A feminist motion sweeping South Korea, wherein ladies are saying “No” to any type of intimate relationships with males, is taking maintain in the US following former President Donald Trump’s resounding victory within the presidential election.
So what’s the 4B motion and why are American ladies turning to it now?
What’s the 4B motion?
The 4B motion initially emerged from the fringes of the South Korean feminist motion.
It developed in South Korean feminist circles and on social media within the mid-to-late 2010s throughout a wave of violence against women within the nation, and in protest over different manifestations of sexism and inequality in South Korean society.
4B is shorthand for 4 phrases that begin with “bi”, which suggests “no” in Korean.
The motion requires:
- Bihon, which suggests no heterosexual marriage.
- Bichulsan, no childbirth.
- Biyeonae, no courting.
- Bisekseu, no heterosexual sexual relationships.
Why did this motion emerge in South Korea?
Ladies are fed up with the dimensions of male violence in South Korean society.
A report printed in 2018 confirmed that within the earlier 9 years, at the very least 824 ladies in South Korea had been killed and an additional 602 have been put liable to dying by violence by the hands of their intimate companions.
However there are additionally financial elements.
In line with information from the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Growth (OECD), South Korean males earn 31.2 p.c extra, on common, than ladies.
South Korean society additionally tends to be pretty conservative relating to households.
Ayo Wahlberg, a professor within the anthropology division on the College of Copenhagen, told Al Jazeera that the duty for the majority of childcare and family chores, in addition to caring for the aged, usually falls on the shoulders of girls. However, with rising inflation, ladies even have little selection however to work exterior of the house, which means their duties are doubled.
This has led to extra ladies forgoing the prospect of getting youngsters whereas additionally making much less cash than their male spouses – a state of affairs many say they discover disheartening.
In the meantime, the birthrate in South Korea continues to drop quickly. Lately, the nation has had one of many lowest birthrates on the planet. In February this 12 months, Statistics Korea printed information displaying that the general birthrate had dropped by 8 p.c in 2023 to 0.72 youngsters per girl of their lifetime in contrast with 0.78 in 2022. The low birthrate has been declared a national emergency.
‘Your physique, my selection’: Why is the motion gathering curiosity within the US now?
Quickly after it had grow to be obvious that Trump had received the US presidential election this week, younger ladies within the US took to social media platforms reminiscent of TikTok and X, encouraging different ladies to take inspiration from the 4B motion.
american ladies it is time to be taught from the koreans and undertake the 4b motion
as a matter of truth ladies from all around the world ought to undertake the 4b motion
i am so critical pic.twitter.com/WxfqxouAn1
— coleni. (@jungsooyawning) November 6, 2024
Whereas CNN’s exit ballot recommended that Trump received 46 p.c of the ladies’s vote and Harris received 54 p.c, it additionally confirmed that Harris had received simply 43.5 p.c of the male vote in contrast with Trump’s 56.5 p.c.
Younger ladies on social media stated they have been dissatisfied that younger males had voted for a candidate who they are saying doesn’t respect their bodily autonomy.
To make issues worse, some Trump supporters, reminiscent of far-right political activist Nick Fuentes, began posting misogynistic messages on X such because the assertion, “Your physique, my selection.”
@_jessie_fitz You make us do, an excessive amount of labour! #fyp #foryoupageofficiall #kamalaharris2024🇺🇸💙 #werenotgoingback #labour #womensupportingwomen #womensempowerment #4bmovement #fthepatriarchy #patriarchy #mysogyny ♬ labour – Paris Paloma
The message is a co-optation of “my physique, my selection” a slogan used traditionally by feminists rallying for autonomy and reproductive rights.
The masks are absolutely off now pic.twitter.com/ZlAkFr9FO5
— Sam G (@ItsSamG) November 6, 2024
How important a task did ladies’s rights play within the US election?
The correct to abortion was a serious speaking level within the lead-up to the election.
Whereas the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, was banking on abortion being a giant difficulty, it turned out to be a lot much less of a decisive difficulty for voters than financial points reminiscent of inflation, unemployment and the price of dwelling.
