A movement that involves women opting out of dating, sex, having babies and marriage with men is growing in popularity as South Korea's birth rate hits a record low.
The 4B movement reportedly began in South Korea in 2019. The core beliefs are four "no" rules: no sex, no childbirth, no dating and no marriage with men. In Korean the four words begin with 'bi': bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae and bisekseu.
It means women "aren't fighting the patriarchy", but "leaving it behind entirely", said The Cut. Yet it is "unclear how widespread or popular" it is, given its "fluid online and offline nature, and its evolution over the years". One article estimated there were 50,000 adherents, but others have put the movement's numbers at fewer than 5,000.
The lifestyle "might sound extreme", wrote Helen Coffey in The Independent, but the country's incidence of intimate partner violence was found to be 41.5% in a 2016 survey, compared to a global average of 30%. Also, South Korean women earn 31% less than men, almost triple the average of 11.6% across comparable countries.
Although "there's little evidence that British women will follow in 4B's footsteps", said Coffey, women decreasingly want to "settle for just playing a domestic role for a partner who doesn’t meet their expectations".
So it may not be 4B that grows in Britain, but "unless something changes" the consequences "might not be so different down the line". | 
