WHY SOME KOREAN WOMEN ARE SWEARING OFF MEN
Every year since 2019, the 4B movement has received an accidental surge in publicity with viewers finding out about the Korean feminists who are rejecting a life with men. But is it an accurate representation of the feminist population in Korea?
As of 2024 the average number of babies a South Korean woman will give birth to during her life is 0.68; note, for a country to maintain its population this number should be at 2.1*. Contributing to the frantically dropping birth rate, are the women participating in Korea’s 4B feminist movement. The 4B movement is a feminist movement in which members revolt against dating, having sexual relationships, marrying, and having children. The movement was created in 2019 by different groups of feminists across the country and drew inspiration from the Korean novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. Written by Cho Nam-Joo and released in 2016, it was the first Korean novel in almost a decade to sell more than 1 million copies*.
The novel surrounds the life of a house-wife who suffers from depression after becoming a stay-at-home mother, and addresses the sexism seen in modern Korean life, as well as quoting real statistics. The novel also led to the creation of another feminist motion known as ‘Escape The Corset’, in which Korean women refused to conform to SK’s severe beauty standards. SK is known for their strenuous beauty standards which encourage extreme dieting, extended skincare and makeup routines, as well as plastic surgery. These standards are most easily found in the phenomenon of K-pop, increasingly relevant to the 4B movement is the phenomenon of dieting and beauty culture in the genre. The genre even uses the term ‘visual of the group’, which as you can understand is self-explanatory, to reference the most visually appealing.
Stars like Jan Wonyoung of girl-group Ive have been the topic of much discussion in Western media for promoting unhealthy body standards for the women that support them. To ‘Escape the corset’ is to push against the ever-growing pressures of their home country; an art gallery in Seoul’s Gangnam showed an exhibition of the same titele by Jeon Bora, in which the women pictured all had short hair and no makeup.
South Korean feminist content creator and author Minjung Kim says: “The backlash against feminism is really awful in Korea, so not many can say that they are feminists. We are still the worst country when it comes to the glass ceiling, women’s career interruption after giving birth, terrible illegal recordings and filming in public restrooms, poor sexual crime punishment and law enforcement, and too high standards of being an “man enough” materially and career-wise.”
Student Jiwon Seo tells us that women in their teens and twenties make up the majority of feminists in SK. Men and women alike face immense pressures in Korean society, as Korean life pushes men to be the bread-winner of their families and relationships, and women are nudged to reach extreme levels of career success, or to leave their careers entirely and focus on their children. “Compared to my childhood, the number of students in each class at school has decreased significantly these days, and I feel that to see children even when I walk around the neighbourhood. These days, I feel like people really value children. Even if you have two or more children, you will be called a patriot.” says South Korean student Eubin Kim; “I believe that the 4B movement is the last option chosen by young members of society, especially those who cannot find a way to relieve pressure and anxiety. Still, I don’t want to give up on raising a stable family and the happiness that can be found within it.”she says.
Like Kim, many Korean women say it was less of an active decision made by themselves, and instead one made for them. The pressure to perform for their peers, allows women little time to do anything alongside worke like having children or getting married. Korean life largely says that women can have one or the other, but never both.
Another SK-student, Suhyeon Kim agrees, “It’s very important how they [Korean people] are seen by others, so they are educated in manners and rules strictly from an early age. In adolescence, grades and behaviours, whether formal or informal, they are compared with others in all situations. In this Confucian perception and competitive social structure, people always walk on eggshells and can’t be free from anxiety. In this social atmosphere, the national chronic problem (ex low birth rate and ageing) soon turns into pressure and scolding on individuals.” Despite the intermittent popularity of the Korean feminist movements in both SK and the West, the majority of Koreans are discreet in their support of feminism to avoid looking like ‘crazy women’ and being shunned by their peers. It’s clear that peer pressure is a serious issue in Korea and leads to a multitude of issues.
Perhaps it is time for the West to take a more active interest in the social issues of Korea, or maybe the Korean government will provide incentives to raise the population and allow women to be working mothers or even more.
To keep up with more Korean feminism be sure to follow Minjung Kim on Instagram.
**https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/19/kim-jiyoung-born-1982-cho-nam-joo-bestseller-review