The 4B motion originated in South Korea, and encourages ladies to choose out of marriage (bihon), childbirth (bichulsan), romance (biyeonae), and sexual relationships (bisekseu). Born out of protests in opposition to South Korea’s tradition—cases of courting violence, revenge porn, and gender wage gaps are widespread—the motion has grown in recent times. South Korea has the lowest birth rate of any country, and regardless of authorities incentives, many ladies nonetheless really feel the nation’s patriarchal construction makes the price of motherhood too excessive, and refuse to be “baby-making machines,” in response to reporting from the New York Times.
Though it began within the late 2010s, the motion did not actually acquire consideration within the US till earlier this yr. New York magazine published an extended characteristic on it in March during which author Anna Louie Sussman laid out the methods during which 4B adherents had been, as Barbieri demonstrated on TikTok, slicing their hair and eschewing magnificence merchandise. “The blowback and worry that 4B practitioners expertise underscores their conviction that Korea continues to be a daunting place for ladies,” Sussman wrote, noting the threats and assaults ladies, and particularly 4B protesters, obtain.
Some creators who spoke to WIRED had been already taking part within the motion earlier than the election. Dalina, who makes use of they/them pronouns and requested to withhold their final identify for privateness causes, was casually seeing a person when, they are saying, “he made a joke alongside the traces of like, ‘I thought of coming within you.’” Dalina says at that second their blood ran chilly. “I believed, ‘Why does that sound like a risk?’ It is like, as a result of it’s a risk … He additionally knew that it was a risk.”
Since then, Dalina, who goes by @senoracabrona on TikTok, says they’ve sworn off romantic and sexual entanglements with males. Their video, together with textual content telling ladies to lookup the 4B motion, has garnered greater than 130,000 views on TikTok.
With the election of Trump, and all of the threats to reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights and misogyny that entails, ladies on-line gave the impression to be channeling the worry they felt into motion in related methods.
Barbieri says when she posted her unique 4B video it was the results of one thing she’d been investigating for a number of months through her involvement in feminist areas on Reddit, Fb, and Instagram. After her submit went up, she acquired a number of unfavourable feedback from males, however was stunned to search out a number of help, significantly from ladies within the motion.
