In South Korea, groups of women across the nation have come together to fight the mass misogyny and mistreatment of women in their society.
According to Harmeet Kaur of CNN, this resistance is known as the 4B or 4 Nos Movement. 4B is shorthand for the four Korean words bihon bichulsan biyeonae and bisekseu, which translate to no marriage, no childbirth, no dating, and no sex with men. The movement focuses on maintaining exactly those four statements, and it seems American women, as Kaur reports, are beginning to agree.
On May 17, 2016, a woman was brutally killed near Gangnam subway station in Seoul. The thirty-five-year-old murderer reported that he did it because he “felt ignored by women,” reported the Hankyoreh Newspaper. This incident caused nationwide outrage and sparked more intense conversations about the mistreatment of women in South Korea, which helped spawn the establishment of 4B.
The women in South Korea feel that they have been pushed to the brink, and this movement is their way of trying to regain control. “The current government’s initiatives are not designed for women – it is for men” said Jung Se-young, one of the notable founders of the 4B Movement.
The actions taken by women of the movement have begun to inspire the feminists of America to also ponder if cutting off all connection and interactions with men is the next step. In light of Donald Trump’s recent presidential election win, liberal women on TikTok and Instagram in the U.S. have started sharing and discussing the details of the 4B movement more regularly and pointedly.
Fueled by the former and future president’s stance on abortion, and the past charges of sexual abuse he has faced, American women say they are enraged and fed up with systemic mistreatment of women in America.“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, a Boston resident, told CNN’s Kaur, when asked about her thoughts on the movement.
Twenty-six year old Alexa Vargas also told Kaur that she “stopped engaging with men a few years ago” after a series of unhealthy and toxic relationships. It wasn’t until earlier this year that she realized there was a movement and language that aligned with her actions.
Women in the US have also taken to TikTok to report they have either recently started considering the movement or have already begun to distance themselves from men and then found out later that the 4B Movement aligned with some of their views. TikTok users like @prnxessd and @faithh_fae took to the app to share their disappointments after the election results were released and posted videos with the captions “oh yeah, i’m all for the 4B MOVEMENT” and “The 4b Movement is calling my name.”
Realistically, the 4B Movement remains a relatively niche development, with only about 4,000 South Korean women fully dedicated to its values. So while many empathize with its motivations, its scalability is often brought into question.
Some with these opinions have also used Tiktok as their main communicator. One user -@ayitskyra stated they already knew its development in the US was “performative, won’t work, and people won’t commit.” Additional posts say things like they don’t believe 4B is likely to grow to be very large in the west either. Scott Anthony, a proud republican, says 4B would be “ridiculous” to bring to the US and simply “it will not work.”
Some female Korean residents even feel that American women might have the wrong idea about the movement as a whole. “I understand where all the anger comes from, but I don’t think avoiding all relationships with men is the solution, ” Seoul office worker Lee Min-ji told CNN.
Others American women, like Florida resident Hadia Khanani, also told CNN that she believes that the problem lies deeper. “I think a lot of it is rooted in the way that men are raised in society,” she says.
As American women navigate fears they have surrounding a second Trump presidency, they are seeking ways to feel secure and safe. While the 4B Movement resonates with some, it might not be the most practical solution for addressing patriarchal structures. Real change might need a mix of personal choices, community action, and policy changes. Whether the 4B Movement helps or hurts that progress is up to each person to decide.
