What is the 4B feminist movement from S Korea that’s taking off in the US?

A feminist movement sweeping South Korea, in which women are saying “No” to any form of intimate relationships with men, is taking hold in the United States following former President Donald Trump’s resounding victory in the presidential election.

So what is the 4B movement and why are American women turning to it now?

What is the 4B movement?

The 4B movement originally emerged from the fringes of the South Korean feminist movement.

It developed in South Korean feminist circles and on social media in the mid-to-late 2010s during a wave of violence against women in the country, and in protest over other manifestations of sexism and inequality in South Korean society.

4B is shorthand for four words that start with “bi”, which means “no” in Korean.

Why did this movement emerge in South Korea?

Women are fed up with the scale of male violence in South Korean society.

A report published in 2018 showed that in the previous nine years, at least 824 women in South Korea had been killed and a further 602 were put at risk of death by violence at the hands of their intimate partners.

But there are also economic factors.

According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), South Korean men earn 31.2 percent more, on average, than women.

South Korean society also tends to be fairly conservative when it comes to families.

Ayo Wahlberg, a professor in the anthropology department at the University of Copenhagen, told Al Jazeera that the responsibility for the bulk of childcare and household chores, as well as taking care of the elderly, generally falls on the shoulders of women. But, with rising inflation, women also have little choice but to work outside of the home, meaning their responsibilities are doubled.

This has led to more women forgoing the prospect of having children while also making less money than their male spouses – a situation many say they find disheartening.

Meanwhile, the birthrate in South Korea continues to drop rapidly. In recent years, the country has had one of the lowest birthrates in the world. In February this year, Statistics Korea published data showing that the overall birthrate had dropped by 8 percent in 2023 to 0.72 children per woman in their lifetime compared with 0.78 in 2022.  The low birthrate has been declared a national emergency.

While CNN’s exit poll suggested that Trump won 46 percent of the women’s vote and Harris won 54 percent, it also showed that Harris had won just 43.5 percent of the male vote compared with Trump’s 56.5 percent.

Young women on social media said they were disappointed that young men had voted for a candidate who they say does not respect their bodily autonomy.

To make matters worse, some Trump supporters, such as far-right political activist Nick Fuentes, started posting misogynistic messages on X such as the statement, “Your body, my choice.”