to support themselves and their families.
It continued, "Many 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 online petition has received around 13, 200 signatures as of this writing.
Click on the video below to watch a report by The Filipino Channel on NBC's "Mail Order Bride".