US women protest sexist ‘your body, my choice’ trend post-Trump win, push for South Korean inspired 4B movement
Online abuse and hate towards women surged post-US election, driven by misogynistic communities emboldened by Trump's victory. In push-back, women online have begun to encourage the adoption of the South Korean ‘4B movement’. We explain.
Women in the United States are protesting the surge in online vitriol and sexism after Republican Donald Trump's 2024 US election win, by pushing for adoption of the South Korean feminist movement termed as ‘4B’, as per a Bloomberg report.
In the lead up to, and after Trump emerged victorious, online abuse and harassment towards women surged with rape threats such as “your body, my choice” and mocking posts like “get back to the kitchen” trending on social media platforms TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter), the report added citing data from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
ISD is a a nonprofit organisation that advocates policies to fight extremism.
‘Manosphere’ Influencers Galvanising Misogyny Online
ISD data showed that Trump's victory has “emboldened manosphere influencers” to lash out against perceived women-centric social policies such as reproductive rights and gender equality, it said.
“Donald Trump’s election victory against Vice President Kamala Harris this week has emboldened influencers from the ‘Manosphere,’ or interconnected misogynistic online communities, who see his election win as a rebuke of reproductive rights and gender equality… (Manosphere content creators) appear to be using the election results as a permission structure to more overtly and aggressively espouse narratives about curbing women’s rights,” the organisation noted.
Harris and Trump chose to appeal to the different sexes, with the former taking up contested abortion rights as a cornerstone issue, while Trump, with billionaire Elon Musk, on his team leaned on podcasts popular with young men and “locker-room” talk about a golf legend’s genitalia, the report added.
Attack on Women's Right to Vote, Rape Threats Surge
Pushed into prominent space online by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the phrase “you body, my choice” saw its use surge by 4,600 per cent on November 6, as per ISD data. Fuentes' post has over 76 million views since it was tweeted on November 6 (IST). Other trending phrases included calls for women's right to vote to be repealed (up 663 per cent from the previous week).
ISD also documented harassment which transitioned from online spaces into real life incidents in schools and university campuses with girls and parents complaining of boys in classes chanting “your body, my choice”.
Notably, the phrase is a co-option of the 1960s feminist movement slogan “my body, my choice”, which gained mainstream recognition again in 2022 after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. The original Roe v Wade ruling backed federal rights to abortion.
ISD looked at data from October 1 to November 6 and noted marked increase in harassment “more than just a continuation of misogynist trends that ISD documented in both the run-up to this election and in the aftermath of previous cycles including 2020 and 2022.”
Calls for US ‘4B Movement’ Grow
Women, especially online, have in protest thus called for Americans to adopt the South Korean radical feminist movement called ‘4B’. Also known as the “four nos”, it calls for women to refuse sex with men, date men, marry men and have children with men until equality is reached.
In response, some posts online called for women in America to adopt the “4B” movement, a revolt against men with roots in South Korea’s feminist movement. The four tenets are no sex with men, no dating men, no giving birth and no marriage with men, one X user wrote, garnering over 20 million views.
One post with 17.3 million views said: “ladies, I’m being so fr when I say this, it’s time to close off your wombs to males. this election proves now more than ever that they hate us & hate us proudly. do not reward them.”
Another post with 1.7 million views stated: “Reminder that the 4B movement, and the separatist movement in general, isn't just about avoiding men—it's also about supporting and investing in women. Seek out relationships with women, women-owned businesses, women-made media, etc; surround yourself with women and our culture.”
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
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Business NewsNewsUs NewsUS women protest sexist ‘your body, my choice’ trend post-Trump win, push for South Korean inspired 4B movement
First Published:9 Nov 2024, 01:19 PM IST
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