While many of us here at Hillsdale have been celebrating Donald Trump’s win, some liberal women across the country are screaming, crying, and swearing off sex forever. 

You read that right. Following South Korea’s 4B movement, which takes its name from “bi,” the Korean word for “no,” some American women say they are boycotting four things: dating men, having sex with men, marrying men, and having children with men. Oh yeah: they’re also shaving their heads to make themselves less attractive to the guys in their life.

On its surface, this illogical feminist movement will accomplish virtually nothing besides providing dry amusement to the rest of the country. If bitter pop music, plunging marriage rates, extreme feminism and neo-masculinity movements mean anything though, it’s that gender relations in America are in crisis. Instead of solving the real sex-related issues in our country, the 4B movement is isolating the extremists. Rejecting natural aspects of womanhood will only further divide our nation. However, it may be exactly the dramatic wake-up call that these women need to a path of real improvement and gender solutions. 

USA Today, NBC News, and countless other media organizations have been loudly proclaiming what we know to be true: Trump made significant gains with young male voters in this election. As NBC exit polls have shown, 49% of men aged 18–29 voted for Trump, as opposed to only 37% of women in that age group. Though many would see this as a positive change, some liberal women reacted to the gender divide in a drastic way. 

One woman on TikTok posted a video of her stroking a cat with the caption, “Doing my part as an American woman by breaking up with my Republican boyfriend last night and officially joining the 4B movement.” 

What 4B participants can’t see is the irony of their movement. For decades, conservatives have tried to tell abortion advocates that if women practice abstinence, that could mean fewer unintended pregnancies vulnerable to abortion. Daily Wire podcaster Brett Cooper reacted to the movement in a recent video in which she pointed out that these women are “not really realizing that is the solution to literally everyone’s problems. Less casual sex means fewer babies that you want to abort, happier women, healthier America.”

One man on X wrote, “Women are threatening to stop having casual sex and warning us they’ll start making sure their partner aligns with their values. How is the entire culture fixing itself from this one event? I can’t explain it.” Obviously this is an extreme statement, but he’s not entirely wrong. Once women start being more selective, their liberal male counterparts are going to have to rise to their healthier, higher standards. 

Writer Mary Harrington, a contributing editor at UnHerd, thinks that 4B may actually result in healthier marriages and real love instead of the hookups that have become so normalized in this culture. When women become more selective in their sexual choices, the only men they will date are those who value them for something more than sexual availability. Harrington writes that once these women stop looking for cheap love, real love will find them. 

Harrington encourages her readers to “cheer the 4B women on in their efforts — and cheer even more, when they ‘fail’ by falling in love.”

Of course, this isn’t the only way 4B could fail. One woman declared on X that she hopes for a “sharp decline in the American birth rate.” If millions of women really do choose to reject all men, we’re going to have some major societal issues on our hands. There would be a wide gap in the number of available men and women, only conservative-leaning families would be having children, the population would drop dramatically, and according to Brett Cooper, lesbianism would likely rise. 

However, the probability that the movement will cause such implications is small. The 4B movement will likely affect the women themselves more dramatically than America as a whole. Yes, conservative men are the targets of this movement, but unless the popularity of 4B grows drastically among young women, it won’t be a major issue. 

There’s still hope for these 4B women and the country they inhabit. Women also went on a sex strike to protest the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, but it didn’t last long. The 4B trend endured for years in South Korea before crossing the Pacific. But liberal and conservative commentators alike seem unconcerned about America’s iteration, predicting it will lose stamina quickly. Since this time around women are shaving their heads, we just might see pixie cuts start to trend next year instead. 

The decision to reject family life can only leave women lonelier and less fulfilled than ever before. Every woman has a maternal instinct, whether they acknowledge it or not. Male or female, we’re hardwired for love and connection. One TikToker is working to remedy this potential flaw in the 4B movement by encouraging 4B women to “cuddle with their girlfriends” whenever they feel lonely. Oh boy. 

To strike another blow, the movement has greatly irritated the online community of bald women suffering from conditions like alopecia or chemotherapy-treated cancer. These bald women are offended that 4B women are using baldness as a means to become less attractive and reject their femininity. Tara Bull, whose daughter is bald because of a medical condition, said on X, “Please stop shaving your head to make yourself ‘less attractive.’ The only people you’re hurting are other women and girls.

Kristen Clark, the founder of biblical womanhood platform Girl Defined, asked the question we’ve all been wondering: “Who is the one getting punished here?” In trying to prove a point about the sense of political abandonment they feel, 4B women ineptly harm men, other women, and themselves. If participants of the moment merely isolate themselves from naturally fulfilling romantic and family relationships, their sex strike will merely be a depressing joke. 

If instead its adherents learn from their practice of selectivity in sex that human relationships matter even more than they’d thought and enter the world renewed, the movement isn’t just a sex strike — it’s a sign of hope.  

 

Grace Novak is a freshman studying the liberal arts.