The 4B Movement and the men who hate it

Arroy (AJ) Jacob, Web Editor | 

In the spirit of Women’s History Month, March 2024, we celebrate and honour the achievements and livelihoods of women worldwide. 

But often, the notion of celebrating and recognizing women is viewed as hateful rhetoric. 

South Korea is one of the world’s most systematically patriarchal societies in the developed world. And with their conservative president Yoon Suk Yeol’s re-election in 2022, the notion of celebrating women’s livelihood is as taboo as ever, especially with the recent blatant disregard for proposals to strengthen the nation’s current rape law.

But in the bleak midnight, women win, and women triumph— and as a result of generations of institutionalized sexism and misogyny, South Korea birthed a new fight for gender equality through a surge in gender equality roots itself to the 4B Movement. 

And as every light source attracts an onslaught of moths, the rise of anti-feminism in the South Korean male population is running rampant, untying everyone’s hard-earned efforts.

Bihon, bichulsan, biyenoae & bisekseu

These are the “4Bs” or the “four no’s” that brought together the 4B Movement and are the four distinct values South Korean women adopted as a form of protest. Bihon is the refusal of heteronormative marriage. Bichulsan is the refusal to bear children for men. Biyenoae is the refusal to date men. And bisekseu is the refusal to have any heterosexual sexual relationship with men. These four ideology pillars demand a re-evaluation of South Korea’s historically patriarchal culture. Considered now a lifestyle for many women, this quality of life expands to nearly all male relationships, including male friends, as reported in The Cut. 

The 4B Movement is also regarded as bihon, the first value that indirectly encompasses the entire demonstration.  

Surprisingly, bihon originates from a novel adaptation of the author’s female adversity. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, a novel by Cho Nam-Joo, was released in 2016 during the forefront of the West’s #MeToo movement. It is credited with singlehandedly revolutionizing South Korea’s re-evaluation of men, women, and the patriarchal extreme— an instant international bestseller.

Analyzing the country’s relationship with gender started in the household, “the result is a rejection of the traditional family structure that pursued the benefit of the family with the patriarch at the apex. In other words, other family members, except the patriarch himself, are rejecting the authority of the patriarch and the patriarchal system,” says Boo Jin Park in an academic article for The Korea Study. 

But the men aren’t having it.

And of course they aren’t. The renaissance of women’s liberation in the nation has repercussed a rise in online hatred, misogyny and hate crimes. In another academic publication to Frontiers, Han Wool Jung says that “in South Korea, anti-feminism is now rapidly spreading online among young men, who have started to identify themselves as a social minority or ‘victims’ of female power.” 

A prime example of groups targeting women with the guise of “fighting misandry,” is the social mob “Dang Dang We.” As reported by FRANCE 24 Observers, the mob attended a women’s rally, dressed as the Joker from the Batman series, sprayed water at attendees, exalting, “I heard that there were f*****g feminists here, I’m going to murder them all!”

Hate crimes against women had not stopped at water. A controversial rise in “semen terrorism,” cases of men secretly smearing or ejaculating semen onto someone else or their belongings, had flooded South Korea’s courts. But as uncovered by The Guardian, most to all judicial proceedings only considered the sex crime as “‘property damage,’ and not sexually criminal behaviour.” South Korean politicians are actively working to change that.

The judicial system, in relation to public policy and politics, has also directly expressed its disdain for women’s livelihood. The Korean Broadcasting System reported  a survey showcasing that 47 per cent  of young Korean men believed that it was fair to reject a candidate’s job application if they knew the candidate was a “feminist.” Even when disregarding employment based on gender and beliefs, South Korea has one of the largest gender pay gaps in the current developed world economy.

But with a current government whose administration had vowed to altogether remove the country’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, as well as throwing out possibilities of revising current rape-law standards in fear of false-rape allegations, women finding solace in the 4B Movement is an active campaign that strives to change their society as a whole and correct people, policies, and dismissals. 

What now?

In Cho Nam-Joo’s novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, a story as old as time itself has resonated in the hearts of millions in the country and has spread its call for justice across the globe, as shown by its creation of the 4B Movement. Bihon has shown women everywhere the importance of empowerment, primarily through each other, when fighting for psychological and bodily autonomy. 

This Women’s History Month, women, female-identifying peoples, and allies alike will be called to emulate the courage of South Korean women everywhere to not only demonstrate the collective strength of women on Earth but also support the futures of young girls for generations to come.