Donald Trump is our 2024 president-elect.
I never thought I’d write that, but America has spoken and the message has been received loud and clear: This country is not ready to have a woman in power.
Not only did the country elect a convicted felon, it elected a convicted felon over a qualified and educated individual who happens to be not just a woman, but a woman of color. This fact alone makes the outcome even harder to digest.
The gender gap among voters is astounding, and it came down to a battle of the sexes. According to the AP VoteCast, 53% of men ages 18-44 voted for Trump, and 55% of women in the same age group voted for Kamala Harris. Similarly, 57% of men ages 45 and older voted for Trump while 51% of women 45 and older supported Harris.
No matter the age, men and women had split visions for the future of America — and that’s not to mention the non-binary individuals who had their own reasons for voting for a respective candidate.
Thousands of women saw Harris as a beacon of hope and someone who would finally open the door to a future where women could run a powerful nation like the United States. This election put a hold on that dream.
Now, progressive women across the nation are angry.
Since the outcome of the election, the “4B” movement has been sensationalized on the internet, with over 100,000 posts on TikTok. 4B, a South Korean feminism movement in the mid to late 2010s, is a movement that limits any romantic or sexual activity with men.
The “B” in the name is a shorthand for “bi,” the word for “no” in the Korean language. In this case, the movement calls for four nos: no sex with men, no dating men, no marrying men and no children with men.
4B has resurfaced not only as a response to Trump’s reelection, but is also a response to the abortion referendums threatening reproductive freedoms in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota. Although Trump expressed support for leaving the issue of abortion up to the states, further abortion restrictions could be implemented depending on whether both the House of Representatives and the Senate are Republican-dominated come the end of the election.
It is also no surprise that lots of alarm stems from the fact that the president-elect is a man convicted of sexual assault and accused of attempted rape.
In fear of their rights being restricted post-election, many women are partaking in the 4B movement.
This includes TikTok user, @rabbitsandtea, who posted: “Doing my part as an American woman by breaking up with my Republican boyfriend last night and officially joining the 4B movement this morning.” In the video, she is sitting on the floor and holding her cat in a clever ode to JD Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment aimed at vocal Democrats. Her post quickly went viral, with 1.8 million likes so far.
The movement is an interesting concept because, although one woman’s rise to power has been halted, many women are discovering a different kind of power: their choice not to reproduce. In this sense, the movement goes a step beyond just angering conservative men, but also allowing women to understand how important they are to society.
Women are acknowledging that there is no future population without themselves. Should they choose not to reproduce or partake in heterosexual relations, that future could be a mere reality.
The outcome of the election has caused a shift in mentality amongst women. TikTok user Hope Cavendish posted a video that essentially said that women shouldn’t have to cater to men if “they already hate us.” She added that women shouldn’t have to second guess themselves in their behaviors around men, because men already don’t like women by default.
“Be who you would be if you weren’t trying to get men to like you, because they won’t,” Cavendish said in her video.
Now, this is something I can get behind.
As much as I love women stepping into their own power with the 4B movement, I just don’t believe it is sustainable — especially for people in committed relationships partaking in the movement.
This is not to say that women should not treat men with respect. That should be a given, no matter one’s gender identity. However, I believe that women should never have to second-guess themselves in front of a man. That is true liberation, as it commands speaking freely and being your true self.
If another Trump presidency is what it takes for America to realize a woman’s true power, then so be it. However, this does not make the election outcome any less disappointing for the thousands of women who thought that the nation was finally ready to have a woman step into office.
I also think about the little girls who wanted to see themselves in a president, including my own inner child.
When I was little and not yet exposed to gender disparities, I believed that the power of women was accepted and limitless. Growing up is realizing that women’s power is still limitless, but not accepted. The presidential election emphasized that point, and it hurts me that little girls everywhere were slapped in the face with that painful reality. Just when I thought America would turn the page, it flipped it backward.
Nonetheless, I am still hopeful for an America where we are all represented. I might not see it in my lifetime, but I think we must be in that period of darkness before we can see the light.
