Passport Bros: Autonomy and Authority in Contemporary Romance Search?

 Passport Bros: Autonomy and Authority in Contemporary Romance Search? 

Source: “HOME | Passport Bros LLC - Helping and Inspiring Men Worldwide.” 2023. From the Official Passport Bros LLC. Retrieved April 18, 2025 (https://www.theofficialpassportbros.com/).

The given image is a screenshot from the official homepage of Passport Bros LLC, a company that started the movement encouraging men from the Global North, the so-called “Passport Bros,” to seek romantic partners from the Global South, particularly from Southeast Asian and Latin American countries. Although the image seems visually excessive, it effectively presents the movement’s core ideological themes. On the left, the movement displays images of smiling women categorized by their nationality, such as PinaDate (Philippines), MalaysianCupid (Malaysia), and VietnamCupid (Vietnam). The company thus offers what appears to be a literal marketplace for finding potential female partners. The company chooses images of women with natural-looking makeup in soft lighting and pastel tones to suggest a sense of femininity, approachability, and vulnerability coming from the displayed women. In the center, a weary-looking man looks down at his laptop keyboard, hand pressed to his forehead as if he is burdened by emotional or financial stress. This visual symbolizes the stress many Passport Bros feel within Western dating culture and implies that what they need right now is a trip to the Global South, where the costs of living and dating are less stressful. On the right is a lineup of well-dressed men in tailored suits named “Types of Passport Bros.” These men stand confidently in what appears to be a theater, posing as if they are fashion models. The three images together creates a branding narrative for the Passport Bros movement: any problem you have as a straight man looking for romance and love in the Global North (center), we can help you find foreign women from the Global South to help with those problems (left); and you can become a confident, fashionable Passport Bro too (right).  

In Authority and Autonomy in Marriage, Marianne Weber traces the development of marriage as an institution historically rooted in male authority over women, rather than mutual partnership. She argues that, initially, “marriage completely maintained the character of a relation of ownership,” as it involved material arrangements such as dowries for the woman’s family and inheritance for the “legitimate heirs” (Bermingham 2003:86-87). Although the Greeks and Romans introduced legal monogamy, they did little to challenge the power dynamic between men and women. While men were free to take on lovers, “the commandment of marital fidelity was imposed... only on the woman” (2003:87). Weber further shows how Christianity and Kantian views upheld patriarchal authority by declaring women “originally equals” (2003:90), only to justify their subordination to men. For Weber, the true ethical goal of marriage is to recognize women as morally autonomous agents: “it is just as immoral for [a woman], too, to bend to a foreign will against her own conscience” (2003:90). Without such recognition, marriage not only suppresses women’s self-reliance and intellectual development but also confines them to domestic labor: the “wife who is subordinated remains ‘subordinated’ in the totality of her being: almost a child... fixed in her interests on the purely personal and trifling” (2003:93).  

Passport Bros movement seems to reinforce the same patriarchal marital ideas that Weber critiqued. While the movement presents itself as a liberatory alternative to hostile Western dating culture (Passport Bros 2023), its underlying ideology reflects the same structure Weber identified as marriage’s initial form: “a relation of ownership.” In these transnational relationships, men often seek foreign partners not as equals, but as comforting companions who fulfill emotional and domestic needs in exchange for material stability, whether in the form of financial support, remittances, visas, or other forms of assistance (CNA Insider 2024). Much like how dowries and legitimate heirs historically signified marital value, Passport Bros frame relationships as materially structured exchanges in which men provide financial means and women offer care (CNA Insider 2024). Although this structure may be beneficial for some couples, it aligns with Weber’s concern that “[the woman] cares for [her man] in their everyday life, but she has absolutely no problems, no complementing ideas or impulses, no intellectual stimulations to offer him” (Bermingham 2003:93).

Furthermore, Passport Bros claim their female partners are traditional and submissive by choice (Passport Bros 2023). Weber held that “voluntary subordination” is praiseworthy, but can only occur when women have the conscience to choose it (Bermingham 2003:93). At first glance, the relationship between Passport Bros and their partners may seem entirely coercive or exploitative, leaving little or no room for voluntary subordination. However, it is important to acknowledge that many women in these arrangements believe they do exercise autonomy (CNA Insider 2024). Being local residents with established social networks and linguistic fluency, the women possess certain forms of agency and autonomy within their own cultural context. One interviewed female participant in CNA Insider’s documentary exemplifies this point, stating that “Asian women these days, we become sophisticated, become self-reliant… we can choose [our men].” Moreover, framing Global South women in these relationships as wholly vulnerable victims may inadvertently reinforce a colonial hierarchy, one that imagines Western femininity as enlightened and Eastern femininity as docile (CNA Insider 2024). Passport Bros then may view the former as out of league and the latter as something affordable and under their control. Thus, without autonomy on both sides, for the women and for the men engaging in Passport Bros, romance and love risk becoming matters of convenience, and marriage becomes a structured pattern of compelled subordination. 

Bermingham, Craig R. 2003. “Authority and Autonomy in Marriage: Translation with Introduction and 

Commentary.” Sociological Theory 21(2):85-102.  

CNA Insider. 2024. “Why These American Men Are Seeking Love In Asia: The Rise Of Passport Bros | 

Insight.” Youtube. Retrieved April 18, 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv9jDoaJmYA). 

“HOME | Passport Bros LLC - Helping and Inspiring Men Worldwide.” 2023. From the Official  

            Passport Bros LLC. Retrieved April 18, 2025 (https://www.theofficialpassportbros.com/).