No Sex, No Dating, No Babies, No Marriage: How the 4B Movement Could Change America
无性、无约会、无生育、无婚姻：4B 运动如何改变美国

My cousin and her friends are not alone. Across Korea, young women are swearing off men, influenced by the 4B movement, a radical feminist campaign that originated in Korea in the late 2010s. The four Bs stand for bi-hon (no marriage), bi-yeonae (no dating), bi-chulsan (no birthing) and bi-sex (no sex).
我的表妹和她的朋友们并不孤单。在韩国各地，年轻女性受到 4B 运动的影响，纷纷发誓不再与男人来往，这是一场激进的女权运动，于 2010 年代末在韩国兴起。这四个B分别代表bi-hon（不结婚）、bi-yeonae（不约会）、bi-chulsan（不生育）和bi-sex（不做爱）。

The movement formed in response to growing gender inequality and violence against women: Korea has one of the largest gender pay gaps in the world, and brutal murders of women — in subway stations, on rooftops and in their own homes, often at the hands of men they were dating — headline news shows daily. Amid so much political turmoil and bloodshed, 4B activists say the only way to make women safe — and convince society to take their safety seriously — is to swear off men altogether until something changes.
该运动是为应对日益加剧的性别不平等和暴力侵害妇女行为而发起的：韩国是世界上男女薪酬差距最大的国家之一，每天的新闻头条都会报道妇女惨遭杀害的事件--在地铁站、在屋顶和在自己家中，而凶手往往是与她们约会的男子。在如此多的政治动荡和流血事件中，4B 活动家说，让妇女安全的唯一方法--并说服社会重视她们的安全--就是发誓完全远离男人，直到情况有所改变。

And now, in the wake of Donald Trump’s reelection, 4B is going viral on U.S. social media among women who are furious with the men who helped the former president clinch a win. On TikTok alone, top videos have gained millions of views, and one widely shared tweet about the 4B movement post-election now has 450,000 likes and 21 million views at time of writing.
现在，在唐纳德-特朗普（Donald Trump）再次当选后，4B 在美国社交媒体上迅速走红，女性们对帮助前总统赢得选举的男性们感到愤怒。仅在 TikTok 上，热门视频就获得了数百万的浏览量，一条关于大选后 4B 运动的推文在撰写本文时已获得 45 万个赞和 2100 万次浏览。

It’s too soon to say if the 4B movement is here to stay in the United States. But even if it isn’t, the surge in interest says something about the social forces unleashed by the 2024 presidential election. An uptick in misogyny has already been evident — just look at the “your body, my choice” comments by men online — similar to what’s been seen in Korea, suggesting that this kind of feminist reaction could take hold. And even if women don’t explicitly take on the 4B label en masse, the movement’s message of bodily autonomy, and the anger that drove the conversation in the first place, could have a major impact not just on American politics, but on American life overall — just as it has in Korea.
现在断言 4B 运动是否会在美国持续下去还为时尚早。但即使不是，这种兴趣的激增也说明了 2024 年总统大选所释放出的社会力量。厌恶女性的情绪已经明显升温--看看网上男性发表的"你的身体，我的选择"的评论就知道了--这与韩国的情况类似，表明这种女权主义者的反应可能会深入人心。即使女性不会明确地集体贴上 4B 的标签，这场运动所传达的身体自主的信息，以及一开始推动这场对话的愤怒情绪，也会像在韩国一样，不仅对美国政治，而且对整个美国生活产生重大影响。

Think of the movement as a labor strike, says Soha, a Korean feminist who provided only her online nickname for fear of being harassed for supporting feminism. She says it’s about rejecting the additional work women put in to appeal to men, maintain a household and follow patriarchal values — the kind of work that is more widespread in South Korea’s more socially conservative society. It’s the type of labor all women can identify with and push back against with one powerful voice. Many women eschew the 4B label, often in fear of harassment, but still live by its principles. My cousin describes it as an act of survival, a way to shield women from rapidly rising violence, avoid toxic conversations with misogynistic men and resist an anti-feminist government that is actively trying to roll back women’s rights.
韩国女权主义者索哈（Soha）说，可以把这场运动看作是一场罢工，她只提供了自己的网络昵称，因为她害怕因为支持女权主义而受到骚扰。她说，这是为了拒绝女性为迎合男性、维持家庭和遵循父权价值观而付出的额外劳动--这种劳动在韩国社会较为保守的社会中更为普遍。这是所有女性都能认同的劳动类型，并能以一种强有力的声音予以反对。许多女性往往因为害怕受到骚扰而回避 4B 标签，但仍然遵循其原则。我的表妹将其描述为一种生存行为，一种保护女性免受快速上升的暴力侵害、避免与厌恶女性的男性进行有毒对话、抵制积极试图削弱女性权利的反女权主义政府的方式。

