Cassie Pataky
Executive Content Editor
After Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election, the radical feminist movement 4B saw increased interest in the United States (U.S.). The movement began in South Korea in 2017 on X (formerly Twitter) and other online forums. It became more popular in 2019 in protest of extreme gender disparity in South Korea. Its primary four tenets — biyeonae, bisekseu, bihon, bichulsan — all contain the Korean prefix “bi-” which translates roughly to “no,” signifying members’ commitment to embrace no relationships, no marriage, no sex, and no childbirth with men.
From receiving Instagram posts about it to hearing it mentioned in passing conversations, I have witnessed my friends and peers assume a relatively positive outlook on the 4B movement. Refusing to date, marry, have sex with, or have children with men, especially when one is attracted to them, is an extreme yet powerful stance. The movement draws necessary attention to gender disparity and the lack of bodily autonomy that women have, but it is nevertheless antithetical to feminism. By dismissing sex and intimate relationships with men as inherently patriarchal (benefiting men more than women), the 4B movement disempowers women who do not choose to give up this aspect of their sexuality.
I want to clarify that I am referring primarily to the 4B movement and its reception in the U.S. I think it is important to consider factors that led to this radical movement — discrimination against women in the workplace, gender pay gap, and a surge of gender-based violence and femicide — in South Korea. Because South Korea is smaller than the U.S. and has a different political and socio-economic structure, the birth rate has actually declined due to the popularity of the 4B movement.
The U.S., on the other hand, is much larger and more populated than South Korea, so the 4B movement would require a more widespread support to have the same effect it has experienced in South Korea, an unlikely response due to the extreme measures it entails.
Within the UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) community, I have heard many expressions of support for the 4B movement, though (unsurprisingly) no one has revealed that they have joined the movement. To me, the 4B movement creates a hierarchy of sexuality, which I argue is inherently antifeminist as it excludes and ostracizes specific sexualities and identities.
In movements like 4B or anti-sex feminism, which ask women to be abstinent of heterosexual sex, the abstinent place themselves as “better” than certain sexualities simply because they have chosen not to engage in sex. Through their exclusivity, they perpetuate a hierarchy, disempowering specific women’s sexualities, such as sex workers, questioning queers, and transgender women.
In addition to the exclusion of specific sexual identities, this branch of feminism also excludes men, which perpetuates the rampant misconceptions of feminism. In South Korea, a Hankook Research survey revealed that over 77 percent of men in their 20s were “repulsed by feminists or feminism.” To be a feminist, all one must do is believe that all individuals should be treated equally regardless of their gender identity. Those who are uneducated about feminism believe and claim that feminism is “man-hating,” “anti-men,” and promotes a society where women are more powerful than men. One South Korean man, Park Se-hwan, who was interviewed by CNN, “identifies as anti-feminist” yet “agrees with gender equality.” To me, this seems counterintuitive, but it can be explained by the lack of understanding the general public has about feminism. Radical ideologies like those expressed in the 4B movement contribute to these misconceptions, which limits the expansion of feminism as a whole.
I suspect that most of the support for the 4B movement at UCSB comes from the desire to uphold the stance that women can be happy, independent members of society — without men. As a woman, I wholeheartedly agree with and support this notion, and I think it should be expressed more in our society. At the same time, we need to find better ways to assert our power and solidarity, ways that do not create a hierarchy of exclusivity that relies on a set of standards. The patriarchy we currently live in already does enough; we do not need to continue the legacy.
All this is to say, I am disappointed to hear attention and praise sung for the 4B movement among my peers. I firmly believe it promotes the wrong idea about subverting heteropatriarchy. There are many other actions women in the U.S. can take to protect their rights and autonomy that help lift others up rather than put others down.
Thanks beyond words.
As an uneducated trans man, this article feels like you went full circle and ended up being anti AFAB, since soon birth control might not be an option anymore in the United States under trump and RFK Jrs Health and Human services dept.
Abstaining from hetero sex, as an AFAB person, could save your life, liberty and your pursuit of happiness. The freedoms that we are all owed as humans that are being taken away from us, but you are so worried about the hierarchy of women or that one will be made as a consequence of some adapting 4b and choosing to not have sex with men? There already is a hierarchy made by TERFS that exclude trans women!
Misogynists are disgusted by women having the choice to not sleep with them, so they elected a convicted rapist as the U.S. president to take away ALL women’s autonomy by EO. (As well as attempting to erase trans identities.)
If anything we can build a different movement inspired by 4B in Korea, of our own terms to include the LGBTQ+ and men! If it is weaponized against bigoted dumbasses (MAGA men and women, those who fall under that umbrella of dumbed down fascists) Men can join too and choose not to have sex with bigoted women! We must stand united regardless of gender, sexuality, and race, against the weird MAGA people who want AFAB to be compliant incubators instead of strong and independent individuals. They want AMAB people to be held under no accountability for their actions unless, their action was to make themselves up to be who they truly are and identify as. Let’s hold bigots accountable as they are destroying our lives.
My opinions are based on observation only take my words with some sauce or whatever the phrase is, good article though!??
4B is not to say that we can be fine without men. The movement is to show that society cannot survive without women. The whole point of the movement is to show the administration that we will not have our bodies governed by fascism. If we do not put our foots down now, if we continue to bring children into this world (especially when requested or demanded to do so by the government) then we will always be subservient. Most men do not understand that we need better healthcare to heal from childbirth and to stay healthy as mothers, both mentally and physically. We literally have an entire other person come from our bodies and we can’t get paid time off to heal from that? The idea that you cite material that says men are repulsed by feminist women is the exact point! The are repulsed by feminism because it highlights a disgusting aspect of their personality. Who cares that men are disgusted by feminism? The whole idea is to forgo the opinion of men for the benefit of ourselves and each other. Catering to the male opinion is exactly what led us to this. It’s time they are removed from power over our systems, governments, and bodies.
Men need to stop seeing women as tools to propagate their seed. Men need to care about the safety and well-being of their mothers, daughters, and sisters. If men want women to have babies, they should make it less traumatic to do so. If the government actually cared about its people, it would focus on post-natal care, mental health services for new mothers, it would not have cut programs like WIC. The Government doesn’t deserve our babies and our babies deserve better.
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