For some women in the United States, the 2024 election served as a referendum on the future of reproductive rights, and Donald Trump’s victory put them at risk.
They blame President Trump, who was found responsible for the sexual abuse of magazine reporter E. Jean Carroll, and the government he represents, who boasted during his time as president that he could “kill” Roe v. Wade. It is argued that this could lead to organized attacks. About their bodily autonomy.
Many women now say they are turning to 4B, South Korea’s radical feminist movement to boycott men, as a way to regain agency over their bodies.
Discussions about the movement are becoming increasingly popular on social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram. After Trump’s victory, online searches for the movement surged on Google across the US
“I think if we stopped romantic pursuits and sexual pursuits with men, we would be telling them, ‘Hey, our bodies are not up for discussion,'” said a 22-year-old TikTok user. Misa said. Twitch streamer from the US
“Rather than continuing to choose patriarchy, women decided to find some way to exercise their agency,” said Nadia Brown, director of women’s and gender studies at Georgetown University. said.
Here’s what you need to know about this move.
What is the 4B movement?
4B is a relatively niche, primarily online movement that started in South Korea in the late 2010s. According to a peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Gender Studies by researchers at Seoul-based Yonsei University, the four B’s represent Bihon, Bicheolsan, Biyonnae, and Biseksu, which are associated with marriage, childbirth, love, and men. It means refusing to have sex with someone.
(CBC News reached out to one of the paper’s authors, Yonsei University assistant professor Jieun Lee, for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.)
Like many countries around the world, South Korea has experienced increasing gender polarization in recent years. In the last presidential election in 2022, young voters were divided by gender for the first time, and Yoon Seok-yeol, who had blamed feminism for the country’s low birthrate, was elected. Yun also promised to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality, which activists have called state-sponsored and anti-feminist.
In March 2022, South Korea’s next president, Yun Seok-yeol, of the People’s Power Party, the main opposition party at the time, holds a celebration with his supporters in Seoul. (Jung Sung Joon/Getty Images)
Several high-profile cases of gender-based violence and digital sex crimes also contributed to the problem. In 2016, a man murdered a young woman because “she always ignored him.” The incident was controversial because police did not charge the man with a hate crime.
Groups such as Human Rights Watch have further criticized South Korea’s “widespread and systematic discrimination against women and girls,” citing South Korea’s extreme gender pay gap, and according to The Korea Times, 2022 In 2017, women’s wages were 31.2% lower than men’s wages.
South Korean activists tear down placards about discrimination against women during a protest to mark International Women’s Day in Seoul in March 2021. (Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)
The country also has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and politicians have offered many financial incentives to couples with children.
However, in addition to a high cost of living and a highly competitive workforce, many women feel that they do not receive equal support from their spouses in managing the household finances, leading them to pursue alternative lifestyles.
These various factors may have converged for nearly a decade to facilitate the rise of a movement like 4B, but its actual popularity is unknown. Critics say it is reactionary and excludes transgender women and women who are already married or have children.
Why is it attracting attention in the United States now?
Hours after President Trump’s victory, young American women began posting their support for 4B online.
“There are many men who like and enjoy sex from women, but they don’t actually like us. They only see us as sexual objects.” one TikTok user said.
As president, Trump appointed three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who formed the conservative majority that would overturn federal abortion rights in 2022. During the campaign, Trump claimed to “protect women” and guarantee that women would not have abortions. “Thinking about abortion.”
See | How the state’s abortion rights ballot measure fared:
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Voters in Missouri cleared the way to repeal one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country, one of seven victories for abortion rights advocates, but so did Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota. rejected the constitutional amendment bill.
Ms Brown said women who had previously exploited formal access to power through voting would now turn to “more informal” means to maintain power. .
Misa said she supports the movement by not being romantically involved with men, adding: “I think women are tired of their bodies being politicized and discussed.”
What does celibacy have to do with feminism?
Sexual abstinence has long been used as a form of feminist protest.
According to The Politics of Women’s Suffrage, women’s suffrage sought to gain political rights through celibacy by “taking advantage of men’s desire for women to fulfill their sexual, domestic, and, most importantly, maternal duties.” It is said that he tried to obtain .
Suffragettes march for equal rights during a demonstration in Washington, D.C., 1917 (AP)
According to Brown, when black men were granted the right to vote in the United States, some black women similarly refrained from sex, using their votes to support black communities and subjugate women. He said he tried to persuade her not to do so.
It’s similar to the protests we’re seeing now, she said.
“This president and his ilk have actually realized that they respond to things like sex strikes because they are motivated to view women only through a very narrow lens that leads to sexual gratification. It is.”
“Sexual violence incidents are increasing”
In the days since President Trump’s victory, women have reported an increase in hateful and misogynistic comments online.
Nick Fuentes, a self-proclaimed incel deemed a white supremacist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote about X: “Your body, my choice. Forever.”
Trump said he “faced no real consequences” if found responsible for the sexual abuse, “and by not halting the trajectory of their careers, I hope others will say, ‘Well, this is It’s giving us the courage to say, ‘It’s not that big of a deal,”’ said Shanna McDonald of O’Donovan. She is the chair of the School of Communication at the University of Waterloo, where she studies feminist media and online hate.
“We have these brave thinkers who are going out into the world and setting a set of standards for how women are treated that are going to have a really negative impact on the next generation of women.”
As abortion rights reforms continue to fail in many states, Brown worries that there could be “more incidents of sexual violence” and that women’s options will become increasingly limited.
“There are very few functional policies in place to provide full relief to victims of sexual assault and sexual violence,” she says.
“The real downside is that it creates a class of women who are further victimized while taking advantage of their own agency.”
