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.
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.
The movement calls for: – Bihon, which means no heterosexual marriage. – Bichulsan, no childbirth. – Biyeonae, no dating. – Bisekseu, no heterosexual sexual relationships.
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.
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.
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.
Soon after it had become apparent that Trump had won the US presidential election this week, young women in the US took to social media platforms such as TikTok and X, encouraging other women to take inspiration from the 4B movement.