From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4B<\/strong> (or \u201cFour Nos<\/strong>\u201c) is a radical feminist<\/a>[1]<\/a><\/sup>[2]<\/a><\/sup>[3]<\/a><\/sup>[4]<\/a><\/sup>[5]<\/a><\/sup>[6]<\/a><\/sup> movement which is purported to have originated in South Korea<\/a> in 2019.[7]<\/a><\/sup>[8]<\/a><\/sup> Its proponents refuse to date men, get married<\/a>, have sex with men, or have children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cFour Nos\u201d are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jung Se-young and Baeck Ha-na, two proponents, criticize marriage as reinforcing gender roles<\/a> in South Korea.[9]<\/a><\/sup> The movement draws some amount of inspiration from the novel Kim Ji-young, Born 1982<\/a><\/em>, as do South Korea\u2019s MeToo<\/a> and \u201cEscape the Corset<\/a>\u201d movements.[8]<\/a><\/sup> The 4B movement claimed to have 4,000 members in 2019.[6]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The term 4B emerged from Korean feminist circles on Twitter<\/a> around 2017 to 2018.[10]<\/a><\/sup> These groups articulated their principles on the Korean feminist Wiki site Femi Wiki<\/em>, where they originally defined 4B as \u201cThe motto of radical feminism, which means \u2018non-marriage, non-procreation, non-relationship, non-sex.’\u201d[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 4B movement gained broader recognition on Twitter<\/a> in 2019 and through various feminist social media accounts. One notable feature of the 4B movement, as with other Korean digital feminist<\/a> movements, is that members often identify themselves as \u201canonymous women,\u201d as it is conventional not to disclose personal details online.[11]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n This digital movement<\/a> functions as an online community where women engage in open discussion about navigating and envisioning a future without men. It serves as a platform for women to vent their frustrations and concerns about living in a conservative<\/a> society while fostering a sense of solidarity. Additionally, the platform aims to motivate and inspire women to protest against dating, engaging in sexual relationships, getting married, and having children. Through a robust online presence, the movement seeks to raise awareness and recruit more advocates to amplify its impact.[12]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the exact membership remains uncertain, some unverified estimates suggest a range of 500 to 4,000 claimed participants.[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 4B movement in South Korea emerged from a series of previous online social movements that gained traction on social media.<\/strong>[14]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cEscape the Corset\u201d Movement that started in 2016 served as a source of inspiration for the 4B movement. The movement calls for women to liberate themselves from sexual<\/a>, social, bodily, and from psychological oppression.[15]<\/a><\/sup> The word \u201ccorset<\/a>\u201d is used by Korean feminists<\/a> as a metaphor for the societal mechanisms that bind and repress women, including toxic beauty standards<\/a>. Notably, South Korea has the 10th largest beauty market<\/a> globally and is the third-largest exporter of cosmetics<\/a>.[16]<\/a><\/sup> In a society where beauty holds immense cultural and economic significance, members of the \u201cEscape the Corset\u201d Movement criticize and resist cosmetic procedures<\/a>, demanding skincare<\/a> or makeup<\/a> rituals, and the adoption of trendy clothing<\/a>, all seen as perpetuating consumerism<\/a> and misogynistic<\/a> social norms<\/a>. In protest, they express their defiance by destroying makeup, forgoing cosmetic enhancements, shaving their heads, and rejecting fashionable attire. Escape the Corset\u2019s analysis and approach to protest deeply influenced the 4B movement.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the #MeToo movement<\/a> originated in the United States<\/a> in 2006 and gained popularity in 2017, many other countries, including South Korea, created #MeToo movements of their own. The #MeToo movement in South Korea, like those in other countries, encouraged women to express their experiences of sexual harassment<\/a> to inspire social change. Shortly after its inception in late 2017, several hundred women stepped forward with claims of sexual harassment and violence.[17]<\/a><\/sup> This movement also led to women who were forced into sex work<\/a> as a result of World War II<\/a> and the Japanese occupation of Korea<\/a> to speak out for the first time and in large numbers.[17]<\/a><\/sup> The Korean #MeToo movement also focused on femicide<\/a>, non-consensual pornography<\/a>, and misogynistic practices in the workplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The #MeToo movement also inspired various online hashtag campaigns, most popularly the #WithYou[17]<\/a><\/sup> tag, to signal solidarity with survivors of sexual assault<\/a> who had spoken up in the #MeToo movement. These various hashtags inspired the formation of women\u2019s activist groups, such as Citizens Action to Support the #MeToo Movement, who campaigned to end gendered oppression and support victims of sexual abuse in South Korea.[18]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n After the 2024 United States presidential election<\/a> in which Donald Trump<\/a> won a second term, some American women expressed interest on social media in following the 4B movement. Shortly after the election was called, TikTok videos mentioning 4B were viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and Google searches about it spiked by 450%. American women have called the movement the \u201c4 Nos\u201d and \u201cLysistrata<\/a>\u201c.[10]<\/a><\/sup>[19]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 4B movement is meant to serve as a direct opposition to South Korea\u2019s patriarchal<\/a> state and combat its pro-natalist<\/a> policies, which view women\u2019s bodies and reproductive abilities<\/a> as tools for the state\u2019s future. Feminists who engage in the 4B movement are known to actively resist the various ways in which gendered expectations are enforced in a conservative society, specifically relating to child-rearing, relationships, and employment.