In response to Trump’s re-election, women across the country are exploring withholding sex as a means of protest. Following the election results, Google reported a 500% surge in searches related to 4B—a South Korean feminist movement that advocated abstaining from dating, sex, marriage, and childbirth. The “sex strike” strategy has also become a topic of interest on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Galvanized by Republican efforts to restrict reproductive freedoms and frustrated by a political agenda aimed at controlling women’s bodies, young women are considering these personal acts of resistance.
Young women’s firm stance on bodily autonomy starkly contrasts the views held by many of their male counterparts. Women ages 18 to 30 are 30% more likely to hold liberal views than men in the same age group. In a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, of the men under 50 who support Trump, 40% believe that women’s advancements in society come at their expense. By contrast, fewer than 20% of Biden supporters in that age bracket share this belief, and even fewer Trump supporters over 50 agree.
“Young men expect sex, but they also want us to not be able to have access to abortion.” explained 21-year-old Michaela, a student from Georgia who first came across the 4B movement a year ago. “They can’t have both. Young women don’t want to be intimate with men who don’t fight for women’s rights; it’s showing they don’t respect us.”
Sex strikes as a form of protest are not new; in fact, they were famously depicted in the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, where women withheld sex to end the Peloponnesian War. In more recent history, sex strikes have been used in places like Kenya, Colombia, and the Philippines to push for social and political change. However, in a New York Times opinion piece, writer Kami Rieck questioned the strategy’s effectiveness, noting the limited evidence of its impact. Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, who led a women’s protest movement instrumental in ending Liberia’s second civil war, reflected in her memoir that sex strikes “had little or no practical effect.”
Although there is skepticism about whether sex strikes can create real political change, the growing interest in staying single, avoiding sex, and choosing not to have children reflects a significant shift in how young women view their place in society. This movement has ignited intense debates about relationships, politics, and power, with many young women openly reconsidering intimacy with partners who don’t support their fundamental rights.
SOURCES
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/11/politics/gender-gap-2024-election-analysis/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/opinion/4b-movement-south-korea-trump.html
https://www.elle.com/uk/news-politics/a62849491/sex-strike-trump-afua-hirsch