Just as gender has become a political predictor in Korea, it’s shaping elections in the United States. The turnout demographics from the U.S. presidential election are still being sorted out, but a few things are crystal clear. The Republican ticket used male identity and gender grievances as a successful political tool, courting the “bro” vote and attributing Kamala Harris’ success to her identity. Young men helped Donald Trump win the election. Many young women are distraught. It’s an acceleration of the already widening gender gap in American politics, including an increasing number of young men rejecting feminism. An NBC News poll found that 57 percent of women backed Harris, compared to 40 percent of men — with women sprinting to the left while men flirt with the right.
在韩国，性别已成为政治预测因素，在美国，性别也在影响着选举。美国总统大选的投票人口统计数据仍在整理中，但有几件事已经非常清楚。共和党选票将男性身份和性别不满作为成功的政治工具，争取 "兄弟 "选票，将卡马拉-哈里斯的成功归因于她的身份。年轻男性帮助唐纳德-特朗普赢得了大选。许多年轻女性心急如焚。这加速了美国政治中已经在扩大的性别差距，包括越来越多的年轻男性拒绝女权主义。一项NBC新闻调查发现，57%的女性支持哈里斯，而男性的支持率为40%--女性向左冲刺，而男性向右调情。

Some U.S. women are seeking both revenge and relief from the consequences of a Republican trifecta, including a rollback of reproductive rights and a broader cultural acceptance of sexist rhetoric. For some online, the answer is right in front of them: the 4B movement from South Korea.
共和党三连胜的后果包括生育权的倒退和文化上对性别歧视言论更广泛的接受，一些美国妇女正在寻求报复和解脱。对于一些网络用户来说，答案就在眼前：来自韩国的 4B 运动。

Like the U.S., South Korea’s gender divide played a striking role in South Korea’s most recent presidential election. Yoon Suk Yeol, then the conservative candidate, secured a victory in 2022 by catering to young men who felt left behind during a rapid push for gender equality, especially after the country’s #MeToo reckoning in 2018 tanked the careers of several actors and politicians. Young men cheered on Yoon’s declarations of being an “anti-feminist,” saying that “structural discrimination based on gender” does not exist, despite the fact that the country regularly ranks near the bottom in the World Economic Forum’s gender equality index. To this day, young men perceive that discrimination against men is more serious than against women, even though 50 percent of women between the ages of 19-29 say they’ve experienced sexual discrimination at work, compared to 30 percent of their male peers. From 2021 to 2023, female sexual assault victims saw a 15 percent rise. Many American women fear the same could happen here.
与美国一样，韩国的性别鸿沟在韩国最近的总统选举中也发挥了引人注目的作用。尹锡烈（Yoon Suk Yeol）当时是保守派候选人，他在2022年的选举中获得了胜利，因为他迎合了那些在性别平等的快速推进过程中感到被抛在后面的年轻男性，尤其是在2018年韩国的#MeToo事件导致几位演员和政客的事业受挫之后。尽管韩国在世界经济论坛的性别平等指数中经常排名垫底，但年轻男性还是为尹秀珍宣称自己是 "反女权主义者 "而欢呼，称 "基于性别的结构性歧视 "并不存在。时至今日，年轻男性仍然认为男性受到的歧视比女性更严重，尽管19-29岁的女性中有50%表示在工作中遇到过性别歧视，而男性同龄人中只有30%。从 2021 年到 2023 年，女性性侵犯受害者增加了 15%。许多美国女性担心同样的情况也会在这里发生。

4B messaging is already echoing on U.S. social media. One X user advertises the 4B movement as a way to “take control of your life under *him*.” Another user writes, “We need to start considering the 4B movement … We can’t let these men have the last laugh … we need to bite back.” One TikToker has posted she’s joining the 4B movement after breaking up with her Republican boyfriend.
4B 消息已经在美国社交媒体上回响。一位 X 用户宣传4B 运动是 "在*他*的领导下掌控你的生活 "的一种方式。另一位用户写道，"我们需要开始考虑 4B 运动......我们不能让这些男人笑到最后......我们需要反击"。一位TikToker发帖称，她在与共和党男友分手后加入了4B运动。

“When I saw the movement go viral in the U.S., I thought, even U.S. women must be at their limit,” says Yeonhwa Gong, a Korean 4B follower who has written on the topic. “But I don’t feel too bad that it has come to this point — if anything, I think of it as a necessary action that had been pushed back for a while and is now finally happening.”
"当我看到这场运动在美国掀起热潮时，我想，即使是美国女性也一定到了极限，"韩国 4B 追随者 Yeonhwa Gong 说，她曾就此话题撰文。"但我并不觉得事情发展到这一步有什么不好--如果说有什么不好的话，我认为这是一个必要的行动，它被推迟了一段时间，现在终于发生了。

