NEW DELHI, Nov 9: In an interesting development, many women in the United States are learnt to be joining the “4B Movement” as a fallout of Donald Trump’s victory in the Presidential elections.
Many women have not liked Trump’s victory and they blame it on the men. They feel that most of the men voted for Trump to defeat a woman rival Kamala Harris and want to take a revenge of sort on their male counterparts.
The “4B Movement” which was born in South Korea means that the women volunteers would take vow of “no sex, no relationships, no marriage and no giving birth” as revenge and a way of protest. The 4B movement originated in South Korea, and has been trending in the US amid the meltdown over Trump sweeping the 2024 presidential election.
The Democratic camp of Kamala Harris had painted an anti-feminist image of Trump. Several American women have posted videos where they can be seen teary-eyed about a Trump win. Now, they are taking to the 4B movement.
The name 4B comes from 4 nos and B is a shorthand for no in Korean. This movement came to South Korea after the MeToo and ‘escape the corset’ movements. The 4B movement was no passing fad in South Korea and its impact on Korean society has been noticeable.
In 2021, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had said such movements were “blocking healthy relationships” between women and men in South Korea. South Korea has seen a declining birth rate and the 4B movement has some role in it, the researchers believe.
Now, women in the US are taking to it. “Women started thinking about how the government and the state and the men are failing them,” some outspoken women’s leaders said. This was after many women had hoped for a Kamala Harris to win the US elections which would protect their reproductive rights.
“4B is a female liberation movement surrounding the protection of our reproductive system [from the historically oppressive male. It has no room for male-centred females, especially those who are insistent on prioritizing feminine males’ feelings over female liberation,” wrote a woman.
The search rate for 4B movement in the US is also increasing. “Search interest in the 4B movement, a radical feminist movement that started in South Korea where women swear off marriage, sex and childbirth with men, has skyrocketed today,” posted a user on X.
The women in the US think that they were left unheard in the elections. “After this election — where women were pretty much told to their faces that no one gives a shit about them — don’t forget, ladies, we do have power. And you know the kind of power I’m talking about. Giving up our bodies to men is a choice. We don’t have to do this,” she added.
In South Korea, the movement came after the MeToo movement. This also came after the escape of the corset movement, which involved women dressing androgynously. They cut their hair short and even shaved their heads.
The 4B movement states that it has 4,000 followers. South Korean society adheres to strict gender norms and assigned beauty standards. The major inflexion point was when two women were accused of spreading the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus) epidemic through a smear campaign in South Korea.
They were called “selfish” and “flighty.” This is the time women started gathering and saying they want to adhere to 4B. In 2018, protests increased in Seoul and across South Korea, after a woman was imprisoned when she photographed a nude male model in her art class after he refused to cover his genitals.
This was done to shame him but protests erupted after that. While the movement led to a widespread impact in South Korea, it is now also spreading across the US. “We can’t let these men have the last laugh, we need to bite back,” said a woman on X. The rise of the 4B movement in the US could be an extension of the bitter battle of the exes witnessed during the presidential election campaign. The impact on the American society will be known later but for now the American women have taken Trump’s victory personally and are taking it out on male voters.
(Manas Dasgupta)