Since the election of Donald Trump for President, which was fueled primarily by male voters, women in the United States who are frustrated with Trump and other conservative leaders instrumental in implementing abortion bans are considering a US version of South Korea’s 4B movement. Bi, in Korean, means no and the four no’s are:
- No Dating Men (biyeunae)
- No Sexual Relationships with Men (biseksu)
- No Heterosexual Marriage (bihon)
- No Childbirth (bichulsan)
South Korean government, business, and social life is rife with gender inequality. South Korea boasts one of the largest gender pay gaps of its peer countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at 31%. Compare this to 16% in the United States. South Korea also has some of the longest working hours of any country in the OECD and ineffective parental leave policies that have women delaying having children later and later leading to the country’s declining birth rate – currently only .78%. The pressure on women to bear and raise children combined with the pressure on women to return to work after having a child have put women in a difficult position where they must either sacrifice having children or pursing their career.
South Korea is also known for rigid beauty standards that disproportionately effect women. Women in the feminist movement in South Korea say that women in Korea are shunned if they choose not to wear make-up or wear their hair short. An example of this can be seen by three-time gold medalist, An San, who received online backlash at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics for their short hair cut.
The anti-feminist sentiment in Korea strongly discourages women from speaking up about gender inequality. “Femi” has become a derogatory term for women who are passionate about women’s equality and is also synonymous with mental illness. Only about 19% of Korean legislative seats are held by women, compared to 28% in the US’s 118th Congress. In October of 2022, President Yoon Suk-Yeol, campaigned on abolishing the Ministry of Gender and Family, an organization that has implemented policies that promote women’s equal rights. The Korean legislature has also struggled to address the widespread posting of women, filmed without their knowledge in hotels and Air B and B’s, changing rooms, and restrooms, to the internet.
Why is the Movement Gaining Traction in the US?
Since the overturning of Roe V. Wade in 2022, a wave of abortion bans has swept conservative states. Currently, 13 states have a near total ban on abortion and 11 more have bans that begin at gestational lengths ranging from 6 to 18 weeks. While in states like California and New York, abortion is protected by legislation, there are other states where legal battles continue to determine the legality abortion under that state’s constitution. Although Donal Trump has stated that he would not approve a federal abortion ban if it reached the President’s desk, his celebration of the overturning of Roe and history of sexual assault allegations and sexist comments have spurred women in the US to consider a 4B movement.
President-Elect, Donald Trump:
Trump ran on the promise of defunding Planned Parenthood, a women’s health provider that provides access to birth control, health check-ups, and abortions, and appointing members to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2016 (and made good on his promise). However, in April of this year, Trump told a reporter that he would not sign a federal abortion ban if it came to president’s desk. He also said, “My view is, now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land.” However, abortion is clearly not where “everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint.”
The effect of the overturning of Roe V. Wade and resulting abortion bans has drastically changed access to reproductive and maternal care in those states. According to an article from NBC, “From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute. The nonprofit research group scoured publicly available reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and shared the analysis exclusively with NBC News.” In 2023, 20 women, some of them who previously supported abortion bans, sued the state of Texas for life endangering complications they experienced during their pregnancy when they could not pursue an abortion. Women from several states with strict abortion bans have shared their stories of waiting to be sick enough for an abortion to be performed while experiencing complication like sepsis, pre-eclampsia, and ectopic pregnancies. Two Texas women and two more women from Georgia’s stories have been shared as examples of women who have died due to bans preventing doctors from performing abortions. Under many of these bans medical personnel may face fines, loss of their license, and jail time, and the cost of complying with these laws has been the loss of women’s lives.
Trump’s History with Women
At this point, most of us are familiar with the sound bite of Trump saying to, “Grab her by the p****y,” in a video with Access Hollywood‘s Billy Bush. The recording happened on a bus ride to meet the stars of Days of Our Lives, including actress Arianne Zucker. Trump has been accused of sexual assault by sixteen women, and a New York jury found that Trump sexually abused and defamed former columnist E Jean Carroll in a civil trial. Though Carroll did not prove that Trump raped her by New York’s legal definition of rape, the jury awarded her $83 million, finding that Trump did sexually abuse her and defamed her by claiming that her accusation was a hoax. Trump also garnered criticism for saying that Megyn Kelly, a Fox News host and moderator of a presidential debate in 2015 where Trump was present, had, “blood coming out of her wherever.” This came as a response to Kelly pressing Trump for sexist comments he has made towards women in the past during the debate. Trump clarified that by “wherever” he meant “nose”. Obviously, according to Trump, “Only a deviant would think anything else.”
