The 4B Movement’s Impact On Young Mind
The 4B movement is a rising Korean feminist movement that proposes “four no’s:” The Security Distillery, an online student initiative for other students, and other sources define this movement by the pillars of “no marriage, no childrearing, no dating, and no (heterosexual) sexual relationship (비혼 bihon, 비출산 bichulsan, 비연애 biyeonae, 비섹스 bisekseu).” The movement rejects tradition and essentially encourages independence from men.
The term originated in 2017-2018 on Korean Twitter circles but rose to popularity in 2019. The 4B movement's early stages were most prominently online and anonymous because many women did not want to disclose personal details online. This movement allows women to imagine a future without needing men, and allows them to have discourse and vent frustrations about a conservative environment where this sort of commentary on society is frowned upon.
photo courtesy Kaitlin Burns
Generally, feminists in Korea who engage in the 4B movement are doing so to break barriers of the conservative society they live in, breaking free from traditional gender roles. The movement’s purpose was to oppose Korea’s patriarchal society and to push back against a pro-natalist, traditional narrative. People who are taking part in this movement believe that adhering to the “four no’s” helps combat antiquated schools of thought regarding womens’ rights.
Further, the Korean job market discriminates against women; they can earn significantly less than a male who does the same job, regardless of marital status. So, by joining this movement, women who wish to distance themselves from a society that deems them as “less than” in a workplace can do so. A study found out that “one recent study showed that the higher a woman’s social status, meaning the higher her investment in her education or career path, the less likely she was to have mating or ‘reproductive success’”.
For a long time, many women in Korea were and have been expected to adhere to certain rigid beauty standards and also adhere to the strict behaviors expected of them, which caused much stress to young women and their mental health according to The Cut. The Cut interviewed a young woman named Youngmi and asked her about her stance and how she practices the “four no’s”, where she and other women have said “‘practicing bihon,’ is the only path by which a Korean woman today can live autonomously.”
Korean women have fought back against these external pressures through several tactics. To combat being seen as being there solely to look beautiful, Korean women publicly turn away from beauty standards by cutting their hair short and not using any makeup. By doing this, they are able to live without needing to worry about gaining a man’s attention. Another strategy they use is employing the Internet and Twitter to educate and inform other countries on what the 4B movement is and what it means to follow it, which extends their reach beyond just Korea.
Similar movements have occurred in other countries. For instance, in Iceland, one of the most effective women’s movements was the 1975 Icelandic women’s strike.
John Hopkins researcher Isabella Madruga summarizes the event by saying that women had walked out of their homes and workplaces, in protest, leaving their husbands to tend to everything. This strike was greatly effective as later the following year, Iceland's government passed a bill into law, enforcing and guaranteeing equality and women's rights. The strike also helped a woman to be the first democratically elected female president, just 5 years after that law was passed, in 1980.
photo courtesy the Icelandic Women’s History Archives
In the USA, there have been lesbian separatist movements that echo some of the same ideologies as the 4B movement. For instance, Monique Wittig talks about how heterosexuality is a social system that dictates societal views on women's rights. She says that “lesbianism provides for the moment the only social form in which we can live freely” (Wittig, One is Not Born a Woman, 250). This thinking aligns with how Korean women are no longer making themselves conventionally attractive to break free from a system, lesbians are no longer complying to a heterosexual specific society.
Currently, the 4B movement is becoming more popular on western social media on platforms like TikTok and Facebook, where people consume personalized content organized by an algorithm daily. With its rise to prominence, many more women are following its influence by practicing the “four no’s.” However, as no movement is without controversy, many people have accredited South Korea’s declining birth rates and/or population issue to this movement while others argue that this reasoning is too exaggerated and incorrect. Korean netizens argue that the movement is actually lesser in scale than Tiktokers and non-locals make it seem.
SheSociety, an Australian feminist website, calls to attention that the 4B movement isn’t very large in scale. But, despite the controversies surrounding it, the 4B Movement has ignited conversations about the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and power dynamics in societies worldwide. It emphasizes the agency and autonomy of women and has resonated with many individuals who have felt marginalized or oppressed by traditional gender norms.
Nowadays, young people and teens hold a large presence in our ever growing digital world and have access to protests, different beliefs, and limitless information. Young women grow up in “a world entrenched with patriarchal values”, and seeing movements that are happening around the world can inspire and allow young feminists to try making a change in their own lives or help those around them. A former John Hopkins student, Isabelle Madruga wrote in her article, “the beauty of the movement is that it is not mandatory, and a woman can take it as liberally or conservatively as she might want.”
— Intern Sam