The election was the primary presidential vote because the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade court ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court docket in 2022, ending ladies’s federal proper to an abortion within the US. The choice on legal guidelines concerning abortion was reverted to particular person states as an alternative.
Trump claimed credit score for the overturning of Roe v Wade, which was made doable by his appointments of three conservative judges to the highest courtroom.
Democrats campaigned within the perception that this may carry ladies out to vote for Harris. That place did not pay off completely, nevertheless.
On Tuesday this week, because the election was in full swing, 10 states also voted on whether or not or to not enshrine the proper to abortion of their constitutions. Of those, seven states handed the measures and three states didn’t.
What might occur to abortion as soon as Trump is in energy?
Trump has stated that he would veto a federal abortion invoice, preferring to depart the query of legal guidelines concerning the right to abortion all the way down to particular person states to determine.
Nevertheless, fears now loom amongst ladies’s rights teams that he will probably be pressured by Republicans, who now management the Senate and the Supreme Court docket – and are near controlling the Home of Representatives as effectively – into making a federal abortion ban throughout the US a actuality.
There are additionally fears that Trump’s administration might have the facility to implement an interpretation of the 1873 Comstock Act, which makes it a federal crime to promote and obtain abortion-related medicine or different supplies. The legislation has not been enforced for many years.
Why are ladies so indignant about Trump’s perspective in direction of them?
Many say Trump reveals an ideal deal about his normal view of girls via the feedback he has made over time.
Sexual abuse allegations
In Might 2023, a US jury discovered Trump liable for sexually abusing journalist and author E Jean Carroll within the Nineties. Carroll had detailed the abuse in a memoir in 2019, after which Trump branded her a liar and referred to as her story a “con job”. The courtroom additionally discovered that he had defamed her and ordered him to pay damages of greater than $83m.
In 2018, veteran journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his ebook, Concern: Trump within the White Home, a couple of dialog between Trump and an unnamed good friend of his, acknowledging dangerous behaviour in direction of ladies.
Trump was quoted saying: “You’ve received to disclaim, deny, deny and push again on these ladies. In the event you admit to something and any culpability, then you definately’re lifeless … You’ve received to be robust. You’ve received to be aggressive. You’ve received to push again laborious. You’ve received to disclaim something that’s stated about you. By no means admit.”
Disparaging feedback about Kamala Harris
Trump has made many controversial remarks about ladies, together with his Democrat challenger and Vice President Kamala Harris.
After Harris inherited the Democrat presidential candidate ticket from Joe Biden earlier this 12 months, Trump informed Fox Information, “[Harris] someway – a girl – someway she’s doing higher than [President Joe Biden] did.”
He repeatedly attacked Harris’s intelligence, calling her “silly” and “dumb” on varied events.
Different controversial remarks
In June 2004, he stated about his daughter, Ivanka Trump, “She does have a really good determine … if [she] weren’t my daughter, maybe I’d be courting her.” Ivanka was 23 or 24 on the time.
Earlier, quickly after Princess Diana’s dying in 1997, Trump informed tv character Howard Stern in a radio interview that Diana was “lovely” however “loopy”.
Stern requested Trump if he might have had a sexual relationship with Diana.
“I feel I might have,” Trump replied, the Huffington Submit reported.
And in keeping with tapes that The Washington Submit stated it obtained from 2005, Trump admitted to sexual assault in a dialog with TV host Billy Bush, about ladies generally: “I’m robotically interested in lovely – I simply begin kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Simply kiss. I don’t even wait. And whenever you’re a star, they allow you to do it. You are able to do something.”
‘Childless cat woman’ feedback
His Republican aides, together with operating mate JD Vance, have additionally made remarks deemed sexist. In July, feedback Vance made about leaders within the Democratic Occasion in 2021 resurfaced. He stated that the leaders of the get together didn’t have youngsters and have been “a bunch of childless cat women who’re depressing at their very own lives and the alternatives that they’ve made and they also need to make the remainder of the nation depressing, too”.