2,229 articles
Lovesickness
Lovesickness: intense negative emotions and physical symptoms when unable to be with a loved person; also called xiangsi bing in Chinese tradition. Not a medical diagnosis today, but treated as a real disorder, amor hereos, from antiquity through the 19th century.
Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd
Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd (1891-1948), Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary, was Franklin D. Roosevelt's longtime love; their 1918-discovered affair reshaped the Roosevelt marriage, and she was with FDR at Warm Springs when he died in 1945.
Lyle Stevik
Lyle Stevik is the alias of a man found at Lake Quinault Inn, Amanda Park, Washington, in 2001. He was identified by genetic genealogy in 2018.
Lynching
Lynching, extrajudicial mob killing; in the US chiefly racial terror lynching of Black Americans, 1865–1950. EJI documents nearly 6,500 lynchings; federal law came only with the 2022 Emmett Till Antilynching Act.
Lynching of Dipu Chandra Das (দীপু চন্দ্র দাস)
Dipu Chandra Das (দীপু চন্দ্র দাস), Hindu garment worker lynched in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, Bangladesh, on 18 December 2025 over false blasphemy allegations; body hung and burned; no evidence found; 23+ arrests.
Machismo
Machismo is a Spanish word for masculinity, but in English it refers to an exaggerated stereotype of hypermasculinity attributed to Latin American men, popularized by US scholars.
Macrophilia
Macrophilia, also called the macro or GTS (giantess) fetish, is sexual attraction centered on extreme size difference, often giant women. Counterpart microphilia; explored through art and fiction; not a DSM diagnosis.
Magdalen Berns
Magdalen Berns (1983–2019), British YouTuber, lesbian radical feminist, and co-founder of For Women Scotland; known for gender-critical vlogs and the phrase "there's no such thing as a lesbian with a penis".
Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), German Jewish physician and sexologist, founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (1897), the first homosexual rights organization, and the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (1919), site of the first modern sex-change surgeries, destroyed by the Nazis in 1933.
Magonism
Magonism (Spanish: magonismo) is the political movement organized around Ricardo Flores Magón and the Mexican Liberal Party, which opposed the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and fought in the Mexican Revolution from 1910.
Mahad Satyagraha
Mahad Satyagraha, Chavdar Tale satyagraha: 1927 nonviolent campaign led by B. R. Ambedkar at Mahad, Maharashtra, asserting the Depressed Classes' right to draw water from the Chavdar Tank, including the 20 March water claiming, the 25 December 1927 Manusmriti burning, and a decade of litigation.
Maharani Wisma Susana Siregar
Maharani Wisma Susana Siregar (born 5 June 1925, Liverpool) is an Indonesian independence veteran and one of Sukarno's wives, married 1958-1962; mother of Siti Aisyah Margaret Rose, later remarried Firdaus Harahap.
Mail-order bride
Mail-order bride: outdated term for international matchmaking and correspondence courtship, from 19th-century American personal ads and picture brides to today's IMBRA-regulated dating platforms.
Making out
Making out is informal North American English for sustained passionate kissing and sexual touching; the 20th-century phrasal verb sits within romantic kissing, which cross-cultural research finds in only 46% of 168 sampled cultures.
Malcolm Shabazz
Malcolm Lateef Shabazz (1984–2013), grandson and first male descendant of Malcolm X, son of Qubilah Shabazz; pleaded guilty at 12 in the 1997 fire that killed Betty Shabazz; beaten to death in Mexico City at 28.
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little, 1925–1965) was an American Muslim minister and Black nationalist leader, Nation of Islam spokesman, hajj pilgrim, Sunni convert, OAAU founder, assassinated at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom.
Male dominance (BDSM)
Male dominance in BDSM is the consensual Dominant role in D/s power exchange. Covers negotiation, safewords, prevalence (2.2% men past-year, Australia), dominant motivations, abuse distinctions, and practitioner psychology.
Male prostitution
Male prostitution: men selling sexual services, historically called porneia in Greece. Regulated via male homosexuality laws in UK/Australia; Belgium granted labor rights in 2024; workers increasingly operate online.
Mammary intercourse
Mammary intercourse, also called titjob or breast sex, is a non-penetrative act of rubbing the penis between the breasts; documented in sexology, surveyed in kink-community research, and unique to humans per one hypothesis paper.
Man
Man: an adult human male (biological sex producing sperm), with socially constructed masculinity norms varying across cultures; studied via masculinities research, health impacts, and gender-equality programs.
Man cave
A man cave, also called a mantuary, is a room or outbuilding, often a basement or garage, that a man keeps as a private refuge for hobbies and sports viewing.
Man or bear
Man or bear: viral 2024 TikTok question asking women if they'd rather be stuck in the woods with a man or a bear, also called man vs bear; most women in the viral video chose the bear, sparking surveys and academic study.
Mandy Rice-Davies
Mandy Rice-Davies (Marilyn Rice-Davies, 1944–2014), Welsh showgirl of the 1963 Profumo affair, famous for the retort "Well, he would, wouldn't he?" at Stephen Ward's trial, later nightclub owner in Israel and novelist.
Manoj Jarange
Manoj Jarange Patil (मनोज जरांगे पाटील), Maratha reservation activist from Antarwali Sarati, Jalna, Maharashtra; leads Kunbi-certificate/OBC quota agitation through repeated hunger strikes since 2023, distinct from other Maratha quota leaders.
Manosphere
The manosphere is a decentralized network of anti-feminist, male-supremacist online communities, including MRAs, Pick-Up Artists, The Red Pill, MGTOW, and incels; term coined 2009, roots in 1970s men's rights movement, increasingly linked to radicalization and mainstream influencers like Andrew Tate.
Mansplaining
Mansplaining, a blend of man and explain coined in 2008 after Rebecca Solnit's essay, is a man's condescending explanation to a woman regardless of her expertise; OED-listed since 2018.
Manspreading
Manspreading: pejorative term for men sitting with legs wide apart on public transport, encroaching on adjacent seats. Coined in print October 2014; MTA 'Courtesy Counts' campaign; banned in Madrid metro from 2015.
Manvendra Singh Gohil (मानवेंद्र सिंह गोहिल)
Manvendra Singh Gohil (मानवेंद्र सिंह गोहिल), prince of the erstwhile state of Rajpipla, Gujarat, and 39th of the Gohil dynasty, came out in 2006 as India's first openly gay prince, was disowned by his family, and founded the Lakshya Trust.
Māori Land March
The Māori Land March was a 1975 protest march led by Whina Cooper, who walked 1,000 km from Te Hāpua to Parliament in Wellington to protest Māori land loss.
March of the Hundred Thousand
The March of the Hundred Thousand (Passeata dos Cem Mil) was a protest by about 100,000 people in Rio de Janeiro on 26 June 1968 against Brazil's military dictatorship.