Exploring the 4B Movement: A Guide | US News
A movement advocating for heterosexual celibacy as a form of political protest has gained popularity on social media following Donald Trump’s victory in the US election.
Kamala Harris heavily focused on securing the female vote during her campaign, particularly highlighting abortion rights, with measures related to protecting or expanding abortion rights in 10 US states also on the ballot.
Although Harris received the majority of female votes in the US, it was not enough for her to win the presidency.
Donald Trump, the winner, had conflicting messages on abortion during his campaign, but his three Supreme Court selections contributed to a majority decision that overturned Roe vs Wade in 2022, eliminating women’s legal ability to seek an abortion.
His re-election caused some women to consider joining the 4B movement – an unofficial group that originated in South Korea in protest against perceived misogyny and oppression by abstaining from sexual relationships with men.
Prior to the election, the 4B movement was not widely recognized on social media in the US. However, interest surged after Trump’s win, with over 50,000 mentions on X on November 6 from American accounts. Since the election, X posts mentioning 4B have garnered over 1 million engagements, potentially reaching more than 45 million accounts.
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‘I concede the election, but not the fight’
The exact beginnings of the movement are unclear but are believed to have surfaced in 2019 around the time conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol was elected.
Initially a small movement, it has expanded throughout Asia and globally, becoming a popular topic on social media.
4B represents four Korean words all starting with “bi” that translate to “no”, as explained by journalist Anna Louie Sussman, who wrote about the movement for The Cut magazine last year.
These four words serve as pledges of the movement:
• Bihon: refusal of heterosexual marriage
• Bichulsan: refusal of childbirth
• Biyeonae: abstaining from dating men
• Bisekseu: rejection of heterosexual sexual relationships entirely
Some women associated with the movement have also embraced shaving their heads and avoiding makeup as a way to challenge societal norms of objectifying women.
A tweet with significant likes on November 6 encourages American women to “consider the 4B movement like women in South Korea and contribute to a decline in the birth rate in the US,” emphasizing the need to push back against oppression.
Women’s Voting Trends in the US Election
Exit polls conducted by Sky News’ US partner NBC News reveal that women comprised 53% of all voters.
While the majority of female voters, 53%, supported Harris, 45% voted for Trump. Men favored Trump, with 55% of their votes, compared to Harris’ 42%.
Interestingly, Harris received less support from women in the 2024 election than Biden did in 2020, when he secured 55% of the female vote against Trump’s 43%.
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Experts note that Harris’ support from women was not exceptional, as the majority of women have favored Democratic candidates in presidential elections since 1996, according to the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University.
The polls further reveal that white women, representing 37% of voters, supported Trump over Harris with 53% of their votes, while women of other races predominantly favored Harris, particularly black women who gave her 91% of their votes, despite being a smaller percentage of the total voter population.
