In Aristophanes' ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata (first performed in Athens in 411 BC), the title character, tired of the ongoing loss and suffering, decides it's time to end the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
She gathers women from various Greek city-states and proposes a plan: they will withhold sexual relations from their husbands and lovers until peace is negotiated. Although the proposal is met with initial hesitation, the women eventually agree and swear an oath of abstinence.
This sets off a battle of the sexes, with the men growing frustrated and attempting to break the women's resolve. However, the women remain firm, even taking control of the Acropolis, where Athens' treasury is stored, to use financial leverage in the push for peace.
The play, which explores gender roles and the absurdity of war, concludes with the women forcing the men to negotiate peace, highlighting the influence and agency of women, even in a patriarchal society.
The play became quite popular and was frequently adapted for both the stage and the screen. For instance, Spike Lee's 2015 film Chi-Raq transported the plot to Chicago, replacing the Peloponnesian War with gun violence among African Americans, while using rhyming rap dialogue instead of the formal Greek poetry. Similarly, Matt Cooper's 2015 comedy Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? set the story in a Texas town, where women go on a sex strike to force their men to give up their love of guns.
Occasionally, Lysistrata's idea has also been brought to life in real-world protests. In the U.S., the progressive feminist organization Cell 16, active from 1968 to 1973, was known for advocating celibacy, separation from men, and self-defense training. In their journal No More Fun and Games, Roxanne Dunbar and Lisa Leghorn encouraged women to "separate from men who are not consciously working for female liberation" and to embrace periods of celibacy.
In 2012, Isabelle Ameganvi, a civil rights lawyer in Togo, called on the local women to withhold sex from their husbands as a form of protest against President Faure Gnassingbé.
More recently, the 4B (or "Four Nos") movement, a radical feminist group from South Korea, took this idea even further. Founded in 2018, it emerged in response to national protests against revenge porn and the spycam epidemic, where men secretly filmed women during sex or while they used public restrooms, without their knowledge or consent.
After these cases were exposed, South Korean women decided to take a stand. They began refusing to date men, marry, have sex with men, or have children (the four "Nos"). In addition, some activists cut their hair or stopped wearing makeup as a form of rejection against societal beauty standards. Yet women kept on being blamed: in 2022 President Yoon Suk Yeol even attributed the country's low birth rate to feminism.
The book Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (2016) by Cho Nam-Joo is widely credited with sparking the 4B movement. The story follows a woman who, after leaving her job and becoming a stay-at-home mother, starts impersonating other women she knows. Her husband suggests psychiatric help and, as the narrative unfolds, readers learn of the deep-rooted sexism, discrimination, and harassment women experience, embodied in Kim Jiyoung's experience.
In the wake of Donald Trump's 2024 presidential victory, the 4B movement has started to gain traction in the United States, resonating with women disillusioned by the political climate and the ongoing fight for gender equality.
Trump has long been known for his sexist and misogynistic rhetoric, along with his vulgar language and at times surreal comments. His appointment of three conservative Supreme Court Justices - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett - helped overturning the Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022, removing federal protections for a woman's right to choose an abortion.
In his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump appeared to be amplifying his misogynistic tendencies, focusing on gaining support from young white men. NBC News exit polling this week showed that women, who made up 53% of the electorate, split 53% for Harris and 45% for Trump. Black women overwhelmingly supported Harris (91%), while 57% of college-educated white women voted for her, compared to 41% for Trump. Among men, 42% voted for Harris and 55% for Trump instead. Harris received 37% of white men's votes, while Trump garnered 60%. Among college-educated white men, Harris received 47%, while 50% voted for Trump. Among white men without college degrees, only 29% voted for Harris, and 69% for Trump.
During his campaign, Trump's alignment with figures like online streamer Adin Ross, known for his ties to the emperor of toxic masculinity Andrew Tate and banned multiple times from Twitch for "hateful conduct," signaled a further embrace of this culture. During a livestreamed interview in August, Ross gifted Trump a Rolex watch and a Tesla Cybertruck featuring a wrap of Trump after an assassination attempt. During his campaign, Trump allied himself with Elon Musk, the world's richest individual and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter), a pronatalist obsessed with promoting reproduction (because he can "afford" children and anyway doesn't have to care for his children but can pay others to do so…).
The election of Trump is almost a validation of his rhetoric, a dangerous shift towards deeper misogyny within Trump’s base, something that encourages other men to behave like him. For example, white supremacist and misogynistic streamer Nick Fuentes, who supported Trump but in November stated that Trumpism was "a cult", expressed gratitude for the defeat of women advocating for abortion rights at the elections, tweeting after Trump's victory, "I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank men for saving this country from stupid bitches who wanted to destroy the world to keep abortion," and "Your body, my choice. Forever."
No surprise, then, that the 4B movement is gaining popularity on TikTok, with Google searches for the movement spiking by 450% in just 48 hours this week. However, the movement may also face resistance. In South Korea, women who participated in similar protests faced cyberbullying, harassment, stalking, and threats of violence. TikTok users supporting the movement are already receiving threats from men.
Yet nowadays even protests can be divisive: feminists do not always support the 4B movement stance, arguing that it ignores the desires of heterosexual women and punishes men who may or may not have been involved in misogyny. Besides, the 4B movement may also exclude married women, women with children, and transgender women.
There's also another form of protest, currently popular among white women - wearing blue friendship bracelets to show their support for the Democratic Party. But also this form of protest has faced criticism, with some claiming this is a passive reaction.
So which will become the most popular form of protest, the "4B" movement (by the way, will "4B" become "word of the year" in 2025?) approach (and will it work, taking into account the differences between the social fabric of the US and South Korea, the former being multiracial, while the latter is more homogenous)? Or will friendship bracelet prevail? An will we see a new protest accessory like the anti-Trump protest-style pussy-eared beanie hats that we saw in the streets and on the runways in 2017? And will new productions of Lysistrata land in American theatres or will the Greek heroine or maybe Kim Jiyoung become inspirations for fashion collections? Time will tell, considering that protests have just started.
Guess the most important thing to consider is that every form of protest is valid, because it allows an individual to express their views and ideas. It doesn't matter how voters, and women in particular, express their disappointment, as long as they find a way to be heard. The real challenge lies not in choosing how to protest, but in ensuring respect and safety while doing so.
Comments