4B Movement
By Eleanor Gil 11/12/2024
In 2016, a man in South Korea, seeking revenge against the women who always neglected and humiliated him, ventured to Gangnam Station. There, he stabbed a random woman to death.
Though many sources attributed the man’s actions to severe psychological illness, the murder shocked the nation and propelled the 4B feminist movement: a response to the misogyny and inequality that women face in South Korea. However, despite its positive intentions, the 4B movement has polarized the nation more than it has driven substantive change, revealing the urgency for a different approach.
The term “4B” represents four words that each begin with the root bi, meaning “no” in Korean: no marriage, no childbirth, no dating, and no sex with men. The movement rejects patriarchal systems and promotes feminist separatism.
After the U.S. election, the 4B movement exploded into a topic of interest in America, with the specter of growing inequality under Trump, who has a history of sexual abuse and promoted the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Many American women took to social media, swearing off men or even breaking up with their Trump-supporting boyfriends. This heightened awareness gives the movement potential to cross borders and promote global solidarity among women. However, with rapid publicization, 4B risks becoming a trend where people hop onto the bandwagon not for the sake of justice but due to cognitive bias, similar to the #MeToo movement. Such not only undermines the movement’s true purpose but also the complex history behind 4B to uninformed, volatile public criticism. This is because 4B is a unique culmination of opposition to patriarchal norms that have been entrenched in South Korea ever since it became a democracy.
Not a century ago, Korea was a broken nation, devastated by colonization and war, resulting in a corrupt authoritarian government taking power and perpetuating patriarchal values. Trapped in this patriarchy, South Korea has the greatest gender wage gap worldwide with women on average earning 31.2% lower than men, as per the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Thus, movements such as 4B are critical to bringing to light these grave gender inequalities which had largely been overlooked due to political propaganda.
However, the 4B movement is only the extreme end of an untold truth. In reality, it also reflects sentiments among South Korean women who prioritize their education and career over marriage for several reasons independent of self-advocacy. This shift is an inevitable byproduct of the nation’s highly toxic and cutthroat work culture, where taking time off often entails losing hard-earned career progress. Combined with the government’s failure to address increasing housing costs and the economic burden of raising a child, many women now choose to focus on their academics and careers over having children, as reflected in the 4B movement.
South Korea’s deeply entrenched patriarchy has not only spurred women to advocate for themselves but also evoked resentment amongst men. For many South Korean men, the deeply patriarchal world they had always known is now becoming completely upheaved, and they feel alienated by the 4B movement, perceiving it as a complete rejection of their gender. While women’s expressions of frustration with patriarchy intend to promote solidarity, men often misinterpret it as a blanket dismissal of their own identity and experiences. This disconnect can be attributed to women’s greater emotional intelligence compared to men, as cited by a research published in 2016, which is exacerbated by South Korea’s gender stereotypes that demean men for expressing vulnerability.
Despite resistance, it is beautiful to see women defying rigid social standards, both in South Korea and beyond. However, in order to achieve real institutional change, there must be change within the culture instilled by a country’s education system and society.
“The 4B movement is a step in the right direction, but in today’s polarized media, its nuance has a low chance of surviving. To one person, the movement symbolizes justice, but to another, it is an overreaction fueled by extremists. We must collectively build empathy to understand what is being fought for and work together, rather than let 4B become just another trend,” Senior Nadia Karpenko said.
The movement, as it stands, is simply not a viable long-term solution because it risks exacerbating the division and animosity between men and women. Caught up in shielding women from men entirely, this movement loses sight of its ultimate goal: gender equality. A more effective approach would be to address the problems that have caused these conflicts, especially the influence of culture and society on raising and educating men. For women, the biggest problem is mistreatment and domestic violence, which requires better education, greater empathy and accountability for men. For men, the biggest problem is often a palpable sense of isolation, which signifies the need to build more understanding communities.
The 4B movement should remain only as a point of solidarity and awareness, but the most critical step to achieving the real change it envisions is to foster education on these issues and build a community where both men and women are taught to support and uplift each other.
About the Contributors
Eleanor Gil
Writer
Eleanor Gil is a junior at Leland High and the page editor for School News and Feature School for The Charger Account. She loves to cultivate a quiet, eclectic joy derived from various interests and hobbies and above all, learning.
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