In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, a surprising phenomenon has been gaining traction on social media: young American women have declared their allegiance to “4B,” a South Korean fringe feminist movement that advocates for abstaining from marriage, childbearing, dating, and sex.
The movement has generated huge interest around the world, with millions of views on TikTok and viral posts on X heralding it as a revolution in women’s rights.
The name 4B comes from four Korean words that begin with “bi” (meaning “no”): bihon (no marriage), bichulsan (no childbearing), biyeonae (no dating), and bisekseu (no sex). 4B represents the rejection of heterosexual relationships as a means of resistance to patriarchal structures.
The movement emerged in the mid-2010s amid growing online feminist activism in South Korea. Many Asian social movements have historically been influenced by the West, as we saw with the #MeToo movement. Now we see how movements that originated in Korea have the potential to influence Western societies.”
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