https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-women-us ... 48357.html
Quote:
In the hours and days since it became clear that Donald Trump would be re-elected president of the United States, there’s been a surge of interest in the US for 4B.
Young liberal women across TikTok and Instagram are discussing and sharing information about the South Korean feminist movement, in which straight women refuse to marry, have children, date or have sex with men.
These women say they are enraged and fed up after a majority of their male counterparts voted for a candidate who was found liable for sexual abuse and whose appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices led to the overturning of national abortion rights protections.
In response, they say they’re swearing off men — and they’re encouraging others around the country to join them.
“We have pandered and begged for men’s safety and done all the things that we were supposed to, and they still hate us,” Ashli Pollard, a 36-year-old in St. Louis, told CNN.
“So if you’re going to hate us, then we’re going to do what we want.”
What is the 4B movement?
4B is a shorthand for the four Korean words bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae and bisekseu, which translate to no marriage, no childbirth, no dating and no sex with men.
The 4B movement emerged in South Korea around 2015 or 2016, per Ju Hui Judy Han, an assistant professor in gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mostly popular among young women in their 20s, she described it as a fringe offshoot of #MeToo and other feminist movements that arose in response to stark gender inequality in the country....
...It’s far too early to tell whether the 4B movement might seriously catch on in the US. But so far, at least, it’s generated a lot of online discussion among young women...
...Pollard says she learned about South Korea’s 4B movement a few years ago, inspiring her to “examine what a life looks like without centering men so deeply.” Since 2022, she says she hasn’t dated or slept with men and has realized that she’s better off on her own. She has the resources to support herself without marriage, and she plans to have a child alone.
Her decision to disengage from men wasn’t necessarily an act of vengeance, she says. Rather, it was about putting herself first. Now that other women around the country have taken an interest in 4B, she says she wants them to realize that they have other options.
“You push people far enough and they’re done,” she says. “How will that affect politics? We’ll see … but I think that women and their joy is going to be something that can’t really be overlooked anymore. Women are choosing themselves in droves.”...
...
Some are skeptical 4B will catch on
In Han’s view, the 4B movement is unlikely to become mainstream in the US.
She says it relies too heavily on the gender binary and that those inspired to join it as a result of the election are overlooking the fact that plenty of women voted for Trump, too. (Though Vice President Kamala Harris maintained an edge with women, exit polls indicate that her lead was smaller than President Joe Biden’s or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s during their respective presidential campaigns.)
Hadia Khanani, a 24-year-old from Florida, also has reservations about 4B in the US. Though she hasn’t engaged with men romantically for several years in an effort to prioritize herself, she wants women to dig deeper and examine their own role in upholding patriarchy. She also worries about the consequences of further isolating men.
“The conversation online has been centered around sleeping with men and dating men, obviously to protect yourself, but I just feel like misogyny and patriarchy is much deeper than that,” she says. “I think a lot of it is rooted in the way that men are raised in society.”
Even if large numbers of women don’t adopt the strict tenets of 4B, those who are taking part for now hope the recent conversations around it lead women to think about themselves and their circumstances differently.
“I don’t ever expect everyone in America to hold hands and agree not to date men,” Abby K. says. “I could definitely see it fueling change in some way.”...
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May you be blessed by YHWH and his Asherah
10 Nov 2024, 3:08 pm
