Bahia’s Public Ministry launched a preliminary investigation to investigate complaints against American influencer Auston Holleman, who released a series of videos earlier this year targeting Brazilian women on the streets of Salvador. According to the complainants, the YouTuber in the recordings asks women in Brazil questions of a sexual nature and uses the images out of context to convey the idea that it is easy to get sex in the country.
Last week, Embratur called federal police to request an investigation into American trainers from the Millionaire Social Circle group, which promotes a women’s conquest course and recently came to São Paulo.
Holleman has a YouTube channel and claims to be a “passport brother” who travels the world — the term is used on social media by men, who mostly claim they’re looking for more “traditional” women abroad. Most Passbros are Americans who share travel tips and information about women from other countries.
The complaint began after architect and presenter Stephanie Ribeiro collected multiple posts on Twitter and videos on YouTube. The public prosecutor’s office initiated a preliminary procedure called “fact decision” and some victims were heard. The next step can be to open a request.
In January of this year, Holleman was in Brazil. After passing through Salvador, four women filed charges against him. The influencer is under investigation for allegedly using images of himself to promote sex tourism in Brazil. In his videos he shows women in bikinis, asks about sexual topics and says at the end, looking into the camera: “take your passport away”.
The women claim they were approached on the street and that the answers to Holleman’s questions were taken out of context. Victims say they found videos on social media with captions like “Do you want to date her? It only costs 10 to 20 US dollars” (something between 50 and 20 R$ 100).
One of the whistleblowers is veterinary student Julia Leitte, 25, who was on the beach with other friends. She claims that after answering a few questions, she noticed that the influencer changed the subject when asking for the name of his channel.
It wasn’t until the video aired that she saw the sexist content Holleman was producing, like a post saying Brazilian women sell themselves for a pint of beer. “I was embarrassed but a little calmer because the questions I was asked were not small,” she says.
Another woman who is also embarrassed by the recorded content but hasn’t officially denounced Holleman is college student Julia Soares, 19. According to her reports, he asked her if she’d rather have a “bad boy with good sex or a nice guy.” with money”.
“I didn’t imagine that. I didn’t allow him to film me and post me on social media,” he says.
Following the negative impact earlier this year, Holleman deleted several videos featuring content produced in Brazil a Sheet had access to some of them. In one of those videos, he said that Brazilian women are “extremely easy.” “If you’re a man and haven’t had sex in Brazil for a long time, there must be a problem with you,” Holleman said.
After the criticism, the Youtuber said he was misunderstood.
“I shouldn’t have said that women in Brazil are easy. What I meant was that wellmannered and welldressed men would have it easy compared to my homeland,” he said. “I want to apologize for posting these videos and not knowing some aspects of Brazilian culture,” he said.
A Sheet tried to contact Holleman via social media but the influencer didn’t respond.
However, he continues to produce videos promoting tourism to other countries in search of women. In one of them, the YouTuber claims that there are many rich men in Sweden and therefore a rich American would be just one more, while a man with this profile would have an easy time with women in Ethiopia.
Who are the “Pass Brothers”
In misogynist posts, men who use the term “Passport Bros” to promote travel claim that American women have been influenced by societal pressures to behave “nontraditionally.” That is why they seek foreign women in search of a more authentic and harmonious relationship, as they say.
The group’s areas of interest are mainly in underdeveloped countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Brazil. It’s still common to dismiss feminists, claiming that they seek women with “more feminine energy”.
Accounts that use the name or hashtag “Passport Bros” on social media include descriptions such as “only date and marry foreign women.” One of them reports that he married a Thai woman who could cook and clean because such a profile would be impossible to find in the United States.
Another named Vibing With Fred posted a video on YouTube this Saturday (18) telling his followers that it is not possible to find Brazilian women for marriage and that it is best to follow this “traditional” Profile seek in Asian countries like Thailand.
“Is it possible to find a real woman in Brazil? The answer is no. They just want to have sex and have fun. You’re more likely to find women [para casamento] in Asian countries than in Brazil,” he says.
Architect and presenter Stephanie Ribeiro, who has collected several posts on the subject, notes that the socalled “Passport Bros” make videos as if they only want to give information about Brazil and hide the real destination. “But these videos are for a male audience, and that audience is commenting on women’s issues,” she says.
Speaking out about the “passbros” on social media, Stephanie drew criticism from supporters of the alleged movement. For her, the situation shows that sex tourism is on the rise in Brazil, with one complicating factor: “People are using TikTok, Telegram, Instagram and Facebook to encourage these discourses”.
Ribeiro analyzes the need for an awareness campaign for Brazilian women. “The problem isn’t dating foreigners, it’s dating those who have that predatory profile. There is a need to educate women on how to recognize the predatory attitude,” he says.
The Ministry of Tourism notes in a notice that socalled sex tourism is not a tourism segment, but a criminal offense that must be reported to the relevant authorities (e.g. police stations, Ministry of Human Rights and guardianship councils).
“The Ministry of Tourism rejects the practice and encourages workers in the tourism sector to denounce suspicious attitudes related to the sexual exploitation of children and young people through the Code of Conduct project,” the agency said.