The Rise of the 4B Movement: Reimagining Futures Through Radical Resistance

Abstract

Following the 2024 U.S presidential election, the 4B movement—a South Korean feminist movement which is characterized by women’s refusal to participate in dating, marriage, childbirth, and sex with men—has experienced increased popularity in the West. Naturally, this inspires questions about the 4B movement, its origins, and its objectives. Asking these questions is necessary to avoid an oversimplification and/or Western co-optation of the movement. Through examining the historical contexts of Korean feminism, alongside modern socioeconomic conditions and online activism, this paper argues that the 4B movement can be conceptualized as a distinct radical feminist movement that responds to multiple intersecting power structures. By analyzing how the state, capitalism, and patriarchy work in concert to control women’s bodies and futures, the 4B movement’s counter-participation presents itself as political resistance aimed at reclaiming women’s autonomy and envisioning new feminist futures outside of patriarchal constraints.