#afp via getty images

[sheltiechicago]

Shilatembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Traditional dancers perform as the remains of the slain Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba arrive in Shilatembo, where the leader was killed in 1961. The family of Lumumba buried his only known remains – a tooth – in the capital, Kinshasa, this week

Photograph: Guerchom Ndebo/AFP/Getty Images

[sitting-on-me-bum]

An Iberian lynx takes its first steps after being released in the Sierra de Arana mountain range near Granada, Spain. Five Iberian lynxes, three females and two males, were released in a mountainous area of Andalusi as part of the LIFE Lynx Connect project to repopulate this native species from the Iberian peninsula in the ecosystems most adapted to its characteristics

Photograph: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images

[ifreakingloveroyals]

10 December 2024 | Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden attends the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. (c) Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

[tearsofrefugees]

Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo

Women gather on a hill in the Rusayo camp, home to tens of thousands of war-displaced people, on the outskirts of Goma. Since mid-2022, hundreds of thousands of Congolese have found refuge around Goma after fleeing fighting further north between the Congolese army and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebellion. Every month, more than 2,000 women are treated in camps around the city by Doctors Without Borders after being sexually assaulted, mostly by ‘armed men’ while trying to find food in the surrounding forests and fields.

Photograph: Alexis Huguet/AFP/Getty Images

[nando161mando]

It's not propaganda if the CIA does it

[cityzenchick]

Sorry Erling .... I can't help myself ..... I have a vivid imagination and must have read too many 'Haaland imagines' (or maybe not enough!!) 😁🖖✌️🤟☝️🤚🖐😳

[stargirlsfc]

Jessie Fleming during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games | Canada vs. New Zealand

[countingstars-17]

Charles Leclerc celebrates with his mother Pascale Leclerc after winning the Italian Formula One Grand Prix race at Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit, in Monza on September 1, 2024. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP) (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images)

[amelmajrii]

Gabriel Medina on the Theaupo'o giant wave as he achieved a score of 9.90 - the highest score in the history of Olympic surfing.

©️ Ed Sloane / Jérôme Brouillet (AFP) / Pool via Getty Images

[tswiftsedits]

Taylor Swift performs on stage at the Paris La Defense Arena as part of her The Eras Tour, in Nanterre, north-western France, on May 9, 2024. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP) (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty Images)

[sheltiechicago]

Abidjan, Ivory Coast

A street vendor displays her wares at the city’s main market

Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

[sitting-on-me-bum]

A parrot eats fruit from an averrhoa carambola (or star-fruit) tree at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.

Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images

[ifreakingloveroyals]

10 December 2024 | Princess Madeleine of Sweden takes her seat at the start of the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. (c) Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

[tearsofrefugees]

Goris, Armenia

Refugees board a bus as they leave the Red Cross registration centre. The first group of Nagorno-Karabakh refugees since Azerbaijan’s lighting assault against the enclave entered Armenia on 24 September

Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images

[thepeacepigeon]

The 4B Movement: How South Korean women are leaving the patriarchy behind 

(Getty Images)

In 2016, a 34-year-old man named Kim Sung-min waited inside a unisex restroom outside exit 10 of Gangnam Station, Seoul South Korea. Six different men came and exited through the restroom over the span of an hour, until a 23-year-old woman entered, and Kim proceeded to stab and kill her with a 12-inch-long sushi knife. In court, Kim stated, “I did it because women have always ignored me.” Kim’s actions and thoughts are not out of the ordinary amongst Korean men—violence against women is extremely common in South Korea. 

