2,229 articles
Misogynoir
Misogynoir is the anti-Black racist misogyny directed at Black women, a term coined by Moya Bailey in 2008, a portmanteau of misogyny and noir, added to Merriam-Webster in 2023.
Misogyny
Misogyny (from Greek misos, hatred, and gyne, woman) is hostility toward women; contrasted with sexism as ideology, studied via Kate Manne's enforcement account, ambivalent sexism, structural and online forms.
Miss Cosmo 2024
Miss Cosmo 2024 was the inaugural Miss Cosmo beauty pageant, held in Vietnam and won by Indonesia's Ketut Permata Juliastrid, with Thailand's Mook Karnruethai Tassabut as runner-up; the Grand Finale took place October 5, 2024, in Ho Chi Minh City.
Miss Earth 2024
Miss Earth 2024, the 24th edition of the Philippines-based environmental beauty pageant, was won on November 9, 2024 at Okada Manila by Australia's Jessica Lane, with Iceland, USA, and Peru taking the elemental Air, Water, and Fire titles.
Miss France 2026
Miss France 2026, the 96th edition held 6 December 2025 at the Zénith d'Amiens, was won by Hinaupoko Devèze, Miss Tahiti 2025, succeeding Angélique Angarni-Filopon; the public vote decided a tied final before 6.7 million TF1 viewers.
Miss South Africa 2026
Miss South Africa 2026 is the annual pageant's New Era edition: entries ran 28 April to 17 May 2026, a Top 24 and Top 19 were selected, and the finale is set for 14 November 2026 at Sandton Convention Centre.
Miss Teen International 2026
Miss Teen International 2026: the Glamanand-run teen pageant edition won by Cuba's Jhoanna Uranga in Jaipur, India, on August 31, 2026; Namibia's Chantel Boeren was first runner-up. Distinct US and Ecuadorian pageants share the same name.
Miss Universe Philippines 2026
Miss Universe Philippines 2026, the national pageant won by Bea Millan-Windorski of La Union on May 2, 2026 at the Mall of Asia Arena, selected the Philippine delegate to Miss Universe 2026, succeeding Ahtisa Manalo.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW, MMIWG, MMIWG2S, MMIP): the crisis of disproportionate violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people in North America, marked by Canada's 2016-2019 national inquiry and 231 Calls for Justice, U.S. legislation such as Savanna's Act, and red dress advocacy.
Missing person
Missing person: a person whose whereabouts are unknown or unexplained to family, social, or work environments. Covers definitions, US NCIC and NamUs databases, ICMP identification work, risk assessment, and data limitations.
Missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome, coined by Gwen Ifill in 2004, describes US media's disproportionate coverage of missing young white women versus people of color, confirmed empirically by Sommers's 2016 study.
Missionary position
Missionary position: face-to-face sex position with the penetrating partner on top. Term attested by 1963, coined via Kinsey's 1948 reading of Malinowski; the missionary-origin story is undocumented.
Mistress (lover)
Mistress (lover): a woman in a long-term sexual relationship with a man, usually married, often financially supported. From Old French maistresse; distinct from concubine; central to the French maîtresse en titre court institution.
Mitford family
Mitford family: English aristocratic family of the Barons Redesdale, famous for six sisters (Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, Deborah) whose politics ranged from fascism to communism, plus novelist Nancy's books and the Chatsworth connection.
Mitzi Perdue
Mitzi Perdue (née Henderson, born 1941), American author, rice farmer, and anti-human-trafficking advocate; founder of Win This Fight, past president of American Agri-Women, Scripps Howard environmental columnist, and Ukraine war correspondent honored with Ukraine's Order of Princess Olga.
MK Pritzker
MK (Mary Kathryn) Muenster Pritzker, first lady of Illinois since 2019, wife of Governor JB Pritzker; Pritzker Family Foundation leader, Evergreen Invitational founder, Governor's Mansion restorer, and advocate for incarcerated women.
Model minority
The model minority is a stereotype portraying Asian Americans as uniformly high-achieving, hardworking, and successful in math and science. Originating in 1966 media coverage, it obscures intra-group disparities and has been used against other communities of color.
Mohamed Bzeek
Mohamed Bzeek, Libyan-born Muslim foster father in Azusa, California, has cared for over 80 terminally ill children in Los Angeles County since 1989, burying about 10, as the county's only such foster parent.
Mohsen Mahdawi (محسن مهداوي)
Mohsen Mahdawi (محسن مهداوي), Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate student, arrested by ICE at his 2025 Vermont naturalization interview, freed by Judge Crawford, and still fighting a 2026 removal order to Jordan.
Molly house
Molly houses were 18th- and early 19th-century English taverns, coffee houses, and back rooms where queer men called mollies met, cross-dressed, and held mock weddings, despite the 1533 Buggery Act; the 1726 raid on Mother Clap's Holborn house is the best-known persecution.
Molly Kochan
Molly Kochan, American podcaster and memoirist (Screw Cancer: Becoming Whole) who co-created the Wondery podcast Dying for Sex with Nikki Boyer about her sexual exploration after a terminal stage IV breast cancer diagnosis; she died March 8, 2019, and inspired the 2025 FX series.
Moms for Liberty
Moms for Liberty (M4L): conservative American parental-rights organization founded January 2021 in Florida by Tina Descovich, Tiffany Justice, and Bridget Ziegler; known for school board endorsements, book challenges via BookLooks, and the SPLC 'extremist' designation dispute.
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky (born 1973), American anti-bullying activist, producer, and former White House intern central to the 1998 Clinton scandal; known for the TED talk The Price of Shame, Impeachment: American Crime Story, and the podcast Reclaiming.
Monogamy
Monogamy: exclusive pairing of one male and one female, defined separately as genetic, sexual, and social monogamy. Rare in mammals (under 10% of species), common in birds; humans average 66% full siblings, with 85% of societies historically permitting polygyny.
Moorish sovereign citizens
Moorish sovereign citizens, an offshoot of the sovereign citizen movement since the 1990s, combine Moorish Science Temple identity claims with pseudolaw, claiming immunity from US law through homemade documents, false liens, and rejected court arguments.
Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament (MRA), also called the Oxford Group or Buchmanism, now Initiatives of Change, was Frank Buchman's international moral and spiritual movement founded 1938, known for the four absolutes and Caux reconciliation conferences.
Morenazi
Morenazi (plural morenazis; variant morenario) is a Spanish pejorative blend of moreno (dark-skinned) and nazi for a Latino or mestizo neo-Nazi, documented in Chilean slang and Mexican research on far-right online groups.
Morganatic marriage
Morganatic marriage (Ehe zur linken Hand, left-handed marriage): a legal marriage between spouses of unequal rank in which the lower-ranking spouse and children get no title or succession rights; German, Lombard-derived institution.
Mormonism and polygamy
Mormonism and polygamy covers plural marriage in the LDS Church: introduced by Joseph Smith in the 1840s, announced in 1852, ended by Woodruff's 1890 Manifesto and the 1904 Second Manifesto, with FLDS splinter groups persisting.
Mother and Baby Home
Mother and baby homes were Irish institutions for unmarried mothers, 1922–1998, run mostly by Catholic orders; about 9,000 children died, Tuam's 978 deaths prompted a 2021 state apology, redress, and excavation.