From Speaking Out to Private Rebellion: A Comparative Study of Advocacy in the #MeToo and 4B Movements
Despite having vastly different cultures and political landscapes, the United States and South Korea (hereinafter Korea) have experienced similar tensions between feminist and anti-feminist movements in recent years. The Trump administration has facilitated attacks on women’s freedoms that have existed for decades. Notably, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade. Footnote #1 content: See Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215, 231 (2022). The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (“SAVE”) Act raised concerns among lawmakers that it would make it difficult for married women whose surname no longer matches their birth certificate to vote. Footnote #2 content: See, e.g., BRYAN STEIL, COMM. ON HOUSE ADMIN., H.R. REP. NO. 118-552, at 49 (2024) (minority views), https://perma.cc/NV5F-8UA8; Juliana Kim, Will the SAVE Act make it harder for married women to vote? We ask legal experts, NPR (Apr. 13, 2025), https://perma.cc/P44W-GVT2. On the other side of the world, recently-impeached Korean president Yoon Suk-Yeol blamed “feminism” for the country’s declining birth rate and dismissed concerns about gender inequality, Footnote #3 content: Brianna Zimmerman, South Korea’s 4B Movement Lowers the Birth Rate in a Fight for Gender Equality, INT’L AFFS. REV. (Aug. 8, 2023) (“President Yoon Suk Yeol used men’s frustrations surrounding [gender equality] as part of his political platform, blaming feminism for the low birth rate while simultaneously claiming that gender inequality is not an issue in South Korea.”), https://perma.cc/A8SS-TAVX. as increasing rates of sexual assault and digital sex crimes threatened the safety of Korean women and girls. Footnote #4 content: Hyung-jin Kim, In South Korea, deepfake porn wrecks women’s lives and deepens gender conflict, AP NEWS (Oct. 3, 2024), https://perma.cc/FE8F-JY2E.
These attacks on women’s rights, while similar, have sparked drastically different responses from feminist groups in the two countries. In the United States, campaigns like the #MeToo Movement encourage women to share their experiences in efforts to normalize discussions of sexual abuse and increase the rate at which sex-based crimes are reported to the police. While the #MeToo Movement has mitigated the social stigma that has historically affected sexual assault survivors, Footnote #5 content: See Aya Gruber, A Tale of Two Me Toos, 2023 U. ILL. L. REV. 1675, 1677 (2023), https://perma.cc/8ZQK-EJR8; Kim Dinan, Global ‘Me Too’ movement hits close to home, MOUNTAIN XPRESS (Jan. 26, 2018) (“the stigma [attached to sexual assault] has been eroded to a certain extent”), https://perma.cc/9MU3-YGVN. some of the movement’s critics highlight its failures to adequately address the plight of women in minority communities. Footnote #6 content: See Gruber, supra note 5 (critiquing the #MeToo Movement for its focus on the carceral system and policy reforms); Alicia Boyd & Bree McEwan, Viral paradox: The intersection of “me too” and #MeToo, 26(6) NEW MEDIA & SOC’Y 3454, 3454–55 (2024) (characterizing the #MeToo Movement’s”illusion of inclusivity” that simultaneously excluded the Black women who comprised the movement’s “original community”).
In Korea, on the other hand, silent protests have emerged as a strategy for change. Specifically, women are expressing protest by withdrawing from relationships with men due to the economic impracticalities of holding a job and caring for a family at the same time, Footnote #7 content: HAWON JUNG, FLOWERS OF FIRE 262–63 (BenBella Books 2023). as well as fears of male-perpetrated violence in intimate relationships. Footnote #8 content: Id. at 129. This growing trend of women distancing themselves from relationships with men resulted in the “4B” movement, which began in the online forum “Megalia.” Footnote #9 content: Euisol Jeong, Troll Feminist: The Rise of Popular Feminism in South Korea 6 (Sept. 2020) (Ph.D. dissertation, University of York) (on file with White Rose eTheses Online, Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, and York), https://perma.cc/244V-A6GY. The term “4B” comes from the Korean word 비 (bi), which means “no”– referring to the four “no’s,” or the four things women in the movement should refrain from doing with men; bihon (no marriage), bichulsan (no childbirth), biyeonae (no dating), and bisekseu (no sex). Footnote #10 content: Id. Critics of the 4B movement are concerned that it serves only to intensify gender-based conflicts, making men resent women for taking away their access to sex while simultaneously depriving women of basic pleasures. Footnote #11 content: Jeong, supra note 9, at 74 (“The Megalian movement can be understood as an explosion of pentup gendered conflicts in South Korea.”).
For all of their differences, these movements have also converged as women across the world explore what strategies will best protect their rights. As the 2024 presidential election drew to a close, young women in the United States, primarily through platforms such as TikTok, learned about the 4B Movement and called for the movement to take root in the United States. Footnote #12 content: In response to the election of President Trump in 2024, a 24-year old American woman who had learned about the 4B Movement on the social media platform TikTok explained that “[i]t’s heartbreaking to know that in this country you only matter if you’re a straight white man […] so I will not let another man touch me until I have my rights back.” Alaina Demopoulos, ‘No man will touch me until I have my rights back’: why is the 4B movement going viral after Trump’s win?, THE GUARDIAN (Nov. 7, 2024), https://perma.cc/K8Q4-FBAX. Similarly, the #MeToo Movement arrived in Korea in 2018, when women needed it most. With gender-based violence on the rise, Korean women took to the streets in protest, proudly proclaiming “[m]y life is not your porn” and “[a]ngry women will change the world.” Footnote #13 content: JUNG, supra note 7, at 3.
In this paper, I will analyze the similarities and differences between the responses of the #MeToo Movement and the 4B Movement to their respective countries’ attacks on women’s rights. Section II will explore the cultural and historical contexts that created the breeding ground for movements like #MeToo and 4B. I will distinguish between the viral trend of #MeToo and its roots in the “Me Too” Movement founded a decade earlier by Tarana Burke. I will also explore the resurgence of feminism in Korea in 2015, spurred on by the growth of the internet as a forum for community conversations. In Section III, I will focus on similarities between the two movements, including their use of social media and the creation of feminist communities and support groups. Section IV will turn to the differences between #MeToo and 4B, highlighting how each movement uses either speaking out or silent protest and institutional change or grassroots activism to advance its vision for women’s rights. Section V will address the resurgence of antifeminist sentiments in the last decade in both the U.S. and Korea, highlighting how the same strategies that have given feminist movements a stronger voice have also allowed their opponents to feel comfortable publicly threatening the rights and safety of women.
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