For women who adopt the 4B mindset, not even men who claim to be on the same political spectrum can provide a safe space. With so many men opposing feminism, and even a video on how pro-Trump men could hide their political beliefs from the women they date going viral, how do you know if he’s telling the truth? “A lot of women are just tired of men, and worrying about ‘what if?’” my cousin told me. “I had thought at some point I’d want to find a good man, no matter how hard that would be. At this point now though, I don’t feel that need.”
对于采用 4B 思维模式的女性来说，即使是那些自称政治立场相同的男性也无法提供一个安全的空间。有那么多男人反对女权主义，甚至有一段关于亲特朗普的男人如何向他们约会的女人隐藏自己的政治信仰的视频在网上疯传，你怎么知道他说的是不是真的呢？"我的表妹告诉我："很多女人只是厌倦了男人，担心'如果'会怎样？"我曾想过，不管有多难，总有一天我会想找到一个好男人。但现在，我觉得没有这个必要了。"

The 4B movement might seem too radical to get far in the U.S., but the fact that it’s gained traction suggests that at least a number of young women feel more vulnerable since the reelection of Donald Trump than they did before it. The 4B discourse in the U.S. “prompts us to reflect on how much society has taken for granted or overlooked the rights and the freedoms that women rightly deserve,” says Hyejin Jeon, a University of Maryland doctorate student from Korea who is currently analyzing her country’s feminism movements.
4B 运动看似过于激进，在美国难以走远，但它获得牵引力的事实表明，自唐纳德-特朗普（Donald Trump）连任以来，至少有一些年轻女性比连任前感到更加脆弱。来自韩国的马里兰大学（University of Maryland）博士生全慧珍（Hyejin Jeon）目前正在分析自己国家的女权运动，她说："美国的 4B 话题 "促使我们反思社会在多大程度上将女性理应享有的权利和自由视为理所当然或视而不见。

If the movement takes hold, it could potentially lead to some of the same outcomes as have been seen in Korea, where women are reconsidering dates with men out of suspicion and lack or trust, young people are marrying and having children at lower rates, and both men and women are expressing deep loneliness. Politicians could take advantage of the divide for their own gains, leaning harder into gender-divide politics, and even outright sexist rhetoric. And even women may turn against one another; American women are already arguing about the inclusivity of the movement, with some saying that women with male partners have no part in 4B. Such discourse has long fractured feminist groups in Korea, according to Minyoung Moon, a Clemson University lecturer who published a report about the backlash against feminism in South Korea. Married women are seen as “serving the needs of men,” she says, alienating the group from what could be a more inclusive movement.
在韩国，女性因怀疑和缺乏信任而重新考虑与男性的约会，年轻人的结婚率和生育率下降，男性和女性都表达了深深的孤独感。政客们可能会利用这种分歧为自己谋利，更加倾向于性别歧视政治，甚至赤裸裸地发表性别歧视言论。甚至女性之间也可能反目成仇；美国女性已经在争论该运动的包容性，有些人说，有男性伴侣的女性与 4B 无关。克莱姆森大学（Clemson University）讲师明英-文（Minyoung Moon）发表了一份关于韩国女权主义反弹的报告，她认为这种言论长期以来一直在分裂韩国的女权主义团体。她说，已婚女性被视为 "为男性的需求服务"，这使得她们与本可以更具包容性的运动格格不入。

And then there’s the danger of backlash from the right. “The long-term effect I see is very negative, because they chose the radical strategy, giving men and anti-feminists reason to hate them even more,” Moon says. “And when I look at the 4B movement … on YouTube, I already see the conservative party people bashing against liberal women.”
还有来自右翼反弹的危险。"穆恩说："我认为长期的影响是非常负面的，因为她们选择了激进的策略，让男性和反女性主义者有理由更加憎恨她们。"当我在 YouTube 上看到 4B 运动......时，我已经看到保守党人对自由派女性的抨击。

Still, at least for now, the movement appears on the upswing in both countries as women say that the model of life they’d expected — dating, marriage, house, kids — looks, increasingly, like a trap set by men who don’t see them as equals. And women like my cousin want alternatives.
不过，至少从目前来看，这场运动在这两个国家似乎都有上升的趋势，因为女性们表示，她们所期待的生活模式--约会、结婚、买房、生子--看起来越来越像是男人们设下的陷阱，男人们并没有把她们视为平等的人。像我表妹这样的女性希望有其他选择。

“To live with friends that are close to me, to have the ability to live on my own — living like that is my dream,” she says.
"她说："与亲近的朋友一起生活，能够独立生活--这样的生活是我的梦想。