[20]<\/a><\/sup> This resistance involves not only withdrawing from dating but also rejecting prevalent gendered beauty standards and their associated consumerist practices in South Korea.[11]<\/a><\/sup> In a conservative and traditional society, alternative forms of protest in the 4B movement include defying rigid beauty norms and traditional gendered expectations by shaving heads and choosing not to wear bras.[14]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of the movement challenge the conventional life trajectory of marriage and family, while also condemning gender discrimination prevalent in the Korean job market, where women earn 31% less than their male counterparts, regardless of their marital or parental status.[21]<\/a><\/sup> The movement serves as a response to the nation\u2019s profound demographic crisis<\/a>. 4B feminists reject this instrumentalization of women\u2019s reproductive capacities and choose to distance themselves from a society they perceive as irredeemable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While 4B advocates aspire to instigate societal change through in-person demonstrations, online activism, and by exemplifying an alternative lifestyle for other women, their focus is not on changing the perspective of men, as they are seen as oppressors.[22]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2005, a feminist activist group, UnniNetwork<\/a>, has promoted bihon<\/em> as a political agenda to challenge the centrality of the heteronormative<\/a> family model of marriage in Korea. They sought to replace \u201cmihon<\/em>\u201c, \u2018not married\u2019, with a more neutral term, \u201cbihon<\/em>\u201c, \u2018single\u2019.[23]<\/a><\/sup> However, their feminist bihon<\/em> discourse did not gain major traction. On the other hand, the 4B movement employs \u201cbihon<\/em>\u201d as a tool to actively protest against the prevailing culture of marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the practice of gyeolhon<\/em>, or \u201cmarriage\u201d in English, was commonplace in Korea prior to the 1990s, the rate at which heterosexual couples are wedded in the country has drastically decreased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Korea has the lowest birth rate<\/a> in the world.[24]<\/a><\/sup> With the fertility rate at just 0.7 (as of 2023) each South Korean woman on average will have fewer than one child in her lifetime.[25]<\/a><\/sup> This is significantly below the 2.1 threshold required to maintain a country\u2019s population.[26]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The demographic crisis is so pronounced that the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation<\/a> at the University of Washington in Seattle anticipates the nation\u2019s population, which is around 51 million, might decrease to about half the size by the end of the century.[27]<\/a><\/sup> This crisis is due to economic insecurity experienced by young adults, high child-rearing costs and property prices, and is exacerbated by the country\u2019s deeply ingrained patriarchal culture. These factors contribute to women\u2019s reluctance to embrace traditional roles of marriage and motherhood.[26]<\/a><\/sup>[27]<\/a><\/sup>[28]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Having the world\u2019s lowest fertility rate<\/a>, the South Korean government has adopted pro-natalist<\/a> policies aimed at incentivizing an increase in childbirths, such as stipends<\/a> for new parents, increased maternal<\/a> and paternal leave<\/a>, and child care subsidies<\/a>.[29]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n A 2022 survey reveals that 65% of women, compared to 48% of men, do not want children.[18]<\/a><\/sup> The country has experienced the lowest fertility rate globally for three consecutive years.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup> This has led the country to demographic challenges, such as the \u201cdead cross\u201d where deaths surpass births. Half of South Korea\u2019s cities, counties, and districts face the risk of losing a substantial number of residents.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Women of the 4B movement additionally refuse romance and sexual relationships, because they see it as an extension of the patriarchal family structure.[11]<\/a><\/sup> By embracing singlehood, they reorient themselves towards imagining futures for themselves outside of marriage and deny their bodies as reproductive centers for the pronatalist state.[11]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the spring of 2024 in the Northern Hemisphere, South Korea\u2019s 4B movement was a popular topic on Western social media<\/a>, and some English-speaking users on TikTok<\/a> claimed that South Korea\u2019s low birth rate was due to the 4B movement.[30]<\/a><\/sup> Others claimed that the 4B movement\u2019s scale and impact are massively exaggerated.[31]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n More at: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/4B_movement<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 4B (or \u201cFour Nos\u201c) is a radical feminist[1][2][3][4][5][6] movement which is purported to have originated in South Korea in 2019.[7][8] Its proponents refuse to date men, get married, have sex with men, or have children. Tenets The \u201cFour Nos\u201d are: Proponents Jung Se-young and Baeck Ha-na, two proponents, criticize marriage as reinforcing gender… Continue reading Tenets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Proponents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Escape the Corset Movement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
South Korea\u2019s #MeToo movement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
United States interest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Four activities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bihon<\/em> (marriage)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bichulsan<\/em> (childbirth)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Biyeonae<\/em> (romance) and bisekseu<\/em> (sexual relationships)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Social media controversy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n