The 4B movement is attracting a lot of interest because it directly clashes with social norms, but a thorough examination reveals that it is not a radical trend but rather a manifestation of the social inequalities that need to be addressed.
The 4B lifestyle, consisting of four things no: dating, no sex, no marriage, and no childbirth with men, started in South Korea at the end of the 2010s and at the same time brought to people's attention the issue of gender inequality, economic struggles, and the demographic crisis.
Its adoption is unthinkable without reference to the surrounding social realities.
One of the reasons South Korea is a "woman's country" is the high number of couples getting divorced and their unwillingness to remarry. Women, on average, earn much less than men, suffer from career penalties after marriage or childbirth, and do most of the unpaid housework.
In contrast, the country is experiencing one of the lowest birth rates ever recorded, with the average dropping below one child per woman, which is far below the level needed to maintain the population.
The authorities often view this issue as a “women’s problem”, trying to persuade women to marry and have children instead of discriminating in the workplace and through long working hours, housing and childcare costs.
The 4B movement openly negates that view. On the other hand, despite its critical perspective, the 4B movement is not a mass movement in terms of the number of participants.
Not a lot of women in South Korea see themselves as part of the movement, and its presence on social media can sometimes give a wrong impression of the actual number of women who support it.
This has made some critics label the movement as a "symbolic" one rather than a "transformative" one. Refusing to be in a relationship may protect individual women, but it does nothing to change the institutions of labor markets, legal systems, or family policies.
From this point of view, the 4B movement can be regarded as a withdrawal instead of a brutal confrontation.
The international perception of the movement is also a source of tension. Many people in non-Korean countries sometimes interpret it as a “man-hating” movement, which is a gross simplification and overlooks the socioeconomic roots of the issue.
Moreover, some of the activists’ supporters are inclined to use an extreme interpretation that does not allow for any subtlety at all and thus promotes the polarization of the genders.
This may, in the long run, make it more difficult to have a constructive dialogue about reform as the positions would already be so hardened that the oppositions may not even listen to each other. However, to simply write off 4B would be to ignore its importance.
Traditionally, social refusals have often been a forerunner of a change. When a large enough group of people performs an opt-out, the systems have no other choice than to react.
The movement brings to light one bitter truth: a lot of women consider it more risky than rewarding to be in traditional relationships in the current situation.
That calculation would have to be changed—through equal pay, sharing housework between partners, having dating cultures that are safe, and family policies that are supportive— before such movements as 4B will ever stop popping up.
Ultimately, the 4B movement is not so much a vision of society but rather a signal alerting us of a situation.
It not only reveals what some women are rejecting but also explains the reasons behind their feeling that rejection is the most reasonable option.
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