South Korea’s ‘Willfully Unmarried’ Movement, by Hawon Jung – 29 January 2026

From New Lines Magazine

The three-story industrial building in Seoul’s hipster neighborhood of Seongsu was packed with hundreds of women, their chatter and laughter echoing across the space. Outside the gate, nearly a hundred more waited in line beneath a giant banner that read, “Bihon Fair.” Bihon is a Korean term that roughly translates as “willfully unmarried” or “no-marriage.” “This is so exciting!” Jenny Lee, a 30-year-old office worker from a Seoul suburb, told New Lines as she squeezed her way into the wall-to-wall crowd.

Inside, a river of people flowed past dozens of booths set up along the gray concrete walls. Each beckoned passersby with colorful banners: “Knitting club for bihon women,” “Home repair service for women living alone — by women,” “Self-pleasure is self-care — with our (sex) toys,” or “Are you a bihon woman? You’re not alone — join our bihon community!”

“It’s nice to see with my own eyes that there are so many bihon women like me out there,” Lee said. “I feel like we’re somehow connected — rather than being alone and isolated.”

She then walked up to a lecture hall on the top floor, where a real estate agent was advising bihon women on how to find an ideal home. On the stair wall beside Lee was a quote from Virginia Woolf, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” alongside lines from other prominent feminists.

The fair — the first of its kind held in South Korea — offered a snapshot of a society in which a growing number of women choose to remain single, rejecting traditional expectations to marry, give birth and be self-sacrificing family caregivers.

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Hawon Jung is a journalist and the author of “Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women’s Rights Worldwide”.

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