(BBC)

South Korea has a long record of female subjugation. Between 1953 and 2021, abortion was illegal in almost all circumstances, and current law allows a woman to get an abortion only if she has consent from a male relative or her boyfriend/husband/partner. A 2015 South Korean government survey revealed that almost 80% of women had been sexually harassed at work. A survey released by The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family found that 57.8 percent of women felt vulnerable to misogynistic violence. Digital crime and sexual harassment are extremely common— “molka”, up-skirt photos, and secret cameras hidden in restrooms are rampant, so much so that any cellphone purchased in South Korea has a mandatory chime when photos are taken. The World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Index ranks South Korea at number 99 out of 146 countries for gender equality. Legislation actively works against women trying to report sexual assault. Men accused of stalking or harassment can “ask” their victims to drop charges, and in 2022 a man murdered his former colleague after she refused to drop charges against him for stalking her since 2019. South Korea has the highest gender pay gap of all the OECD countries—the top wealthiest 37 countries, globally, with women earning on average a third less than men. These alarming statistics have come years after the “Gangnam Station” murder, and South Korean women continue to be targeted for their gender.

(Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)

Despite Kim’s own testimony, government authorities explicitly denied the misogynistic motive, and the prosecution announced that the case was not being investigated as a hate crime. Kim was eventually sentenced to 30 years in prison. In response to the murder, women took to the streets outside Gangnam station and the surrounding areas in protest. The women, many of whom had never considered themselves feminists or activists, but the nature of the crime and the misogynistic motivation, as well as the court's refusal to acknowledge it, outranged them. The murder incited intense debates about misogyny within the country, and the gender inequities women faced both socially and economically. Five months after the murder, Cho Nam-Joo’s novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was published. The book devastatingly details an everyday woman’s daily experiences of nonstop sexism, inequality, and misogyny in contemporary South Korea, and served as another enraging eye-opener that would develop into what would become known as the 4B Movement. 

The four B’s (or “Four No’s”) of the movement represent the four major components that women of the movement are rejecting; Bisekseu (sex), Bichulsan (child-bearing), Biyeonae, (dating) and Bihon (marriage). South Korean feminists define the 4B movement not as a fight against the patriarchy, but a complete step away from it— leaving it behind. In 2017, the Escape the Corset campaign swept across the country. The word “corset” is used by Korean feminists as a metaphor for the societal mechanisms that control and repress women, for example, the extreme and toxic beauty standards. Both 4B and Escape the Corset condemn and reject the influence that beauty holds within every aspect of South Korean life. Pioneers such as feminist author Cho Nam-Joo, and photographer Jeon Bo-ra, who photographed women who shaved their heads in rebellion. Social media has played a large role in the 4B movement, with bloggers and beauty influencers like Lina Bae speaking up against unattainable beauty standards and societal pressures, and Summer Lee who was inspired to cut her hair, throw away her hyperfeminine clothes, and post pictures of herself without makeup. 

(Jean Chung/Getty Images)

Despite increasing conversation on women’s rights, feminism is still considered a taboo, contentious, or even “dirty” word for many South Koreans. It is often associated with “man-hating” and perceived as overly aggressive. The country's current president Yoon Suk-yeol has promised to close down the South Korean Ministry of Gender Equility and Family, and any other organizations that fund or support women and victims of sexual violence, claiming they “treat men like potential sex criminals”. A January 2023 article in the South Korean newspaper The Sisa Times reported that 65% of women in the country do not want children, 42% do not want to get married, and over 80% of those cite domestic violence as their key reason. As a result, concerns regarding the rising average population age and declining birth rate in South Korea have increased greatly. The country's birth rate is less than one per woman as of 2021, and the country saw less than 200,000 marriages. In recent years, the South Korean government has commissioned a number of soap operas and reality TV shows to promote an idyllic view of romantic heterosexual love, and to encourage marriage and reproduction. 

