Histrionic as elements of the 4B movement are, it’s more than a hissy fit. The last 60 years have afforded women unprecedented freedoms, yet they still feel unvalued and unsafe. The sexual revolution of the 1960s rejected every social, moral, and sexual expectation as a power-consolidating cultural construct. Women were “liberated” to define and pursue fulfillment on their own terms. Yet, despite these opportunities, “the paradox of declining female happiness” remains unresolved.

What you’re about to read started out as a very different column. I’d intended to decry, if not completely disparage, the post-election, social media temper tantrum that is the 4B movement and the women purporting to join it. But there is more to the story.

If you’ve not yet heard of the 4B movement, it originated in South Korea in 2018 among young, liberal women. After South Korean men voted for a candidate who was accused of sexual abuse and whose judicial appointments led to overturned abortion rights, South Korean women decided they were done—with men, that is.

The four B’s in Korean translate to no marriage to men, no childbirth, no dating men, and no sex with men. Adherents were effectively on strike against men, punishing them, in part, for failing to support abortion access.

In the United States, the 4B movement was back in the news after President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 election. In the days that followed, women took to Instagram and TikTok for a collective meltdown, shaving their heads, vowing to become unattractive, and swearing off sex, marriage, procreation, and men in general. Ostensibly, they protested Trump’s relative pro-life policies.

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