What is the 4B movement? Why is it gaining popularity in America now? Why do some non-sexist people also oppose 4B?Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.

(Relevance: Women-related issues are important components of the UPSC syllabus. Across, the General Studies paper, UPSC has asked questions on issues related to women. In this regard, knowing about trending movements becomes important, which can also be supplemented in your Mains answer.)

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory, the 4B movement, which originated in South Korea a couple of years ago, became one of the most searched topics online. Many American women took to social media to announce that they are adopting it in their lives.

1. 4B stands for four bis, or no in the Korean language: bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae, and bisekseu, meaning the refusal of (heterosexual) marriage, childbirth, romance, and sexual relationships, respectively.

2. The movement started in South Korea around 2016, when a young woman was murdered in a Seoul subway station. Her killer said he had “felt ignored by women”. This was also the time when multiple women in South Korea reported having been filmed by spycams in washrooms or while having sex, by strangers as well as men known to them. In many cases, the police were hostile to the victims.

3. This movement belongs to the strain of radical feminism that believes that heterosexual relationships at their heart remain structures of oppression, and women need to break free of them to be truly independent and happy so they adopt  “Four Nos” — no dating, no sex, no marriage, and no childbearing.

4. In the Indian context, consider this — marriage often involves dowry, the burden of running the married home and raising the child is disproportionately on women, many women are penalised at their workplaces for motherhood duties, and intimate partner violence is common. While women are supposed to endure all this for the sake of love and duties, there are very little expectations from men except earning money.

5. The proponents of the 4B movement believe that unless men work more actively for a gender-just society, women should not reward them with children, love, and emotional and other forms of labour.

6. Essentially, the movement wants women to imagine more roles for themselves than just wives and mothers. Women not bogged down by domestic duties and not being controlled by a man can focus on their own aims, hobbies, comfort, and happiness, the movement’s followers believe.

7. They also advocate women building strong solidarities with other women. This includes, but is not limited to, lesbian relationships. Women can depend on each other for comfort, companionship, and emotional support while working together to achieve common goals.

Why is it gaining popularity in America now?

1. When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, taking away the constitutional right to abortion, it undid more than 50 years of activism. The battles that second-wave feminists fought and won are now to be fought all over again.

2. According to a New York Times report, as of November this year, 21 states have banned abortion or restricted the procedure earlier in pregnancy than what was granted in Roe v Wade. Idaho, Tennessee, and Alabama made it a crime to assist anyone to get an abortion.

3. After the election, pro-Trump social media influencers trended a misogynist campaign called “Your body, My choice” which normalises rape and forced pregnancy. Undoubtedly, the slogan was an antithesis of the feminist slogan “My body, My Choice”. The underlying idea is to strip women of their agency.

4. According to Angellica Aribam, in America, the movement is not just about resisting deeply-rooted systemic inequalities — traditional gender roles and the disproportionate burden of domestic responsibilities — but also about women reclaiming agency over their bodies from the looming threats, legal as well as misogynistic men. It is a war cry.

Why do some non-sexist people also oppose 4B?

????Some point out that just cutting off contact with men is not a solution — this puts the onus of staying away from men on the woman, instead of demanding change and accountability from men. Believing men as incapable of reform can play into the ‘boys will be boys’ school of thought, it is argued. Meaningful change can come by raising awareness and a sense of responsibility among men, and this can happen by pushing back from within relationships, it is pointed out.

????Others point out that such totalising movements can be exclusionary of transgender rights.

????Another criticism is that these movements rob women of choice: one can be frustrated with inequality but still want children, or in the case of heterosexual women, sexual pleasure

1. In 2002, Suman Singh Chauhan of Badausa in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda was faced with an incident wherein her friend had been beaten up by her alcoholic husband. She gathered some of her friends and neighbours and rushed to her friend’s house and thrashed her husband publicly. This incident sparked off the origin of a group of women vigilantes in Badausa who took it upon themselves to correct social evils.

2. Calling themselves the Gulabi Gang (pink gang), the group did not just limit their activities to a fight against gendered social evils, but rather battled against several other wrongdoings such as hoarding, bribery, caste discrimination and several others. Wearing pink sarees and carrying bamboo sticks, they frequently resorted to violence in order to make their voices heard.

(Source: ‘Your Body, My Choice’ vs 4B movement, ‘No sex with Trump voters’)

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