930 articles
Sex scandal
Sex scandal: a media-amplified public controversy over the sexual conduct of public figures. Key cases include Lewinsky (1998), Sandusky (2011), Nassar, and Weinstein (2017, #MeToo); research emphasizes gendered double standards in framing.
Sex segregation in Saudi Arabia
Sex segregation in Saudi Arabia separates unrelated men and women in public spaces, workplaces, and schools; ikhtilat (mixing) was long the contested concept, enforced by the Mutaween, then relaxed after 2016 Vision 2030 reforms lifted driving and guardianship restrictions.
Sexual abuse in the American film industry
Sexual abuse in the American film industry, also called the casting-couch problem, covers harassment, coercion, and assault in Hollywood production; #MeToo (2017, Harvey Weinstein allegations) and Hollywood Commission surveys document prevalence and weak accountability.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempted act using coercion, from unwanted comments to forced penetration, recognized by the WHO as a major public health and human rights problem.
Sexualization
Sexualization is the assignment of a person's value through sexual appeal or imposed sexuality, distinct from healthy sexuality per the APA's 2008 Task Force definition. Related concept: objectification; key mechanism: self-objectification with measured cognitive and health consequences.
Shabbos Kestenbaum
Shabbos Kestenbaum (Alexander Kestenbaum) is an American Jewish activist and Harvard Divinity School graduate who was lead plaintiff in the 2024 Title VI antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard, settled confidentially in May 2025.
Shannon Watts
Shannon Watts, American gun violence prevention activist, founder of Moms Demand Action (originally One Million Moms for Gun Control), started after Sandy Hook 2012, later part of Everytown for Gun Safety.
Shaun King
Shaun King, American activist and writer, rose to prominence in the 2014 Ferguson protests, led The North Star, Real Justice PAC, and Grassroots Law Project, and faces recurring fundraising-accountability disputes.
Shehla Rashid
Shehla Rashid Shora, Indian academic and former JNU students' union vice president (2015), led 2016 sedition-case protests, joined Shah Faesal's J&K People's Movement, faced a 2019 sedition case later withdrawn, and now teaches sociology in Budgam.
Shelby Steele
Shelby Steele (born 1946, Chicago) is an American essayist, former San Jose State English professor, and Hoover Institution senior fellow; author of The Content of Our Character (1990 NBCC Award) and White Guilt, known for critiques of affirmative action and victimization politics.
Shooting of Jacob Blake
The shooting of Jacob Blake occurred August 23, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, when officer Rusten Sheskey fired seven rounds into Blake's back, leaving the 29-year-old partially paralyzed; state and federal reviews ended without charges.
Shoshana Strook
Shoshana Strook (Strock), daughter of Israeli National Missions Minister Orit Strook, publicly accused her parents and a brother of ritual child sexual abuse in 2025 and was found dead in northern Israel in March 2026.
Simeon Boikov (Симеон Бойков)
Simeon Boikov (Симеон Бойков), aka "Aussie Cossack", is an Australian-born pro-Russian activist and disinformation distributor, hiding in Sydney's Russian consulate since 2023, granted Russian citizenship in 2023, EU-sanctioned in 2025, and tied to Storm-1516 paid amplification.
Sindhutai Sapkal
Sindhutai Sapkal (सिंधुताई सपकाळ), the 'Mother of Orphans', Indian social worker from Maharashtra who raised over a thousand orphans, founded multiple ashrams, and received the Padma Shri in 2021; died in Pune on 4 January 2022.
Sit-in
Sit-in: a nonviolent direct-action tactic of occupying a space and refusing to leave, also called sit-down. Known for the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins, 1936–37 labor sit-down strikes, and the 28-day 1977 Section 504 occupation.
Situationist International
The Situationist International (Internationale situationniste) was a Marxist avant-garde group founded in 1957 at Cosio d'Arroscia, Italy, and dissolved in 1972, known for the dérive, détournement, Debord's Society of the Spectacle, and its influence on May 1968 and punk.
Sixties Scoop
The Sixties Scoop, also known as the Canada Scoops, was the mass removal of Indigenous children in Canada to non-Indigenous homes from the late 1950s into the 1980s.
Slacktivism
Slacktivism (slactivism), also called clicktivism or hashtag activism, is low-effort online support for causes, coined positively in 1995 by Fred Clark and Dwight Ozard, now a pejorative with mixed research verdicts.
Slavery in Mauritania
Slavery in Mauritania is hereditary, descent-based servitude of Haratines to Beydane masters. Abolished by ordinance in 1981, criminalized in 2007, strengthened by 2015 and 2020 laws; estimates range from 43,000 to 149,000 enslaved.
Social commentary
Social commentary is the act of saying something about subjects that affect society, or a work in art, literature, or journalism that voices views on society and encourages reflection.
Social hygiene movement
The social hygiene movement, or hygienism, was an American Progressive Era reform campaign led by physicians to eliminate venereal disease and prostitution through sex education and legal reform.
Social issue
Social issue (social problem): a condition or behavior harming large numbers of people that the public recognizes as needing action. Combines objective measurable conditions with subjective concern; studied via constructionist claims-making theory, with data on poverty, inequality, and public priorities.
Social movement
A social movement is a sustained network using unconventional means, shared beliefs, and solidarity to pursue conflictual aims. Covers classical, resource mobilization, political process, new social movement, and framing theories, plus digital-era protest.
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
SPCA societies are independent animal welfare charities tracing to the 1824 London founding; examples include RSPCA, ASPCA, and SPCA New Zealand, which differ sharply in legal enforcement powers and funding.
Sodder children disappearance
Sodder children disappearance: 1945 Fayetteville, West Virginia house fire after which Maurice, Martha, Louis, Jennie, and Betty Sodder were never seen again; no remains were found, and the parents' four-decade abduction campaign remains unresolved.
Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup (born c. 1808) was a free New York carpenter kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841, enslaved twelve years in Louisiana, rescued 1853; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave, edited by David Wilson, inspired the 1984 Gordon Parks and 2013 Steve McQueen films.
Somaya Bashir
Somaya Bashir (סומיה בשיר, born 1974) is an Arab-Israeli psychologist and activist from Jatt, founder of We Have No Other Land and Insan, Women Wage Peace leader, and the first Arab woman elected to a realistic slot on Israel's Democrats party Knesset slate.
Sophie Flay
Sophie Flay (born 1996) is an American broadcast journalist, daughter of chef Bobby Flay, co-anchoring ABC's World News Now and GMA First Look since 2025 after ABC7 Los Angeles reporting and Food Network shows The Flay List and Bobby and Sophie on the Coast.
Source (journalism)
Source (journalism): the person, document, or origin supplying facts for a news story, also called 新闻来源. Covers attribution levels, anonymous-source rules, verification, and ethics codes from AP, Washington Post, and SPJ.
Southern chivalry
Southern chivalry: the antebellum South's elite white male honor code of duels, reputation, and Cavalier medievalism, tied to slavery; also the name of a Southern California political faction and a lasting Lost Cause image.