Don’t date you with men. not having sex with men. Don’t get married with men. no children with men. These four premises support the phenomenon 4Ba South Korean feminist movement that advocates radical renunciation of men.
Until a few days ago, almost no one had heard of him, but a few hours after meeting him Donald Trump’s victory On November 5, internet searches on this trend they were shot in the United States, as can be seen in Google Trends. Social media is also starting to fill up with testimonials from women championing the cause, some even offering a radical haircut as a sign of commitment.
“Building my ideal body that no man will touch in the next four years,” one TikTok user wrote in a video that has already racked up more than 1.2 million views. “I’m leaving America“, said another while shaving her head. “Contributing as an American by breaking up with my Republican boyfriend and officially joining the 4B movement,” confessed another tiktoker.
And for many women, the US elections were also a referendum on women’s rights and their results were a failure. Not only because three of the ten states that on that day they were organizing votes on abortion in parallel, they decided to maintain restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, but because the winner of the elections, convicted of sexual abuse and accused of rape, is more than known for its misogynistic language and sexist insults.
Additionally, with the appointment of three justices, Trump played a significant role in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the decision in the summer of 2022. Deer vs. Wade which enshrines the constitutional right to abortion and which allowed several states to ban this practice to different degrees.
@realityreelclips Many women have announced they are joining the 4B movement, which encourages women to reject traditional roles and relationships with men, due to the US election results. #4b #4bmovement #4bmovementusa #news #presidentialelection #womenempowerment #womenssafety #womensupportingwomen ♬ LABOR – the cacophony – Paris Paloma
In response to the Republican victory, many progressive women in the United States turned to this feminist movement to regain your autonomy. “Young men expect to have sex, but they also want us to not have access to abortion. They can’t have both,” one follower explained to New York Times. “It’s time to take care of ourselves,” she added.
“We humbled ourselves and begged for safety from men and did everything we were supposed to do, and they still hate us. So we’re going to do what we want,” Ashlin Pollard, a 36-year-old woman, told the channel. cnn. For some people, it’s not just about refusing contact with men, but also about supporting other women, buying from their businesses, or cultivating female friendships.
Today, it’s unclear how many people actually support the movement, and experts aren’t very optimistic about its roots in the United States. As explained has The New York Times Katharine Moon, a professor at Wellesley College and an expert on women’s movements in East Asia, is unlikely to receive a very good reception in the United States. “It’s a temporary way to get attention on the precarious situation of women, with Trump and his coming to power,” she explained. “In South Korea, on the other hand, it’s a lifestyle,” she added.
Demonstration against inequality
The name 4B comes from of four South Korean words that start with “bi”, which means “no”: bihon (not at the wedding), bichulsan (not at childbirth), biyeonae (no meetings) and bisekseu (not gender). This is why this movement is also known as “4 no”. Its origin is, however, diffuse, since there are those who place it in 2010 and others in 2019, but the truth is that it was born in a time of transformation in the Asian country.
During this decade, Seoul, despite being one of the most developed economies in the world, had one of the largest wage gaps among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Additionally, in 2016, a woman was murdered near a metro station in the country’s capital by a man who said “feeling ignored by women”. The episode sparked a wave of national outrage and pushed more women to join the 4B movement to protest inequality and gender-based violence.
