Growing up, I attended an all-girls school. While it is easy to crack jokes that my parents wanted to shield me from teenage boys and young love, I was truly grateful for the temporary bubble my high school provided me.
In the utopia of no males, girls did not have to question their intelligence, weigh their inferiority, or temper their desire to hold leadership positions or speak up in class. Girls were told they could do and achieve anything within the realm of their imagination.
We were sent out into the world with the trite idea that the world was our oyster, only to wake up 4 years later and recognize men are our leaders in Washington D.C and the boardroom, and they are quite comfortable with the status quo.
While for many of my classmates and peers, recents events were a splash of sobering cold water, my eyes have been open to the realities of women in America for quite some time. I am aware of the often forgotten fact that women make 84 cents to the man’s dollar. I have seen how women around me pick up an unpaid second shift in their own home without the assistance of their significant others. I have watched white, male politicians ignore the pleas of earnest women to provide early childhood care and protections for our bodily rights. I have heard the words of objectification and sexualization uttered from males around me, who somehow forget that women are more than our bodies and what our bodies can offer them. Â
In light of the recent election and the failure of three referendums that would have protected abortion rights in Nebraska, Florida, and South Dakota, a movement that originated in South Korea has swept across the internet and drawn in American women from all walks of life, who are tired of the neglect they feel in the political, business, and dating worlds, and who seek to take back their power and autonomy.Â
The 4B movement had its beginnings in 2019, as South Korean women began to reconsider their place in society and their relationships with men.
The 4B stands for 4 Nos: No marriage. No childbirth. No dating. No sexual relationships.
While the concept may sound extreme, I believe it is a natural response to the long history of subjugation and discrimination experienced by women at the hands of men in charge.
For centuries men have dictated how a woman must comport herself, what she should do with her body, how she should dress, and what jobs she should aim for. Women are simply vocalizing that if men would like to engage with women, they must allow for our independence, bodily autonomy, and right to work, earn money, and live how we please.Â
In the past week, I have thought wistfully about my all girls school experience. A woman president, women as heads of clubs and organizations, a female principal. In a male dominated world, it’s comforting to know there are female dominated bubbles that exist to show impressionable girls they have immeasurable potential.
While I do not plan on defecting from our current society and ceasing all engagement with men, I do plan on pondering how we can expand upon the mentality of my all-girls school bubble. While men may still wield power in many corners of the world, we as women have our own intrinsic power. We have a voice, we have a vote, and we have the power to say no to whatever we deem does not serve us.Â