Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election has left many women in the country feeling disillusioned amid the real danger over their bodily rights. Men from all racial groups overwhelmingly voted for Trump – a convicted felon and a rapist – in an election to which Democrats tried to make a referendum on reproductive rights. Frustrated over this calamitous defeat, young American women are resorting to a radical cultural trend of boycotting men as the 4B movement is getting quite a reception on the internet.
Frustrated over this calamitous defeat, young American women are resorting to a radical cultural trend of boycotting men as the 4B movement is getting quite a reception on the internet.
Social media posts about the South Korean 4B movement have surged in the US with Google searches spiking after the US presidential election. Many American young women are taking the vow to follow on the lines of 4B movement of South Korea, a radical feminist movement that has its roots in 2019. In Korean, ‘bi’ means ‘Not’ and hence a movement of 4 Nos. A woman following the 4B stops dating men (biyeonae), having no sexual relationships with men (bisekseu), no heterosexual marriage (bihon) and no childbirth (bichulsan).
The 4B movement was popularised by young Korean women to break through the disadvantages and harm of the conventional gender roles. Adherents of the movement believe that by renouncing dating, marriage, having sex or having children with men – they boycott and tear down, rather forcefully, a system they feel is the foundation of patriarchal control and which perpetuates male dominance.
Deep rooted sexism and misogyny among male voters triggers 4B movement
American women are feeling helpless as yet another female candidate has lost the presidential race and that too to a sexual offender. One of the primary reasons for this defeat is deep rooted sexism and misogyny in American society, especially prevailing among men. A number of young women are calling to embrace 4Bs on their social media handles. One user expressed her disappointment and disapproval over the election results on Tiktok, ‘It’s time for American women to participate in our own 4B movement. If men don’t respect our bodies, they don’t get access to our bodies.‘
Once it was clear that Kamala Harris has lost the presidential race against a nominee who has been accused of rape, many progressive Americans could not help but thinking that the majority of this country would rather choose anyone as their President even a rapist and criminal, but a woman. Clearly this sense of disenchantment is what triggered many women to call for 4B to be followed and it has seen a huge jump on social media trends in the US within the hours of Trump’s win.
For some, resorting to the 4B movement as a response to an election defeat is too radical a response.
For some, resorting to the 4B movement as a response to an election defeat is too radical a response. However, the fast growing interest of Americans in the ‘Bihon’ principle is clearly a marker of the collective frustration over the rollback of women’s rights and freedoms, particularly over the dangerous shift of male voters towards an extremist ideology like MAGA.
Far right’s intimidating ‘your body, my choice‘ speaks of what is to come
How sexism played out in the 2024 election can be seen in the way influential far right posts on social media are glorifying the misogyny and cheering the non-consensual nature of taking away the abortion rights or even rape when it comes to that. Intimidating posts with the hashtag ‘Your Body My Choice‘ are trending on social media. Trumpian cheerleader Nicholas Fuentes, a white nationalist — whom Trump even invited for a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022 — tweeted, ‘Your body, my choice. Forever.‘
One tweet from a social media account of Jon Miller saying ‘women threatening sex strikes like LMAO as if you have a say,‘ recieved over 50 million views, and had to be labelled with a community note that ‘sex without a say (consent) is rape‘. Social media has since seen an increase in such infuriating posts and scores of men commenting this phrase on women’s TikTok posts. These tweets from far-right men with large social media followings are a warning about what is to come and have hence intensified the 4B vows among women.
Donald Trump’s bragging on his appointments of judges to the US Supreme Court that led to the overturning of Roe v Wade – ending the nationwide protection of abortion rights and resulting in the criminalisation of abortion in multiple US states – caused panic among women voters on campaign trail about what could happen if Trump gets a second term. Saving their reproductive rights became the rallying cry for many women as many of them turned up to vote.
Even in as many as 10 states the right to abortion was on ballot against the state governments’ regressive bans on abortion. Though ballot measures succeeded in 7 states to secure the legal rights to abortion but the loss of Harris in the presidential race was a disastrous blow for these aspiring young women who hoped for the possibility of the country being finally ready for its first female president.
‘This election proves now more than ever that they hate us and hate us proudly. Do not reward them,’ lamented one user.
‘This election proves now more than ever that they hate us and hate us proudly. Do not reward them,’ lamented one user. One user calling for a collective action asked to follow into the footsteps of Korean women, ‘Ladies, we need to start considering the 4B movement like the women in South Korea and give America a severely sharp birth rate decline.‘
For Ju Hui Judy Han, a gender studies professor at the University of California Los Angeles, the sudden interest in 4B highlights that the American women, feeling powerless in this moment, are seeking to find some source of empowerment. Han told NPR, ‘Most importantly it’s about women recognizing that they’re in a collective struggle, and that there’s a collective sense of frustration.‘ However, she points out that 4B is a commitment not without severe consequences.
4B: a reaction to conservative backlash against gender equality
The 4B movement emerged in a deeply patriarchal Korean society with an overbearing culture of social control over female bodies through mechanisms of compulsory marriage and childbirth. For its adherents, the movement was a redemption from the heterosexual marriage which posed an existential threat to women, and their fear is very much rooted in reality. Over 824 women were killed in the past nine years in South Korea and another 602 came close to the dreadful end of their life due to intimate partner violence (IPV), a 2018 report recorded.
Another 2021 study observed that one out of every third Korean women had faced domestic violence, with their partners culpable in half of these cases. Protests against a culture of control, subjugation and social violence kept erupting in South Korea in the decade of 2010s as the # MeToo movement swept through the world. Within this context of seeking a change, arose the 4B movement which aimed at giving Korean women the choice and agency to become free of a suffocating cultural landscape – more aggravated by stressful job market – by completely renouncing the traditional relationships. This was an act of assertion on the part of these independent young women who were reclaiming their autonomy and practicing “bihon” became the most powerful instrument for that end.
Women have significantly advanced in higher studies with better prospects of finding employment. Therefore, men across the world are grappling with changing cultural landscape and forced to adjust to shifting gender roles. The social anxieties emerging out of this cultural flux are having their imprints on voter alignment as men in the US flocked to the conservative MAGA movement and voted en masse for Trump. Trump’s promise of returning to a world of traditional values which does not shy away from prioritising men’s interests at the expense of women’s bodies, lives and autonomy, felt compelling to many of these men.
4B is more than just symbolism. As this conservative capture of power is becoming intense and more toxic, many women feel themselves not left with many options but to stage a rebellion by adopting the Bihon principle. It’s a social attempt at resistance and an instrument to take back control over their lives, bodies, and futures within an antagonistic environment whose encroachment over womens’ rights looms large on the horizon.
