Donald Trump’s election win has some American women turning to a fringe South Korean feminist movement known as 4B.
In the days since the president-elect declared victory and three key abortion rights referendums failed, social media and Google searches related to 4B have surged in the United States as young American women consider refusing to interact romantically or sexually with men.
These women are reportedly enraged by the majority of their male counterparts voting for Trump, who was found liable for sexual abuse, faces multiple sexual assault allegations, and created a path for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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The 4B movement, which began in the 2010s, stands for the Korean words “bihon,” “bichulsan,” “biyeonae” and “bisekseu,” meaning no marriage, no childbirth, no dating and no sex with men. In 2019, 4B gained momentum in South Korea as the nation’s women reckoned with longstanding gender rights disparities in the country.
South Korean women are paid approximately one-third less than men, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. And, even though the country has one of the world’s most advanced economies, women are few and far between in senior and managerial roles.
For women in the U.S., the 4B movement centers heavily around individual resistance against a conservative political sphere and the dismantling of reproductive rights. These main points of issue are coupled with online misogyny touted by the manosphere and incel culture.
“We have pandered and begged for men’s safety and done all the things that we were supposed to, and they still hate us,” Ashli Pollard, 36, told CNN. “So if you’re going to hate us, then we’re going to do what we want.”
Other women like Jada Mevs, 25, said it was all about taking the power back.
“If we can’t control what they do in terms of legislation and abortion rights, we have to do something for ourselves,” she told The New York Times. “Starting with cutting out the male influence in our life, and making sure we’re taking the safety precautions as well, visiting OB-GYNs and making sure we are best prepared for when January comes and the years after that.”
Mevs’ sentiment was echoed by Michaela Thomas, 21, who said she first heard of the 4B movement about a year ago.
“Young men expect sex, but they also want us to not be able to have access to abortion,” Thomas told The Washington Post. “They can’t have both. Young women don’t want to be intimate with men who don’t fight for women’s rights; it’s showing they don’t respect us.”
The decision to join the 4B movement, however, has not come without consequences. Having broken up with her boyfriend over his dismissive response to Trump’s history of sexual abuse, Abby K., a 27-year-old from Florida, told CNN she posted a video about her decision to join the 4B movement. The video, she said, prompted men to spam her DMs with death threats, insults, and hate comments.
While the popularity of the 4B movement remains unknown, critics say it is unlikely to become mainstream. They point to the fact that 52% of white women voters cast their ballots for Trump.
Regardless, Abby K. said “I could definitely see it fueling change in some way.”
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