Bhubaneswar: There goes the saying “History repeats itself, First as tragedy, Second as a farce.” America is starring at another revolution post the stunning win of former US President Donald Trump.
Date: January 21, 2017: America witnessed the largest protest in history (four million-plus people in cities across the country) a day after Trump’s inauguration (January 21, 2017). For the first time, the pink pussy hats filled the city space, only to become an immediate and ongoing symbol of women’s empowerment – The #MeToo movement.
Date: November 7, 2024: In the wake of Trump’s victory on November 5, reports have surfaced about how FB movement has been sweeping the social media in the USA. The sample check is below.
One X user in a post wrote, “Ladies, we need to start considering the 4B movement and give America a severlyt sharp birth rate decline.”
How the movement is growing like a wildfire is evidenced from the fact that the said post has garnered a high of 4.6 lakh likes.
WHAT IS 4B MOVEMENT?
This is a Korean feminist movement that rocked the nation in 2019. Like in America, the movement first started in social media, especially on twitter (now X). And later spread to Tik Tok.
The movement advocates for women to reject gender norms, including marriage and child-rearing. The reason they cited is high prevalence of rampant misogyny (women hate crime).
The term was coined by South Korean author Cho Nam-joo in her 2016 novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. The four Bs stand for four principles:
- Bihon: No heterosexual marriage
- Bichulsan: No childbirth
- Biyeonae: No dating men
- Bisekseu: No heterosexual sexual relationships
Though propounded in 2016, it remained an obscure movement. But in 2019 was thrust into the spotlight after YouTubers Jung Se-young and Baeck Ha-na said via their channel SOLOdarity that marriage was the “root cause of patriarchy”.
Both encouraged women to reject traditional feminine duties that include getting married and raising children.
The 4B movement then exploded on TikTok after a TikToker named Jeanie, who goes by name denim chromosome, gave a spirited rant about it on Feb 17, 2019.
She said the 4B movement is women’s response to “giving up” on men, whom she referred to as “f****** a*******”, adding that women are going to go “extinct”.
“Korean ethnicity is about to go away, and Korean women are literally like…,” Jeanie added.
In 2019, the video garnered over 5.5 million views and thousands of comments, mostly from women calling for the 4B movement to go beyond the shores of South Korea.
4B ‘SCREWED’ SOUTH KOREA, WILL IT DO SO TO AMERICA?
Professor Joan Williams’s made a prognosis that South Korea was “screwed”. And it went viral. A report from Seoul’s National Assembly Research Service asserted that the country will become extinct with the last South Korean projected to live until 2750.
This South Korean National Assembly study shows the country has a life span of 726 years. And the Korean ethnicity will die forever thereafter. The prognosis was made on following assumptions.
- The fertility rate is dire in the magnitude of its decline, its speed, and duration.
- The fertility rate has remained at or below 1.3 for two decades, which is longer than any other advanced country in the world.
- In 2022, South Korean women bore an average of .78 babies over her lifetime the lowest fertility rate among advanced nations.
- Data from 2024 suggests the rate dropped even further to .72.
- This was the fourth straight year of decline and the lowest rate since data have been collected in the country.
- 4B movement has been blamed for the consecutive decline for 4 years, because the movement shook the country in 2019.
- American experts and policy makers are worried at the fast growth of 4B movement in America post Trump win.
WHY 4B MOVEMENT LINKED TO TRUMP WIN?
Republicans have been supportive of strict anti-abortion laws. Nearly two years after America’s Supreme Court overturned Abortion law, this was a hot issue this election.
Moreover, Vice President Designate JD Vance had flagged this issue of growing child less couples and had targetted the Democrats, especially VP Kamala Harris. His comments "Childless cat ladies" in 2021rocked the nation during the elections 2024.
Democrats have made this a big poll issue. But the Trump and Republican whitewash to Democrats at the poll hustings rip open the bruising wounds of gender divide.
Here is a raw ground evidence on how divisive has been the gender voting in the USA this election.
The NBC News, in conjunction with a consortium of news organizations, conducted exit polling across the country in 10 key states. The key results of the poll bring to the fore the gender voting divide.
- GENDER VOTING PATTERN: view the image below. The red colour codes Republicans and blue colour denotes to Democrats.
- 4B MOVEMENT SIGNS IN VOTING PATTERN: View the Image below
VOTING BY SEX, RACE: View the image and take note of the divide to fore.
