The fallout from the highly anticipated 2024 presidential election continues to unfold. As Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters process her loss to President-elect Donald Trump, they are also thinking of ways to resist. Now, something called the 4B Movement is trending online. Some tout it as a potential response to threats to abortion and reproductive rights in America.

What Is the 4B Movement?

The 4B Movement is a South Korean feminist ideology reportedly originating in 2019. According to Asia News, it is based on what are called the four no’s: no dating, no sex, no marriage and no children. The English word “no” translates to “bi” in Korean which explains the “b” in 4B. The boycott is a response to the mistreatment of women in South Korean culture. It was inspired by a blockbuster film, “Kim Ji-young, born in 1982”. The movie is based on a novel that chronicles a South Korean women’s struggles in marriage and child rearing. Women who subscribe to the movement are choosing to disengage with traditional heterosexual relationships as an act of resistance.

According to several reports, women in South Korea face some harsh realities including gender pay gaps and domestic violence. Korea Times reports that for every $1000 a Korean man earns, a Korean woman earns $689. According to Pew Research Center, American women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. Comparatively that would be $820 to every $1000 earned by an American man. South Korea’s pay gap is the largest in Democratic countries.

The 4B movement reports to have 4000 followers and a YouTube channel that promotes a marriage boycott has 100,000 subscribers. It appears the efforts of the movement have produced results. According to Asia News, South Korea needs a fertility rate of 2.1 for the population to remain stable. In 2023, Texas A&M College of Arts and Science reported that South Korea’s fertility rate sits at 0.78 and that the country is experiencing more deaths than births.

Following Trump’s win on Nov. 5, American woman are now discussing the 4B Movement and if they could implement it in the USA.

Could the 4B Movement USA Happen?

On social sites X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. women, who are disappointed by the 2024 election results, shared interest in trying the 4B Movement.

“Y’all, I think I’m ready to go full 4B,” TikTok user QueenErin The1st said. “Why are our rights always up for grabs. It’s not a free country if every 4 years I’ve got to fight for my life. If y’all insist on making women second class citizens, we don’t have to give you our body.”

On X, one user considered how effective the movement could be on American soil and globally.

“Want the world to listen… start decreasing their population and economy. There’s no country to run if the birth rates start decreasing. Don’t give in until they start listening. Then they will start to panic,” the user wrote.

But, conservatives had a different perspective on the ideology. Conservative, maybe_itsmolly, posted a video of herself cooking with a text overlay that reads, “The only women partaking in the 4B Movement are liberals. Conservatives will procreate. This means we will see a huge influx of conservatives being born. I support your movement.”

Most conservatives in the comments agreed with maybe_itsmolly. Several commenters, however, pointed out that conservative’s children are not guaranteed to have the same beliefs as their parents.

Black Women Respond to the 4B Movement

On TikTok, user Hunter Reign provided another take on the movement in regard to Black women. Reign countered calls for women in the USA to follow the movement, pointing out that Black women, “are the 4B Movement.” Reign says that when content similar to Kevin Samuels videos began to gain popularity, many women began to divest from romantic pursuits. She referred to this content as red pill content; some of which casts a negative light on upwardly mobile, highly-educated Black women.

“We don’t need a 4B Movement,” Reign said. “Because I can guarantee you these girls are going to start saying ‘we got to stop having children’ right ‘we’re not going to get married anymore, we’re going to focus on our education.’ Who wrote the script to that movie?”

Some in Reigns comments felt she was misunderstanding the origins of the movement. Others felt she was simply trying to explain that Black women have been attempting to protect their peace, in regard to men, long before the movement became popularized in America.

“If we can create life for other people, we can create lives for ourselves,” Reign said. “And the real tea is that they’re just mad they can’t siphon energy off of us anymore.”