(Yonhap)

The 4B movement and Escape the Corset campaign have had a tremendous impact on the way young South Korean women view the countries cultural grip on women’s appearances and lives. Between 2015-2016 and 2017-2018, Korean women spent over 5 billion Korean Won less on beauty products and cosmetic surgeries, instead investing their money in cars and choosing independence over objectification. The movement is calling for boycotts of any business that uses sexist advertising, and encouraging women to eat at women-owned restaurants, drink in women-owned bars, and shop at women-owned stores—women’s money goes into the pockets of other women. Women’s universities have also been on the rise in South Korea, with most cities housing one or several women-only institutions. Similarly, women’s only spaces have begun to expand, women’s parking spots closer to entrances and exits in parking garages, women’s only hotel floors and common rooms, and women’s only subway cars. These spaces allow feminism to spread and flourish, and give Korean women the ability to find community with other women without the interference of men. 

(Ian Baldessari/CityLab)

Since 2016, Exit 10 of Gangnam Station has become a symbolic site for South Korean feminism. The South Korean feminist movement developed out of particularly misogynist conditions within their country. The 4B movement represents a radical way that women have sought to create an online and offline world devoid of men—rather than engaging in arguments and altercations, they simply refuse to interact with men in every aspect of their lives. These actions have had a profound impact on the functionality of South Korean society and have opened an uncloseable door too the discussion of women’s rights. 

McCurry, Justin. “Calls for Stalking Law Overhaul in South Korea as Woman’s Murder Shocks Nation.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2022, www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/23/calls-for-stalking-law-overhaul-in-south-korea-as-womans-shocks-nation.

Teehan, Katie. “What Is the 4B Movement?” Service95, 16 Apr. 2024, www.service95.com/4b-movement-explainer/.

Izaakson , Jen, and Tae Kyung Kim. “The South Korean Women’s Movement: ‘We Are Not Flowers, We Are a Fire.’” Feminist Current, 16 June 2020, www.feministcurrent.com/2020/06/15/the-south-korean-womens-movement-we-are-not-flowers-we-are-a-fire/.

Lee, Min Joo. “Why so Many South Korean Women Are Refusing to Date, Marry or Have Kids.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, 15 May 2023, news.yahoo.com/why-many-south-korean-women-123250959.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHmBVorK4v6bdzwcJMRyRdXkKtzUlpQYWn5Ot-BPzs-YRNNZFW5JBwC65OTaPrRImn3F3G56r0gfNydadUzlQtPS61hOi6uggk_OkwZqqvLvS-YN4HbPrpwKvK9_7g0e9yqu9fiRRvOVJkGRv__L7AZGoYtfHVxjKLLPDi9DI2fu.

Park, Seohoi Stephanie. “Murder at Gangnam Station: A Year Later.” KOREA EXPOSÉ, 2 Mar. 2023, koreaexpose.com/murder-gangnam-station-year-later/.

Dockeray, Hannah. “Why Some South Korean Women Are Rejecting Beauty.” Sky News, 14 July 2021, news.sky.com/story/plastic-surgery-south-korea-faces-beauty-backlash-11871654.

[cityzenchick]

Imagine ......... you are a successful (and strikingly pretty) freelance sports photographer who has been subcontracted by Getty Images to go to the Etihad to cover City playing a crucial Premier League match. En route you have annoyingly been stuck in Manchester traffic for what seems like an absolute lifetime and when you finally get there the match is already well underway. A little sheepishly you grab your rucksack and photographic equipment and are escorted by a burly match steward in his fluorescent tabard around the boundary of the pitch to your customary position near the goal. As you bend over to lay out your cameras and lenses before you sit down on your box, a sudden gust of wind whips up your very long blonde hair and to your total embarrassment wolf whistles start to ring out in your direction from the terraces. Blushing acutely (and at the same time trying to tame your wild hair) you look over towards the pitch rather than at the mass of City fans behind you, and realise that two of your favourite City players Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland are both glancing over their shoulder to see who the wolf whistling is aimed at - you very quckly raise your camera and take a photograph of them at that very moment, and from their intrigued expressions you have no idea that they both are thinking ...........

Just a little daydreaming imagine I had when I saw this picture of Kevin and Erling ....... 😊