Why are women shaving their heads to protest Donald Trump's reelection?

You may have heard of the 4B movement, which went viral on TikTok after Donald Trump's reelection. This feminist movement harks back to 2016, when the "Escape the Corset" trend first started on South Korean social media. This triggered women to break into an online discussion about how they are restricted within a patriarchal society.

The fringe South Korean movement calls for the rejection of childbirth, marriage, dating and sex.

One element of this trend - women shaving their heads in protest of Donald Trump - has gone slightly more under the radar. It is believed to symbolise a way of repelling men from women.

Hair - and how it is styled - can be political, personal, but also a symbol of femininity.

Maria Barbieri, who posted under the handle @girl_dumphim launched the trend, Newsweek reports. In her now deleted post, Barbieri stated that she woke up "feeling spicy", using both a razor and clippers while announcing "f*** being all the things that the patriarchy wants us to be because, clearly, they don't give a s*** about us."

Another user, Sidney, who goes by the name @sidneyandthecity, stated that she "took the clippers to my head and shaved it all off" in order to take "back the narrative", when interviewed by Newsweek.

Response from survivors and people living with alopecia

The backlash was swift. Cancer survivors and women who suffer from alopecia have come out to condemn the trend. Many feel personally targeted by the rhetoric that having no hair makes them unattractive to men.

User @alyssakp1 stated "Are you saying bald makes you less attractive. Hm."

TikTok user Noell Babb, who describes herself as a 27-year old cancer survivor in her biography, also called out the wave of posts.

"Shaving your head to try and correlate baldness to being unattractive is a slap in the face to those who lost their hair not by choice, but from poison aka cancer treatment."

Internet users and Trump supporters mocking the trend

Others have taken to mockery to condemn the trend.

User _ajtsanchez posted: "Trump still our next president. Now you're just bald runnin around bald headed."

Trump supporter @ginacorbin posted a video where she pretended to start shaving her head before changing her tone and exclaiming: "Are you kidding!"

How does the 4B movement relate to Donald Trump?

President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been criticised by many women's rights organisations for their stance on female issues.

Restricting women’s access to abortion across the US is a big part of Trump's programme. It was three Supreme Court Justices, appointed by Trump, who swayed the balance and overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. This removed abortion as a federal right, which had stood prior since 1973. 

Trump has also been accused of sexual assault by a string of women and found liable for sexual abuse, paying one victim €74 million ($80 million) in damages.