Donald Trump's victory in the US elections 2024 has not gone down well with millions of women in the US. And thousands of American women are blaming men for Trump's victory and have joined the 4B movement wherein they have vowed 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 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. 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 said that such movements were "blocking healthy relationships" between women and men in South Korea, reported CBC.
South Korea has seen a declining birth rate and the 4B movement has some role in it, according to a The New York Times report.
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,” Meera Choi, a Ph D candidate in the department of sociology at Yale University told NBC.
This is after many women had hoped for a Kamala Harris to win the US elections which would protect their reproductive rights.
All polls also showed how women supported Harris and men supported Trump.
"4B is a female liberation movement surrounding the protection of our reproductive system [from the historically oppressive male. It has no room for male-centered 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.
There is a section of women who are criticising the women participating in the 4B movement in the US.
"Not a single guy is losing sleep over you not wanting to sleep with them. Not one," said a person using the X handle LibertyValkyrie.
"The best way to understand 4B and similar social media trends is as a way for young women to create a romantic narrative arc for themselves, one where only a man who proves himself can reluctantly wrestle the heroine down from her perch," wrote another user, posting from the handle webdevMason.
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, reports Vox.
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.
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 laughâ€æ we need to bite back," said a woman on X
The rise of the 4B movement in the US is actually an extension of the bitter battle of the sexes that was seen during the Trump vs Harris campaign. How long and to what extent the movement will impact American society will be confirmed in the coming years. What is sure for now is that American women have taken Trump's victory personally and are taking it out on male voters.
