In the wake of Donald Trump’s US presidential victory, an unlikely hashtag began trending worldwide: #4B. This radical South Korean feminist movement, advocating the complete rejection of marriage, childbirth, dating, and even sex, captured global attention with millions of views on TikTok and viral posts heralding a women’s revolution. But in the nation of its birth, 4B faces a far more complex reality – and intensifying backlash.
Pushing Back Against Deep-Rooted Inequality
4B emerged in the mid-2010s as part of a rising wave of online feminist activism in South Korea, a country where women face the widest gender pay gap among OECD nations and entrenched discrimination. The movement’s name stems from four Korean words starting with “bi” (“no”): bihon (no marriage), bichulsan (no childbirth), biyeonae (no dating), and bisekseu (no sex).
Like past feminist separatist ideologies, 4B represents a refusal of heterosexual relationships as a means to resist patriarchal structures. Several high-profile incidents have galvanized the movement in recent years:
- In 2016, a young woman was murdered near Gangnam Station by a male stranger who claimed women had “ignored” him, sparking mass protests against misogynistic violence.
- An epidemic of digital sex crimes, from hidden camera voyeurism to AI-generated deepfake porn targeting women and girls, has further fueled feminist anger.
- Through the “escape the corset” movement, women have challenged Korea’s punishing beauty standards by destroying makeup and cutting their hair short.
The Digital Front Lines
Anonymous online forums and social media serve as key protected spaces for 4B feminist discourse that might be difficult to express openly offline. According to Minyoung Moon, a sociology lecturer at Clemson University studying online feminism in South Korea:
4B is more of a feminist statement that represents young digital feminists’ grievances and frustration about Korean society.
The online nature of 4B makes it nearly impossible to gauge the movement’s true scale or impact within Korea itself. Some international media coverage has attempted to link 4B to the nation’s record-low 0.72 birthrate in 2023, but sociologist Gowoon Jung cautions against drawing simplistic conclusions:
The low fertility rate in Korea is a complex issue… Women’s distrust and frustration with Korean society may have some cultural relation to it, but there is no proven correlation.
Rising Anti-Feminist Backlash
Yet 4B’s provocative rhetoric has contributed to an intensifying anti-feminist backlash in South Korea, where the label “feminist” itself has become akin to a slur. According to Jung, the compressed pace of change has led many to equate feminism solely with its most radical strands.
President Yoon Suk-yeol rode to power in 2022 partly on young male rage against feminism, vowing to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality. Women perceived as feminist, such as short-haired workers, have faced harassment and even violence.
In this hostile climate, many women practice what scholars term “quiet feminism” – embracing the principles privately while shunning the label publicly. As Busan resident Lee Jeong-eun explains, “You’re treated like the devil” for openly identifying as feminist.
The Potential for a Global Feminist Wildfire
While 4B remains a lightning rod within Korea, its sudden global virality in the wake of the US election points to shifting tides in transnational feminism. As Jung notes, “Now we’re seeing movements that originated in Korea potentially influencing Western societies.”
It remains to be seen whether 4B’s radical rhetoric will catch fire globally or flame out. But its meteoric rise from obscure corners of the Korean web to worldwide TikTok feeds underscores the power of digital platforms to amplify feminist voices – and the unresolved tensions they can unleash in the process.
