South Korea’s 4B Movement gets adopted in the U.S. as personal protest to 2024’s election results

Illustration by Shelby Phelps

The morning of November 6th, dreary-eyed and unsettled, my TikTok notifications were racking up showing an old viral post from February was getting a barrage of views and comments. Realizing what video was getting attention gave me tremendous insight into what kind of day the internet was going to have—It was about the 4B Movement. 

Comments were mixed between slut shaming, people asking where they can sign up, claims of white women co-opting the concept, and others saying the movement doesn’t even exist except in online misandrist groups. Regardless if it is a fringe extremist feminist movement, the 4B Movement is very real, and American women are intrigued now that the election is over.

4B is the four bi- or “four no’s”—no sex with men (bisekseu); no birthing children (bichulsan) birthing children; no dating men (biyeonae); and no marriage to men (bihon). They are checking the “opt-out” box. 

4B is an evolution of the previous #MeToo and Escape The Corset movements. Beginning in South Korea, the metaphorical corsets cast aside included extreme beauty standards that resulted in expensive multi-step skincare routines and plastic surgeons who made every contestant for Miss South Korea look like sisters. These actions were the first steps, and coupled with women coming forward with stories of abuse in the #MeToo era, the 4B Movement pushed decentering men to boycott levels. 

While there are no medals in the struggle olympics, South Korean women have a wider pay gap than any other democratic nation, gender-based violence is rampant, and femicide has gone unaddressed by their government. 4B may have given rise to voices that have been going unheard, but the women there have been checking out for a long time. They have the lowest birth rate of any nation, so low that 157 schools were projected to have no first-grade classes this school year. 

After seeing an adjudicated rapist defeat his second female opponent, women in the US concluded that the majority of voters here hate women and want to control their bodies. Nick Fuentes proudly posted to Twitter: “Your body, my choice. Forever.” He then made a video that opened with him laughing, saying “Hey bitch, Men won!” Why wouldn’t 4B sound like a sanctuary to women at this point? 

4B’s Google Trends rating hit 100—peak current popularity for a Google search term—exactly 24 hours from the last poll closing. It took less than one day for conversations to begin about how appealing a sexual and social revolution sounded to American women. 

During the 45 Era, single Trumpers in DC couldn’t get dates. Then came reports of a male loneliness epidemic, which is mostly about how men don’t build close friendships, but, alas, incels and male podcasters shifted the focus to this issue being about single men and then blamed women for their single status. 

Any semblance of accountability is easily avoided by the Alpha Podcaster Bro as he rattles off stats like women file for 70% of divorces in heterosexual relationships, women don’t swipe right on “conservative” or “moderate” on dating sites, and an increasing amount of young women identify as more leftist than generations prior. These are all true, but what is missing is context—Why are women filing for divorce at higher rates, and why would the single ladies not choose them? 

The Survey Center on American Life—from the conservative institute AEI—found three-quarters of young women with college educations saying they are less likely to date a Trump supporter. Since most young voters believe the way you vote speaks to your personality and character—you are who you vote for—this polarization of Gen Z’s singles is not conducive to dating someone with whom you disagree politically. 

The same survey group found that 63% of unwed women believe in shared fate, or “what happens to other women in the US affects their own lives.” This means that a boot on her neck is a boot on all of our necks.

4B is a battle cry for the human right of self-determination for women and gender-expansive people in South Korea. This example of decentering men may be one of the only truly effective ways to undermine misogyny and patriarchy worldwide. 

It is legitimate to have concerns about white women co-opting from another country’s practices. White Lady Wellness peddlers often find ways to repackage and monetize whatever is getting attention in the culture, as discussed in the book Who Is Wellness For? by Fariha Róisín.

Women will tell you that if they have had a bad experience with a man, she’s heard “pick better men.” During the 47 Era, they may decide to take that advice all the way and choose no men. If 4B sounds appealing to you, consider the reasons why before taking your vow of celibacy in anger or despair. 

If you’re of childbearing age, have your thoughts about birthing children changed over time? Perhaps you never wanted children, the want dissipated, or in a post-Dobbs world, you no longer feel safe becoming pregnant. Do you have access and privilege enough to get care if something were to go wrong with a pregnancy? 

Do you find yourself implementing big safety plans for your dating life, such as sending your date’s information to your roommate, sharing your location with your bestie, or avoiding dates because of potential hazards? How exhausted are you from this labor? Men acknowledge they rarely consider safety before going on a date. 

Is marriage or sex with a man necessary for you to find happiness? While marriage has evolved significantly legally from its once covetous structure, there’s a clear subsection of the population that would love nothing more than to delete the Equal Opportunity Credit Act and the 19th Amendment. Will marriage offer you something you can’t live without? What if marriage laws change? 

We have already seen Bumble ads trying to convince women not to take a vow of celibacy this year. Their campaign was ridiculed off the internet, and they scrapped their billboards across the nation. Julia Fox came out as a lesbian after nearly a year of publicly discussed abstinence. While 4B isn’t extreme lesbianism either, dating and sex with women, femmes, and enby’s sounds like it’s not forbidden. 

Regarding single men—If 4B takes off here, can they learn any lessons from less access to women without distilling it down to misandry? Will they comprehend that until it’s no men, it is all men? As long as they keep blaming women, claiming that withholding sex incites violence in these young, involuntarily celibate men, 4B will be a shining beacon on the hill—a place of respite and solace for women who are done fighting for their humanity.