Remember the 4B movement? Last fall, the idea exploded in the U.S. right alongside the election of Donald Trump. Some called it a “sex strike.” The idea was that women were going to say “no” to men. No dating, no marriage, no sex, no babies.

There were viral TikToks. It was all over the headlines. It sparked debates, backlash, mockery, and threats. And then the meme disappeared.

A year later, we’re looking back at what happened to the 4B movement—or, maybe, more accurately, the 4B meme. We’re also going to consider what’s happened to conversations around celibacy, decentering men, and women’s romantic and sexual refusal, as well as why 4B made so many people so angry, as we look closer at a growing distaste for women’s… pretty reasonable complaints about men.

We’ll also talk about other models of sexual resistance—from lesbian separatism to ideas around radical eroticism. What can we learn from the rapid rise and fall of 4B? What was going on after the election and where are we now?

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