No more sex or dating? Why the 4B movement is going viral post-election
The 2024 election has raised a lot of questions about the future of reproductive rights in America. In the wake of former president Donald J. Trump win, many women are wondering what they can do to take back control of their bodies.
In response, some are considering a fringe feminist movement in South Korea that involves swearing off men entirely. It’s called the 4B movement, and it’s trending in the U.S. after the election.
'American women, looks like it’s time to get influenced by Korea’s 4B movement,' one woman wrote on X.
But what is the 4B movement and how would it work in America? Here’s the deal.
Meet the expert: Debby Herbenick, PhD, professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health and author of Yes Your Kid: What Parents Need to Know About Today's Teens and Sex.
What is South Korea’s 4B movement?
South Korea’s 4B movement is a feminist movement that started in the country in 2016 after a wave of violence against women and gender equality issues. It's shorthand for four Korean words that start with bi, or “no.”
The tenants of the 4B movement include:
No heterosexual sex
No heterosexual dating
No heterosexual marriage
No childbirth
Followers of the movement refuse to date, marry, have sex with, or have children with men to reject a system that they feel perpetuates gender inequity.
'Throughout history, women have at times abstained from sex with men as a reaction to gendered violence, sexual assault, or even war', says Debby Herbenick, PhD, professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health and author of Yes Your Kid: What Parents Need to Know About Today's Teens and Sex.
How big is the 4B movement?
It’s hard to say exactly how many women actually follow the 4B movement. When the movement first began, there were 33,000 women registered to their online platform, gender studies lecturer Euisol Jeong previously told Women's Health. Today, it’s gone viral on TikTok, allowing millions to interact with the ideology.
Online feminist dissonance had been brewing for years. Before 4B was established in the late 2010s, marriage was almost 'mandatory' for women in South Korea, Jeong said. 'The family line is really important in East Asian societies', she said. 'If a woman didn't want to get married, or tried to avoid romantic or sexual or marital relationships, she was called selfish.'
But for many women, marriage didn’t provide significant benefits: In 2016, Korea’s incidence of intimate-partner violence was 41.5 %, significantly higher than the global average of 30%.
The movement began in earnest after two incidents involving the government, Jeong said. First, in December 2016, the government launched an online 'National Birth Map.' The map, which has since been taken down, showed the number of women of reproductive age in each municipality—and 'brought to the fore how women’s reproductive bodies are perceived as objects to be managed,' Jeong wrote in her doctoral thesis.
Second, a paper by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs researcher Jong-wook Won theorised that birth rates were so low because women preferred to marry into a higher caste, even proposing that the media propagate a 'harmless conspiracy' to influence women to choose hypogamy—marriage into a lower caste—and get birth rates up.
These events prompted, in part, the creation of the movement’s principles.
'4B ideology and adopting 4B feminism is not just a selfish decision of individuals, but is a different idea about their life decisions, which were restricted before that', Jeong said.
Who is practising 4B?
The 4B movement is being followed by some women in South Korea who are frustrated and concerned about gender inequality, as well as women worried about becoming targets for violence from men.
'Practising [4B] means you’re eliminating the risks that come from heterosexual marriage or dating', one member told The Cut.
Additionally, many women outside of Korea have publicly revealed that they're practicing the tenets of 4B.
Has 4B impacted South Korea’s birth rate?
It’s unclear. South Korea’s birth rate has been low for years for a range of factors, and the 4B movement is considered a fringe movement. In 2016, when the 'National Birth Map' was launched, it was about 1.2 births per woman; it has since slid to 0.72, the lowest in the world.
The birth rate is so low that the government has created a special agency to improve children’s health and support families and parents. The overall goal is to increase the population.
Why is the 4B movement trending after the 2024 election?
There are concerns that another Trump presidency—combined with a Republican legislature—will further restrict reproductive rights in the U.S.
Throughout his 2024 reelection campaign, Trump has waffled on his exact positioning, but has celebrated appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion.
As a result, some women are trying to do what they can to regain control of their own bodies. Herbenick says it’s 'not surprising' that some American women are considering adopting the 4B movement.
'As a country, we were already experiencing declining partnered sex', she says, noting that her research shows that American adults and teens were having less sex from 2009 to 2018.
'We don't fully know why people are having less sex—some of it may be worsening mental health, some of it may be the rise of smartphones and streaming, and some of it may be not liking the kinds of sex available to them', she adds. 'Sex has gotten much rougher over the past 15 years, with many more men slapping, smothering, and choking women in the name of "rough sex".'
Herbenick says that many women will continue to date and have sex, while 'others do appear to be considering opting out of sex and dating for a while'.
'For those who do wish to keep dating and having sex, it may help to spend time clarifying their own values, figuring out what kind of person they want to date', she adds. 'If they are thinking about opting out with 4B, what would that look like for them, and for how long? And then being clear about those values with others.'
Herbenick stresses that women can change their minds at any time. 'If you become part of the 4B movement, you can return to dating and sex when you feel like it,' she says. 'And if you are dating and having sex, you can always opt out for any reason.'
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