A feminist crusade has emerged online in a bold response to Donald Trump’s election and the rollback of reproductive rights in the U.S—and it’s taking inspiration from South Korea’s radical "4B” movement.
It’s a movement born from anger, frustration, and a deep sense of betrayal prompting women to say “no” to everything relating to men: sex, marriage, childbirth, and dating. This refusal to engage with a male populace set on taking away women’s bodily autonomy is a political statement and demand for equality that refuses to be ignored.
“No matter how loud, how kind, how respectful, how cute, men will still fucking hate you,” said a TikTok user in a compilation video showing women online preparing to adhere to 4B in America.
And why are American women taking action? Because in Tuesday’s election, a majority of Gen Z men, or “podcast bros,” cast their votes for Trump—a man whose handpicked conservative Supreme Court majority stacked the deck against women’s rights and overturned Roe v. Wade. The president-elect is also a textbook misogynist who used sexist language in the weeks leading up to the election when he said he’d “protect” women “whether they like it or not.” He is a serial adulterer who was also found liable for sexual abuse and has been accused of assault by dozens of others—and American women have had enough.
With mounting solidarity, they are banding together (with some even shaving their heads in protest so as not to appeal to the male gaze) to adopt the 4B strategy: no more children, no more marriages, no more dating men until women’s rights are restored.
Late on Election Day, when it was clear Trump had won his latest bid for president, 26-year-old white nationalist Nick Fuentes posted a short and infuriating statement on X: “Your body, my choice. Forever.”
Fuentes, who dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, later went on his show “America First” and said to his 113,000 followers, “Hey bitch! We control your bodies. Guess what? Guys win again, okay? Men win again.”
This comes after reports by ProPublica of women like Amber Thurman and Josseli Barnica dying preventable deaths due to being turned away from hospitals in states with abortion bans.
On TikTok, women have been airing their rage, grief, and disappointment in powerful waves of shared emotion. Within 48 hours after Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, the “4B movement” hashtag started trending. Women joining the movement refuse to let their bodies be used as bargaining chips in a patriarchal society.
This moment isn’t just about a loss of rights: It’s a reclamation of power.
American women taking cues from South Korea
The “4B” comes from South Korea, where women decided to protest gender-based violence and a large wage gap by saying “no” to four B’s: biyeonae (dating men), bisekseu (sex with men), bihon (marrying men), and bichulsan (childbirth), according to CBS News. The movement has contributed to a plummeting birth rate in the country, according to The New York Times.
TikToker Mrs. Sallee shared her raw feelings with followers, her voice trembling with emotion.
“I just looked up what the 4B movement is, and I literally fell to the ground crying,” she said. “I cannot believe that that was something that had to be done and that now we’re at rock bottom, and this is where we are at. I feel like I’m living in a different world today. This is so heartbreaking.”
Social media influencer Drew Afualo, known for her bold feminist takes, weighed in on South Korea’s 4B campaign during an interview on the podcast “Soul Boom” with actor Rainn Wilson.
“It turns out women are a lot more essential than you would think, than men believe them to be, because now the government is panicking,” she said. “They’re like, ‘What are we gonna do? We’re gonna die out unless women decide to start having kids again!’ And women are refusing until they are awarded the exact same rights and respect that men are awarded in this society.”
Although a sex strike is novel in the U.S., Carrie Reiling, assistant professor of political science at Washington College, said it’s “part of a long history of sex strikes to achieve a particular political goal.”
“What is different about the 4B movement is the inclusion of not dating men, rather than simple refusal to have sex with men, which was the focus of many of the other movements,” Reiling said.
“The question for these women is if their goal is concrete enough to achieve anything. Will the connection between saying ‘no’ to men and their political aims be clear enough?” she asked. “While a 4B movement might draw attention and jumpstart a conversation about new feminist activist goals, women joining such a movement should ensure that their anger is not just toward men. They should also ask what compels women to vote this way and if a 4B movement can lead to progress on this front as well.”
An epidemic of lonely—and violent—men
Long before “podcast bros,” the conservative male digital sphere had coined language for how men see themselves and how they relate to women.
The term “incel” took flight in 2016, becoming the popular identifier for chronically online young men on the far-right who frequented message boards and platforms like Reddit, 4chan, and Twitter. The term is short for “involuntary celibate,” meaning men who do not choose to be celibate but are forced to because women won’t date or sleep with them. Other stereotypes like “Chads” (popular men who get lots of female attention) and “Stacys” (unattainable women who only date Chads) emerged out of this period.
Incels have since been linked to mass violence and terrorism. Fuentes is the evolution of the incels, now unafraid of voicing their abhorrent, sexist views because they feel emboldened by the nation’s newly elected leaders.
In 2017, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote about an American “loneliness epidemic” in the Harvard Business Review. Later, Boston Globe columnist Billy Baker wrote the book, “We Need to Hang Out,” on male loneliness. In 2023, a New York Times article urged young people under 30 to “have more sex” as they were the most sexless generation in U.S. history. An NPR piece walked men through how to make friends.
The upshot: Men are lonely—and this has made them vulnerable to becoming radicalized.
This all points to a disconnected, lonely, and socially awkward generation of Gen Z and millennial men who find Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance’s simplistic masculinity and alpha male posturing appealing. Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, tried to appeal to this group by showing a more evolved version of masculinity, with little success.
While women are just as likely to struggle with loneliness, they are used to fighting to find their place in a world that wants to shape them into their version of acceptable. Because women know how to build community for their well-being and survival, they’re built for times like these.
In another powerful show of solidarity, “blue bracelet” started trending on TikTok. White women are running to craft stores to make and wear blue friendship bracelets, distinguishing themselves from Trump-supporting MAGA women to signal their support to women of color. It’s a move grounded in the real risk of being identified as perhaps a “fellow traveler” in a climate that’s increasingly hostile and unsafe to marginalized groups. For many, these bracelets are more than just a symbol: They’re a lifeline.
“I think many women are at a loss for what to do, and are absolutely dismayed and betrayed by men who chose their wallet, or who knows what, over a women’s right to choose,” said Samantha Karlin, founder of Empower Global.
Karlin has spearheaded a female leadership workshop in Washington, D.C.
“I teach a concept called the locus of control—many things are outside of your control that can give you anxiety—and the election results certainly are causing many women to feel completely out of control,” she said. “Choosing to abstain from sex, dating, marriage—those are all things an individual can control, even if the country voted for a sexual predator, canned three abortion resolutions, and decided, again, a woman shouldn’t be president.”
The 4B and blue bracelet movements aren’t about what women are withholding, but what they’re demanding—like safety, equality, and respect. And if the respect isn’t willingly given, women will emulate the many political movements that came before and mobilize to create it for themselves.
