The election of Donald Trump may not be good news for men. It has led to the trending of 4B, a radical, if so far obscure, feminist movement that aims at not just protesting against patriarchy, but dumping it.

Women who are a part of the movement will have nothing to do with men. They subscribe to four B’s, or No’s. The movement originated in South Korea, partially as a response to #MeToo, and is built on these four refusals, each of the words starting with “bi” in Korean: no dating men (biyeonae), no getting married to men (bihon), no having sex with men (bisekseu) and no having children with men (bichulsan).

Such absolute rejection of men had found considerable favour with women. Though an exact estimate was not available, thousands of women were identifying as advocates of 4B. But with Trump, who specialises in misogyny, back in power, suddenly the movement is everywhere on social media. There can be no better embodiment of patriarchy than Trump back in White House.

Hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos that mentioned 4B were viewed and Google searches about 4B surged by about 450 per cent. In its “global” version the movement is being called the “4 Nos”.

It is unlikely that Trump will even notice the movement, but that does not matter. 4B is saying that if patriarchy has excluded women, women can exclude patriarchy.

The movement in Korea was born as a reaction to the conservative society. #MeToo was an added impetus. But in Korea from around 2016 another feminist movement had started as a reaction to the repressive gender-norms in society, including in its strict standards of beauty in women. Calling itself “Escape the Corset”, the movement asked women to free themselves from make-up, fashion and body shapes and dimensions that forced on them these standards of beauty.

It is telling that South Korea is estimated to be among the top 10 beauty markets and beauty product exporters in the world. Korean beauty regimens, which often involve elaborate and painstaking daily practice, have been adopted by women all over the world.

Obviously, beauty-care can produce toxic effects, especially on women’s self-esteem.

The 4B girls took their inspiration from “Escape the Corset” as well. They are as likely to be free of cosmetics and hairstyles and come-hither clothes as men themselves.

Unfashionable and uncompromising, and extremely cool, they grew on the fringes, till Trump got back.

Trump who said of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “She’s a bad person. Evil. She’s an evil, sick, crazy. Bi***!” Trump who said he would like to see his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the same boxing ring as Mike Tyson. Trump who says whether women like it or not, he will protect them.

Protect them from what? Himself? No, thank you! They can do it themselves. They have 4B.

And also other means.

4B may be the latest expression, but the idea is old. A world without men has always been a feminist fantasy. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s utopian novel Herland envisages a world composed entirely of women. They also bear children without men. And much earlier, in Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata, women from all conflicting sides, sick with the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states, unite to bar men in a novel way. All women refuse men. The men fall on their knees and war comes to an end.

Our early mothers had done it. No reason to lose hope.