What is 4B Movement? South Korean feminist wave trending after Trump's victory

• Google searches for “4B movement” increased on Wednesday as President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 election.
• The South Korean feminism movement is about abstaining from sex and marrying men.
• In South Korea, 4B is a response to gender-related issues such as intimate partner violence and wage gaps.

After former President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, searches for the 4B feminist movement surged on social media platforms.

4B originated in South Korea around 2019 and encourages women to turn away from dating, having sex with, and being in relationships with men.

Google Searches for the 4B movement steadily increased in the U.S. on Wednesday. Meanwhile, some American women took to social media platforms to post about it – a TikTok reached millions of views on Wednesday evening.

On social media, users point to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and the sexual assault allegations against Trump as reasons for abstaining from sex and relationships with heterosexual men.

“Ladies, like the women in South Korea, we need to start thinking about the 4B movement and bring America a drastic decline in the birth rate,” one X user said in a message that had been viewed more than 8 million times as of Wednesday evening. The user added: “We need to hold back.”

“The women in South Korea are doing it,” another X user wrote in a message that has been viewed more than a million times. “It’s time we joined them. Men are NOT rewarded and do not have access to our bodies.”

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A response to low birth rates

4B was partly influenced by the #MeToo movement, in which many women, particularly in Hollywood, spoke out against sexual misconduct. The #MeToo movement, started by activist Tarana Burke, emerged in the United States in 2017 and spread to South Korea a year later.

“Bi” is short for “no” in Korean, and the 4B movement represents four “nos” when it comes to heterosexual women interacting with heterosexual men:

• Bihon – No to heterosexual marriage
• Bichulsan – No to childbirth
• Biyeonae – No to dating men
• Bisekseu – No to heterosexual sex

It was also inspired by South Korea's 2018 “Escape the Corset” wave, in which 300,0000 women campaigned to defy beauty standards. This led to a decline in K-beauty sales.

4B was first coined when the South Korean government released a map showing how many fertile women lived in each county, The Cut reported. It was part of a campaign to combat falling birth rates.

South Korea has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The South Korean government has tried to increase incentives for young people to start families, from paying new parents to providing money in return for reversing a vasectomy.

Women responded to the map by staging protests and carrying banners that read, “My womb is not a national public asset.”

Since the beginning of 4B, some South Korean women have imagined a future without men. Taekyung, a woman interviewed on The Cut, said she practices “political lesbianism”: she doesn't date women, but instead strives as much as possible to be in all-female spaces, such as attending a pure Women's University.

Due to its online nature, it is impossible to quantify how widespread or effective the 4B campaign was. Still, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol recently blamed feminism for the country's low birth rate, although experts say there are other more serious reasons, such as high costs of living, a demanding work culture and a lack of childcare support from men.

Online celibacy trends in the USA

The recent enthusiasm for the 4B movement is reminiscent of #celibacyjourney, a US TikTok trend that has been on the rise for over a year and has millions of views. YouTubers – mostly young women – are posting about not having sex with men, with some saying they feel undervalued by men.

This is trending in the US following an election where gender roles, and masculinity in particular, took center stage. Trump's campaign focused on attracting young male voters. His super PAC ads targeted young men, he appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast, and “Macho Man” was played at his rallies.

Some people posting about the 4B movement in the US this week describe themselves as Harris voters, angered by issues such as the loss of reproductive rights and the sexual assault allegations against Trump.

A TikTok that had more than 8.8 million views as of Thursday morning had the national anthem playing in the background with the words: “I'm doing my part as an American by breaking up with my Republican boyfriend last night and officially breaking up with him this morning.” I joined the 4b movement.”