THE 4B MOVEMENT...
The election sparked a movement, copying from the South Korean’s 4 B movement. In United States, the movement is called the 4 Nos movement. The women, with the aim of breaking from societal requirements, and exhaustion of oppression that presents in form of denial of bodily autonomy rights, has taken the matter further by refusing to have sex with men, refusing to date men, refusing to have children and refusing to get married. All these are set standards that the society has put in place since the beginning of time, with the utmost patriarchy, control and dominance over women.
The power is in our hands.
For the longest time, women issues have been dismissed. These include experiences such as menstrual pain, child birth, being a full time mum, and taking care of the homes. Until the period simulator came, many men dismissed period pain and demanded that women going through this undertake chores just like any other person. Continued awareness on stay at home mums opened eyes of most people, as these women were considered not working and not contributing much in the family.
Social media was also a key tool in this sensitization, where women would leave their male partners with the children for a day or two, coming back to a chaotic and disarranged house due to the incompetency of these men in undertaking the chores that they would consider minimal and invaluable.
The rise of misogynists and incels did more damage to women, with increased direct and indirect hate and death threats. This has culminated in some femicide cases.
The 4B movement is one approach to amplifying feminism and championing for women, girls and human rights. But as women, safety is a word that we long to truly feel around us. The rise of cases of women being abducted while jogging, going to the market, fetching firewood in the village, or just taking a stroll to admire nature and release mental stress, continues to put us back in our strides. It is obvious that these men would target us irrespective of where we are. It is also obvious that these men will also feel the wrath when we decide to fully implement and exercise the 4Bs and 4 Nos outlines.
But these should not deter us in any way. Let’s use our country’s independence as an example, independence was not achieved in a day and with one strategy. It was through multiple ideas, plans, attempts, resilience and sacrifice that eventually weakened the oppressor leading them to surrender. But we must remember that despite having achieved independence, the oppressor always attempts exerting subtle control, continuously looks for weak points in order to get back in and take over, tries to find people that they can use to influence their avid followers on why we need the oppressor back. They still try to prove that without them, we can’t go far on our own, and wants us to believe that with their rule, we could have had more achievements, developments and milestones than what we have now.
Feminism action and movement share this similarity. We have to continue exploring and deploring all the ideas, plans and pragmatic approaches that we have, irrespective of the little impact they bring to the movement. Little or minimal impact is better than none. The 4B movement, even though may hold a small significance, is one of those attempts we have to make to remind the oppressor that indeed we have the power in our hands, and with solidarity, and continued unity, we will achieve it.
The femicide march in Kenya is another example, the #totalshutdown took a country wide approach and made a remarkable impact in the minds of the society.
The gender and human rights activists who relentlessly fight for women and girls’ rights and advocate for feminists actions and inclusion, have significantly contributed to the course.
We have a vision of a life that is safe and a system that is just and protective in all aspects. This is achievable, with consistent advocacy in any capacity that we can. Silence is known to perpetrate many things, so let’s speak and act towards the freedom that we truly want to achieve, to bring the oppressor down, and to thwart all his grips on our lives.
