Inside 4B - the women's group going on ‘men strike'

Zoë Beaty meets an American who's become a symbol for the growing movement of females rejecting relations with men

In Missouri, hours after Donald Trump declared victory in the US election earlier this week, Ashli Pollard picked up her phone to film a video. What she's about to say is not something she's ever really spoken publicly about, she tells the camera - the text across her post, uploaded to TikTok, reads "Not anymore".

On Wednesday, alongside thousands of others, 36-year-old Pollard went public about a decision she made two years ago to join a radical feminist movement that first took South Korea by storm and has now started to make inroads across the USA.

Dubbed the 4B movement, it’s a protest: women committed to its “four nos” reject any notion of having sex with men, dating them, marrying them or bearing their children. Pollard first made her choice to become 4B quietly. Now, she’s “decided to be a bit louder”, she says forcefully. “I am so in for this movement. And I want all of you to join me.”

Her TikTok was viewed more than 2.5 million times in just over 24 hours. More than 4,000 comments were made; hundreds of thousands liked it. “I’m in a bit of a whirlwind now,” Pollard tells me – she’s never gone viral before. It makes perfect sense that she did. Over the last few days, the 4B movement has made headlines around the world, with thousands of women making similar declarations on social media.

On Wednesday, alongside thousands of others, 36-year-old Pollard went public about a decision she made two years ago to join a radical feminist movement that first took South Korea by storm and has now started to make inroads across the USA.

Dubbed the 4B movement, it’s a protest: women committed to its “four nos” reject any notion of having sex with men, dating them, marrying them or bearing their children. Pollard first made her choice to become 4B quietly. Now, she’s “decided to be a bit louder”, she says forcefully. “I am so in for this movement. And I want all of you to join me.”