I wear clothes because there are men in this world. If there weren’t, I’d go everywhere naked unbothered.—Anonymous
In South Korea, a groundbreaking movement is challenging societal norms and demanding change. The 4B/6B movement which grew among South Korean women between 2016- 2019 is empowering women and influencing a shift in gender norms across the country. 4B is shorthand for four Korean words that all start with bi-, which means “no”. The Bs represent “bihon”, which is the refusal of heterosexual marriage. “Bichulsan” is the refusal of childbirth, “biyeonaeis” saying no to dating, and “bisekseu” is the rejection of heterosexual sexual relationships. The movement has also evolved into the 6B movement to include “bisobi” not buying sexist products and “bidopbi” which stands for supporting fellow single women practicing the movement.
Many women who subscribe to the basic premise of 4B/6B believe it is the only path by which a Korean woman today can live autonomously. In their view, Korean men are beyond redemption, and Korean culture, on the whole, is hopelessly patriarchal and downright misogynistic. In 2024, the gender gap index score in South Korea stood at 0.7 points, showing that an average gender gap of approximately 30 percent remained in the country. South Korea ranked 94th out of 146 countries surveyed by the gender gap index. These statistics prove beyond doubt that the views of the 4B/6B movement on South Korea supporting the patriarchy and oppressing women is indeed fact.
South Korea also has the largest gender pay gap in the rich world, with women earning 31 percent less than men, and women still face widespread discrimination in the labour market, something the movement recognises. Coupled with the increasing cases of gender-based violence in the country, South Korean women are determined to stay alive and stay safe by cutting ties with men altogether.
A quick look at gender-based violence in South Korea
According to a survey on abuse in South Korea in October 2022, around 82% of female respondents answered that gender-based violence in society was serious. Also, 69% of male respondents agreed with it. Another survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family found the incidence of intimate-partner violence at 41.5%, significantly higher than the global average of 30 percent.
Trigger warning: murder and rape
In 2016, a young woman was murdered by a man in a Seoul public bathroom, telling the police after that he killed her because women had always ignored him. Despite Kim—the perpetrator’s—own statement, police refused to label the murder a hate crime.
Seoul’s Seocho Police Station, which investigated the incident, said its preliminary profiler interview found “no specific cases of the perpetrator having been victimised by women. Mr. Kim appears to have generally felt victimised due to paranoia,” the station added.
Also in 2016, 22 men in their 20s were arrested for the alleged gang rape of two girls five years ago, police said Tuesday. The accused were suspected of raping two middle-school students in September 2011 when they were high school students. The leader is believed to have plotted the rape after he saw the two victims drinking alcohol. Threatening to report them to their school, he and other perpetrators called the girls to a cabin, forced them to drink and took turns raping the victims. Days later, another group of men violated the girls.
The incident was buried until August 2012, when one of the suspects spoke about the case while being investigated for his alleged involvement in another sexual assault. But both victims were traumatised and could not testify, until they overcame their trauma four years later.
K-Pop stars
K-pop stars have also been perpetrators of heinous gender-based crimes. In 2019, a South Korean court sentenced three K-pop stars for gang rape and additionally convicted one for distributing videos of the assaults and other sexual encounters.
Jung Joon-young, a singer-songwriter, and Choi Jong-hoon, a former member of the boy band FT Island, were found guilty of gang-raping two different women in two incidents in 2016 and sentenced to five years and two and half years respectively. Seungri, singer and a former BigBang member was convicted of obtaining sex workers for investors, embezzlement, molka (porn) and inciting violence was sentenced to 18 months on appeal.
All have now been released.
The Busan round kick
The “Busan roundhouse kick” incident is another popular case of GBV in South Korea where a man attacked and attempted to rape and murder a woman in Busan in February 2022. The man, who had an extensive criminal record of 18 prior convictions, was first sentenced to 12 years in prison, a far lighter sentence than the 35 years sought by the prosecution.
The case drew media attention after the victim uploaded a post online. Titled “I’ll be dead in 12 years”, it describes her fear of being murdered upon her assailant’s release after his jail term, after which he approaches her in retaliation for his punishment. The post went viral following an initial lower court ruling that handed down a 12-year sentence to the offender. Amid widespread public attention, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the 20-year sentence handed down by the appellate court.
While these cases reflect the gruesome nature of gender-based violence in South Korea, they also reflect South Korea’s systemic failure to deliver harsh sentences to perpetrators of gender-based crimes,
The impact and resilience of the 4B movement
In 2022, Korea’s fertility rate hovered at 1.2 births per woman and has since slid to 0.78, the lowest in the world, an effect attributed to the 4B movement. This resulted in the Korean government launching an online “National Birth Map” that showed the number of women of reproductive age in each municipality, illustrating just what it expected of its female citizens.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol won the election in March 2022 with a message that blamed the newly found feminism for Korea’s low birth rate, and a promise to abolish the country’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Upon entering office, President Yoon scrapped government gender quotas, declaring people would be hired on merit, not gender. He also appointed just three women to his 19-member cabinet and is moving for the abolishment of the government’s Gender Equality Ministry, which supports women and victims of sexual assault, claiming it is obsolete.
Women were outraged by his ideologies and the national birth map, observing that the government appeared to consider them “livestock”; one Twitter user reportedly created a mock map illustrating the concentration of Korean men with sexual dysfunction. Other women who claim affiliation with the 4B movement responded with a boycott of the reproductive labour expected by the state and decided that the surest way to avoid pregnancy was to avoid men altogether.
Financially, women adhering to 4B principles have redirected spending on beauty products to personal savings, fostering economic independence and challenging the gender pay gap. This movement has also sparked discussions challenging patriarchal norms, and pushes for changes in how we think about gender equality to prioritise women’s choices, their economic empowerment, and reshape the norm in a society.
Is the 4B/6B movement the key to ensuring safety for Nigerian women?
It is no news that violence against women in Nigeria has been on the rise. Reports of violence against Nigerian women have dominated news feeds with news of multiple women and girls either killed by their intimate partners or raped by people meant to protect them and this has become prevalent at an alarming rate.
With the growing rate of these atrocities, there has been a surge in feminist activism, fueled by the proliferation of digital platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). These online spaces allow women to confront harmful gender norms, disseminate knowledge, and uplift women’s communities, cultivating confidence, economic autonomy, and self-determination.
However, women, especially those who use digital platforms to express their opinions on abuse, sexism and gender equality, are often vulnerable to a range of abusive and harmful behaviour. This includes receiving threatening comments and messages, and being subjected to online shaming tactics such as slut-shaming.
The reoccurrence of gender-based violence in Nigeria raises a critical question: Can the 4B/6B movement, which advocates for cutting off men entirely, provide a safe haven for Nigerian women? While some may view this approach as a necessary measure, others argue that it is extreme.
Therefore, the government needs to acknowledge the gravity of this issue, and shift focus from temporary solutions like providing medical assistance and emergency call services for victims to solutions that tackle the root causes—societal norms, patriarchy, and institutional failures— and a system that enables violence against women.
