A backlash against dating culture and apps accelerated with Trump’s re-election, as many opted for self-sufficiency, fostering friendships and protesting against misogyny
The main issue is that 4B in South Korea specifically is a manosphere esq movement for woman. It ends up with the same reactionary bent to it as it is not about equality but separation. It ended up with terf rhetoric as well.
Shepherd, who is trans, notes that the many South Koreans participating in 4B have developed hateful anti-trans, anti-gay views, given the “bioessentialist ideology” that places immense import on child-bearing as a marker of womanhood. “Korean women aren’t transphobic or homophobic, I have friends there and they love me and my transness,” he adds. “I’m saying that the most stalwart members of the 4B movement, those who champion it the most passionately, usually fester in queerphobic forum spaces like Womad. This wasn’t intentional in the creation of the 4B movement, but a separatist movement based in biological essentialism is a movement that can very readily foster that environment.”
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds reminiscent of terfs and feminism, where the movement itself is good, but the extremists co-opting it are the problem? I’d only heard about it in passing, and it seemed quite reasonable to me; I wasn’t aware of that side of it, though.
With 4B in South Korea I think it was bad from the start and not a case of co-opting. With people championing 4B in the US it’s a case of it’s still new, but unfortunately has roots in a bad movement. Hopefully 4B in the US will reject the terf aspect of 4B in South Korea, but that will take work.
Can you explain why this is? I’m only familiar with the basic premise, what’s transphobic about it?
The main issue is that 4B in South Korea specifically is a manosphere esq movement for woman. It ends up with the same reactionary bent to it as it is not about equality but separation. It ended up with terf rhetoric as well.
Here’s some articles to read:
https://www.them.us/story/how-4b-actually-leaves-trans-people-behind
https://time.com/7177557/4b-us-women-resisting-patriarchy-essay/
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds reminiscent of terfs and feminism, where the movement itself is good, but the extremists co-opting it are the problem? I’d only heard about it in passing, and it seemed quite reasonable to me; I wasn’t aware of that side of it, though.
With 4B in South Korea I think it was bad from the start and not a case of co-opting. With people championing 4B in the US it’s a case of it’s still new, but unfortunately has roots in a bad movement. Hopefully 4B in the US will reject the terf aspect of 4B in South Korea, but that will take work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4B_movement#Transphobia_and_homophobia_in_the_South_Korean_movement
The main site for the original South Korean incarnation of 4B, WOMAD, was created to be able to freely post homophobic and transphobic content.
Yikes. Sounds like TERFs.