After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, the 4B movement started gaining attention on American social media. Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 18 different women and was found guilty in one case.
The 4B movement started in South Korea in 2016 after courts pardoned the murderer of a 28-year-old woman, citing schizophrenia, despite the murderer’s publicly admitted claim that his motive was misogyny.
The acronym 4B originates from the Korean word “bi,” meaning not to do. The four no’s are to childbirth, marriage, sex and dating men. In Korea, the movement’s goal is to end femicide and injustices towards women in a patriarchal and often hierarchical society. However, the movement has mainly stayed on social media spaces like TikTok, Instagram and Reddit.
The 4B movement also opposes online figures such as Andrew Tate, who has modeled his business around promoting toxic masculinity to young men and encouraging the mistreatment of women.
“The rise of the Andrew Tate-esque people. That was kind of the internet’s reaction to women saying ‘We don’t like being sexually harassed,’” history and former Women and Gender studies teacher Brittany Kim (she/her) said.
The movement has joined other online feminist movements in South Korea, most notably being seen in Megalia, an online radical feminist movement that turns misogynist ideology back onto men.
“4B started on the internet in South Korea, and it was women just airing frustrations because Korea is a patriarchal society, and women are really tired of domestic violence and of the sexual assault rates,” Kim said.
According to the National Institute of Health, 21.3% of adult women in South Korea have experienced sexual assault. In the U.S., 24.8% of adult women have experienced sexual assault, according to the National Sexual Violence Center.
The effectiveness of 4B is highly debated, as some view it as a direct opposition to issues in the U.S. that originated from gender inequality and injustice.
Some opponents of 4B have criticised its adoption into the Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist movement, which is committed to achieving the goals of radical feminism. The TERF movement excludes transgender women from their movement, and makes it a goal to set back the progression of trans rights.
“I think (the TERF movement adopting 4B) is misguided because 4B isn’t about rejecting men; it’s about rejecting these social things that you’re expected to do,” Kim said.
Other opponents argue that it would harm the U.S. birthrate, traditional gender roles and overall unity among women. Supporters believe that the added pressure would achieve progress for women in the U.S.
“I think what it would look like in the U.S. is a lot more chosen family. We might see a lot more women-only spaces,” Kim said.
