Inside the growing '4B’ movement empowering women after Trump's win
A feminist crusade has emerged online in a bold response to Donald Trump’s election and the rollback of reproductive rights in the U.S—and it's taking inspiration from South Korea's radical "4B” movement.
It's a movement born from anger, frustration, and a deep sense of betrayal prompting women to say "no" to everything relating to men: sex, marriage, childbirth, and dating. This refusal to engage with a male populace set on taking away women’s bodily autonomy is a political statement and demand for equality that refuses to be ignored.
“No matter how loud, how kind, how respectful, how cute, men will still fucking hate you,” said a TikTok user in a compilation video showing women online preparing to adhere to 4B in America.
And why are American women taking action? Because in Tuesday’s election, a majority of Gen Z men, or "podcast bros," cast their votes for Trump—a man whose handpicked conservative Supreme Court majority stacked the deck against women’s rights and overturned Roe v. Wade. The president-elect is also a textbook misogynist who used sexist language in the weeks leading up to the election when he said he’d “protect” women “whether they like it or not.” He is a serial adulterer who was also found liable for sexual abuse and has been accused of assault by dozens of others—and American women have had enough.
With mounting solidarity, they are banding together (with some even shaving their heads in protest so as not to appeal to the male gaze) to adopt the 4B strategy: no more children, no more marriages, no more dating men until women’s rights are restored.