What Is 4B? South Korean Protest Movement Hits US After Donald Trump Win

Interest in a new political movement has spiked in the U.S. following Donald Trump‘s reelection as president, according to U.K. newspaper the Independent.

Thousands of people on TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, have been posting about participating in the 4B movement, a feminist protest movement that originated in South Korea in 2019.

The movement is gaining traction in reaction to the male majority that voted for Trump and could have strong sociopolitical ramifications.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment via email outside of business hours.

The 4B movement stipulates four “nos”: no sex with men, no giving birth, no dating men and no marriage with men. The words for the terms in Korean all begin with the prefix “bi” which means “no,” as reported by Bustle.

Sex strikes, a form of protest more widespread and older than the 4B movement, have taken place in countries around the world including Colombia, Kenya, Liberia, Italy, the Philippines, South Sudan and Togo.

Actress Alyssa Milano called for sex strikes in 2019 in response to legislation in the U.S. state of Georgia intended to make abortions more difficult.

The 4B movement, which began on Twitter in 2017, officially took off in 2019 amid a wave of anti-feminist movements following the election of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Trump’s rhetoric and his appointment of three of the Supreme Court justices, who overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 leading to abortion bans nationwide, have helped leave supporters of 4B feeling that gender inequality is a major problem.

The president-elect also received criticism when a video resurfaced of him discussing women, saying that he could “grab ’em by the pussy,” in a leaked Access Hollywood interview with Billy Bush in 2005.

Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris have taken the helm in promoting the 4B movement as her campaign was centered around women’s rights, specifically in terms of reproductive rights and healthcare.

However, some social media users have expressed concerns that support for the movement in the U.S. could cause a rapid decline in birth rates, according to Elle magazine.

South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, which continues to fall, and many attribute this to the 4B movement, according to MSN.com.

Some on social media have also expressed concern that the inception of the 4B movement in the U.S. could lead to rising rates of violence against women.

Gender inequality remains a prominent issue, with women on average paid 84 percent of what a man is while working full-time, year-round, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Violence against women also remains a major issue, with more than one in three women having reported experiencing rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

The rates of femicide, in which women are killed by men, have also rapidly increased in recent years, according to the Guardian.

Women’s healthcare research is underfunded in the U.S. according to a 2021 study in the Journal of Women’s Health, and abortion remains banned or severely restricted in may states, although bans in some, such as Missouri and Nevada, were lifted on November 5.