COMMENT: Google searches rise 450% for the 4b movement, but what is it?

A deep dive into the history of the 4B Movement.

American Democrats are now frantically running to find answers on Google after the recent election results.

The main answer they found was none other than the 4B movement, which originated in South Korea, stemming from a similar movement called “Escape the Corset”.

The idea of rejecting stereotypically “feminine” traits, dates back multiple millennials, with the oldest example of this idea being Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy play “Lysistrata”, performed in 411 BC, following a group of Greek women withholding sex, thus forcing men to end the Peloponnesian War.

This idea became the inspiration for South Korea’s Escape The Corset movement, which was popularised in 2017, with the western rise of the #MeToo movement, inspiring women to reject South Korea’s unrealistic beauty standards.

The standards had women and young girls spending incredible amounts on makeup, perfecting a 10-step skincare routine day in and day out, as well as taking an extra two hours out of their sleep to perfect this standard.

Now, in 2024, the Escape The Corset has been rebranded slightly to the ‘4B movement’.

The origins of the 4B movement can be traced back to the national protests over the filming of women using spy cameras and the publication and sharing of these videos.

With the name, 4B, stemming from ‘bi’ being the shorthanded word for ‘No’ in Korean, the 4b movement, relates to the 4 Nos.

The 4 Nos rules are: ‘bihon’, meaning the refusal of heterosexual marriage, ‘bichulsan’, the rejection of childbirth, ‘biyeonae’ is the denial of heterosexual dating, and the last no is ‘bisekseu’, the avoidance of heterosexual sexual relationships.

So, as explained in an article by The Cut: “The women of South Korea’s 4B Movement aren’t fighting the patriarchy-they’re leaving it behind entirely.”

So, with all of this in mind, what exactly does this have to do with the American elections?

With Trump’s presidency officially beginning on the 20th of January and 53% of females voting for Harris in comparison to Trump’s 45%, many American Democratic women are considering adopting this lifestyle.

With the highest Google searches being in states that all voted for the Democrats such as Washington DC, Colorado, Vermont and Minnesota.

Furthermore, the movement has also caught the attention online, with most taking to social media platforms such as, to express their inclination to join, believing in Fannie Lou Hammer’s quote: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

However, as we enter the final months of Biden’s presidency, it is unclear how many women will be making the sacrifice.