During this election at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump received criticism for saying he would “protect” women, “whether they like it or not.” At the time, the Harris campaign pounced on this statement, as did many others who are frustrated with the loss of abortion rights in their state. It’s certainly not difficult to see why Trump’s history of violating women’s consent combined with statements like these not only stir up outrage from many women but also stir up anti-feminist men.
Trump’s Nominees
Multiple nominees for positions in Trump’s cabinet including Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Linda McMahon, Elon Musk, and Matt Gaetz (now withdrawn from nomination for Attorney General). A woman filed a police report in 2017 claiming that Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, took her phone and blocked her hotel room door before sexually assaulting her. Although police investigation did not confirm the incident, Hegseth’s lawyer admitted that Hegseth paid the woman a sum of money to prevent her from filing a lawsuit that he feared would cost him his job at Fox News.
A babysitter who worked for JFK Jr. in the 1990s, claims that Kennedy groped her while she worked for him. He did not deny the claim, stating on a podcast, “I had a very, very rambunctious youth.” and apologized to the woman via text.
A lawsuit was filed in October in Maryland against Linda McMahon that alleges that she and her husband, owners of the WWE, perpetuated the sexual assault of underaged boys by Melvin Phillips, who died in 2012. This comes after a new law, passed in October in Maryland, abolished the statute of limitations on sexual assault, allowing victims to come forward of any age no matter how much time has passed. The lawsuit alleges that McMahon and her husband knew that Phillips targeted vulnerable, underage boys to become “ring boys” and assaulted them while in locker rooms but did nothing.
Elon Musk was accused by a flight attendant who worked on his private jet of sexual misconduct in 2016. Reportedly, he paid the flight attendant $250,000 in order to prevent her from filing a lawsuit. Musk has denied these claims.
Matt Gaetz, now withdrawn from the nomination for Attorney General due to backlash over these investigations, was being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year old girl.
Anti-Feminists Online Post Election
Nicholas Fuentes, a known white nationalist and holocaust denier who has been hosted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, posted on twitter just before the election was called for Trump, “Your body, my choice. Forever.” The tweet received 40,000 likes on the platform. Jon Miller, who describes himself as a fair and balanced moderate, posted on twitter, “women threatening sex strikes like LMAO as if you have a say.” which received 50 million views and earned a community comment from the platform clarifying that sex without consent is rape. Comments like these in combination with the election of a leader with a political and personal record such as Trump’s make it easy to see why women are considered such a movement as 4B in the United States.
4B and the Evolution of Feminism in the US
Embed from Getty ImagesFeminism has seen many iterations in the United States throughout history. Women’s suffrage was far from the beginning of women seeking rights in and outside of the US, but it is certainly a memorable starting point. 2nd wave feminism in the 60s and 70s demanded women be treated like equals in the workplace and demanded rights like abortion in a time when women could not have their own bank accounts.
Women were not granted the right to their own bank accounts and credit cards until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 and women could be fired for becoming pregnant until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. Spousal rape was not criminalized in all fifty states until 1993. Women were banned from combat roles in the military until 2013. While it might be easy for men to claim that men and women are equal and feminism is unnecessary in 2024, there are plenty of women alive today who were alive when these practices were commonplace. Furthermore, the US is behind other countries in areas like parental leave. Paid maternity leave, unlike in most of the US’s peer countries, is not guaranteed under the law, and now many women feel we are backsliding as a nation toward a dark past of gender inequality.
1st wave feminism granted women the right to vote, and 2nd wave feminism granted women the rights above and others, like the right to an abortion. Since then, 3rd wave feminism, has focused on social equality, justice for victims of sexual harassment and assault, and economic equality. The #MeToo movement was created to encourage women to speak out about sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexist practices in and out of the workplace. The 2010’s “girlboss” feminism was reflective of 1980s feminist movements that focused on women breaking the glass ceiling and pursuing equality in the workplace and in pay. Women still earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. Studies also show that women that weigh more, earn less than thinner women. More recently, feminists are encouraging women to de-center men from their lives. Unlike the 4B movement, this does not prohibit dating but encourages women to focus less on men and dating and more on themselves and building community with other women.
The 4B movement is particularly poignant in its four “No’s.” Most women will tell you that they feel conditioned to people please, to say yes. If you don’t say yes as a woman, you’re selfish, a prude, frigid. Saying no to kids, makes you a spinster, a cat lady. A woman who says no to sex is often faced with coercion tactics to wear them down or simply called a bitch. The 4B movement is not about punishing men, it’s about a reclamation of the word “no,” and it’s about finding one’s autonomy in a time when women feel like theirs is being stripped from them. While the 4B movement in its original form may not take off in the US, I think it’s safe to say it may be the inspiration for a movement original to 3rd wave feminism in response to the current socio-political climate.
The Citrus Peel 
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