The War Of The Sexes Is Going To Get Worse

America may face a South Korean future when it comes to gender politics

Young women say they’re embracing the “4B movement” following Donald Trump’s election victory. This South Korean trend encourages the fairer sex to avoid all contact with men to punish them for their alleged misogyny. The 4B pledge requires women to abstain from marriage, childbirth, dating, and sex with dudes. The movement didn’t cause gender tensions in South Korea to settle, but American women don’t seem to care. What’s important is to signal their anger toward men by declaring on social media they’re going to give up sex.

It’s doubtful many women will voluntarily give up sex just to send a message. Though this outburst likely won’t lead to real action, it does signal the deepening gender war raging in America. Young people aren’t dating, aren’t marrying, and certainly aren’t forming families like their parents and grandparents. The widening gap between the two sexes is being felt politically, with women turning to the Left while men lean to the Right. The 2024 Election was the most gender-coded in U.S. history, and offers a possible preview of what politics could look like when the genders are at war. Data and social trends indicate the war of the sexes is only going to get worse.

It’s already bad in South Korea. Politics in the Asian democracy is riven with gender hate. Young women overwhelmingly vote for the Left while young men overwhelmingly vote for the Right. Politicians explicitly appeal to sexual rage. Liberals campaign on explicit feminism and deride the opposition as incels. Conservatives, on the other hand, claim feminism oppresses men and vow to defang its worst effects. President Yoon Suk Yeol won a narrow election in 2022 by appealing to male discontent over feminism, securing nearly 60 percent of the male vote under 30. He only won 34 percent of the under-30 female vote.

South Korea’s gender divide isn’t only political. It’s also literally killing the country’s future. South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world, standing at a grim 0.78. While it may not be intentional, South Korean women aren’t marrying and having kids, resulting in a lot of angry incels in their society. 

America isn’t as messed up as South Korea, but we could get there soon. The under-30 vote in 2024 witnessed a stark gender divide. Trump won the under-30 male vote 56 percent to 42 percent. Yet, he lost the youth vote thanks to women voting against him. Nearly 60 percent of young women voted for Kamala Harris. The election isn’t a fluke. Several polls show a strong political divide among Gen Z. Women express strongly left-wing attitudes on abortion, immigration, race and many other issues. Meanwhile, the men lean more conservative.

Both candidates appealed to their respective constituencies. Trump ran a high-testosterone campaign. He appeared on numerous bro podcasts where he discussed sports and party anecdotes. He made grand entrances at UFC fights and college football games. His rallies were displays of machismo. His message resonated with young men upset with a society that imposed wokeness on them and robbed them of the ability to be themselves.

Kamala’s campaign was comically girlboss. Her camp adopted a Mean Girls tone and dubbed Trump and his supporters “weird.” She highlighted obnoxious phrases like “Excuse me, I’m talking” as points in her favor. She forced her supporters to do idiotic Charli XCX TikTok dances when the campaign was in “Brat” mode. The campaign treated the Taylor Swift endorsement as if it had won the Super Bowl and issued press releases filled with her lyrics. Instead of doing bro podcasts, Kamala went on “Call Her Daddy” and other media aimed at young women. 

The male appeal bested the feminine touch in this election.

The one thing that reduces the divide between the genders is marriage. A majority of married men and married women voted for Trump. A plurality of unmarried men voted for Trump. However, a large majority (59 percent) of unmarried women voted for Kamala. Current trend lines show the number of unmarried will continue to climb. Only 27 percent of Zoomers say forming a family is an important goal in the near future. 

With marriage rates continuing to decline, the singles will be an even larger part of the electorate–and the gender gap will widen even further.

As men and women drift further apart, they will see each other as enemies rather than potential spouses. Instead of forming families, they will create vendettas against the opposite sex. Sexual resentment will animate politics as people vent their misery on the general public. Women will demand incels be locked up and harsher penalties are dealt to guys who make “sexist” jokes at the office. A few men will respond with calls to repeal the Nineteenth Amendment. And so our politics will be.

Female sexual resentment is much more acceptable and even encouraged by our society. Male sexual resentment only finds approval on incel forums. But both will shape politics, even if only one form finds a mainstream platform–and it won’t be the form associated with incels.

The solution to this problem is to encourage young people to marry and have families. This is far easier said than done. As I’ve written previously, various factors–such as the gender gap in college graduates and the perception of infinite choice–makes young people not marry in a timely fashion. Not doing this results in gender war politics coming to dominate our society.

Worst of all, it could mean our fertility rate declines to South Korean levels. 

Until our society changes and family formation increases, young women will continue to entertain insane ideas like the 4B movement and see men as the enemy. 

It’s a dismal state of affairs–but don’t expect it to end anytime soon. Just expect it to get worse.