Liberal American women are willing to take extreme measures following the 2024 Presidential election. Their consideration of participating in South Korea’s 4B movement brings our modern understanding of feminism to a completely different level.
Many American women were outraged to discover more than half of this country voted in the candidate who in his previous term appointed three Supreme Court justices that aided in overturning Roe v. Wade, has been found liable for sexual abuse and has made degrading remarks against women throughout his professional and political career.
This indignation is what sparked the discussion of 4B, a radical feminist movement that started in South Korea in the mid 2010s while the #MeToo movement was gaining prominence in America. 4B stands for the Korean words “bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae and bisekseu,” which translate to “no marriage with men, no childbirth, no dating men and no sex with men.”
4B emerged in 2016 after a 34-year-old man murdered a 23-year-old woman, whom he did not have any sort of relationship with, in a restroom at Gangnam Station in Seoul. He stabbed her four times with a knife and claimed that he did it because he had felt ignored by women his entire life.
Along with this brutal murder, South Korea has experienced a significant increase in dating violence in recent years, which has also helped spread awareness of 4B. In 2020, 49,000 dating violence cases were reported which alarmingly spiked to 77,000 in 2023. Every 19 hours, a woman is at risk of being killed by her male partner.
Additionally, the prominent gender divide in the country perpetuated the formation and popularity of 4B. Not only has violence against women drastically escalated, but South Korea still holds the largest gender wage gap in the world with women getting paid about one-third less than men. While the intention of 4B is to retaliate against unfortunate events and statistics like these, its expectations are extreme.
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, blames the country’s birth rate, the lowest in the world, on feminist movements such as 4B. Women completely swearing off men and remaining celibate may be having larger impacts than what was originally anticipated.
Suk Yeol also claimed that South Korea no longer needed their Ministry of Gender Equality and Family because systemic gender discrimination does not exist. When the gender equality minister resigned, Suk Yeol did not appoint a replacement.
With his anti-feminist agenda, he has been referred to as the “South Korean Donald Trump” in local media. The two presidents share similar values when it comes to women’s rights.
Following Trump’s re-election, American women have posted and shared the 4B movement across TikTok and Instagram. The movement dwindled from mainstream media in recent years, but the U.S. election has drawn people’s attention back to it.
Even though 4B is intended to combat gender discrimination and expectations, there has been debate over who can participate, such as women in heterosexual relationships or trans-women. While the movement itself does not strictly exclude certain women, it has been criticized for its prejudice against different groups. Instead of seeking empowerment through unnecessary extremes, women must focus on recognizing a faction that strives for gender equality.
Many women voted for Trump, and not all women want to swear off men in the way 4B prescribes. This alienates women who do not believe gender equality can be achieved through such radical means.
This story was written by Rachel Lopera. She can be reached at r[email protected]
