2,229 articles
Pallbearer
Pallbearer: a person who carries or escorts a coffin or casket at a funeral, also called coffin bearer. From pall, the cloth over a coffin; first recorded 1707. Usually six bearers, often family or friends, with honorary pallbearers recognized without lifting.
Panpan girls (パンパンガール)
Panpan girls (パンパンガール) were street prostitutes of occupied Japan, 1945–1952, serving mainly US soldiers; about 70 percent were yo-pan, with RAA facilities, GHQ venereal exams, and the amezo label following.
Pansexuality
Pansexuality is a sexual orientation in which attraction to others is not limited by sex or gender, so pansexual people can be attracted to any gender identity.
Paraphilic infantilism
Paraphilic infantilism (autonepiophilia, adult baby syndrome) is sexual arousal from role-playing regression to an infant state, historically defined in DSM-III-R through DSM-IV-TR and no longer a DSM-5 or ICD paraphilia; distinct from diaperism and pedophilia.
Parasite single
Parasite single (パラサイトシングル) is a Japanese pejorative for unmarried adults living off their parents' household, coined by sociologist Masahiro Yamada in 1997 and popularized by his 1999 book.
Parent-in-law
Parent-in-law: the father-in-law or mother-in-law, the parent of one's spouse. An affinal (marriage-created) kin relation, traced etymologically to Canon Law via brother-in-law (13c.) and PIE swekuros.
Parental abuse by children
Parental abuse by children, also called child-to-parent violence (CPV) or CAPVA, is abuse of a parent or carer by a child, physical, psychological, or financial; average prevalence about 35%, linked to early family victimization, with no universal definition.
Parental alienation
Parental alienation: proposed dynamic where a child unjustifiably rejects a parent, coined as PAS by Richard Gardner in 1985; excluded from ICD-11 and DSM, scientifically contested, and widely criticized as misused in custody disputes.
Parental leave
Parental leave: employment-protected, often paid time off for parents of a new child, alongside maternity and paternity leave. ILO standards set 14 weeks maternity; 68 of 185 countries have parental leave rights; the US mandates only 12 weeks unpaid.
Parenting
Parenting, also called child-rearing, is providing nurturing care to children by parents or other caregivers. Key facts: four parenting styles with authoritative favored, harsh discipline prevalence, WHO and UNICEF support programmes, digital-age challenges.
Passing (racial identity)
Racial passing, also called passing for white, is presenting as a race other than one's assigned one; over 19% of black males passed for white in 1880-1940 US censuses, with roots in antebellum escape from slavery.
Passport bros
Passport bros, also called PPB, are Western men who travel abroad, mainly to Colombia, Brazil, Thailand, and the Philippines, seeking "traditional" wives; a manosphere-linked movement coined in a 2011 documentary and spread on TikTok since 2019.
Patriarchy
Patriarchy: a social system of male dominance over women, central concept in feminist theory (Millett, Firestone, Hartmann), with private-to-public forms, critiques, and intersectionality shift.
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (1963) was the third child of President John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy, born five and a half weeks premature at Otis AFB and died of respiratory distress syndrome at 39 hours; his death spurred surfactant research.
Patrick Little (neo-Nazi)
Patrick Little is an American neo-Nazi activist and former Marine sergeant who ran as a Republican for the 2018 California US Senate seat against Dianne Feinstein, polled second at 18 percent, was expelled from the California GOP convention, finished 12th, and later ran for office in Idaho and for president in 2020.
Patrisse Cullors
Patrisse Cullors, also known as Patrisse Khan-Cullors, is an American artist and activist born in Los Angeles in 1983, best known as a co-founder of Black Lives Matter.
Patti Stanger
Patti Stanger, the Millionaire Matchmaker, is an American third-generation matchmaker who founded the Millionaire's Club in 2000, starred in Bravo's The Millionaire Matchmaker (2008–2015), and returned on the CW in 2024.
Pattukkottai Alagiri (பட்டுக்கோட்டை ஆழகிரி)
Pattukkottai Alagiri (பட்டுக்கோட்டை ஆழகிரி), also spelled Azhagiri, 1900–1949, Tamil Self-Respect Movement orator called the 'whirlwind speaker' and 'Anjaa Nenjan', co-led the 1938 Trichy-to-Madras anti-Hindi march.
Patty Wetterling
Patty Wetterling, American child-safety advocate from St. Joseph, Minnesota; mother of abducted Jacob Wetterling; co-founded Jacob Wetterling Foundation, prompted the 1994 federal sex offender registry act, chaired NCMEC, later criticized registries.
Pauline Pfeiffer
Pauline Pfeiffer (1895–1951), American journalist for Vanity Fair and Vogue, second wife of Ernest Hemingway from 1927 to 1940; mother of Patrick and Gregory, editor of his manuscripts, died after an adrenal tumor rupture.
Peace
Peace, in peace research, means more than the absence of war: negative peace is the absence of direct violence, while positive peace, per Johan Galtung, adds social justice and the absence of structural and cultural violence, underpinning UN peacebuilding and indices like the Global Peace Index.
Pederasty
Pederasty (Greek paiderastia) is the erotic relationship between an adult male and an adolescent boy, historically institutionalized in ancient Greece as erastes-eromenos mentorship, later practiced in Rome, and criminalized under Christianity; distinct from pedophilia in definition.
Pedophile advocacy groups
Pedophile advocacy groups, including NAMBLA (founded 1978, Boston), the Rene Guyon Society, and the Childhood Sensuality Circle, advocate adult sexual behavior with children and its decriminalization; later online movements promoted the 'minor attracted person' terminology.
Pedophilia
Pedophilia (paedophilia), associated with Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), is persistent sexual attraction to prepubescent children; DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnose pedophilic disorder only when urges are acted on or cause distress, distinct from child sexual abuse.
Pegging (sexual practice)
Pegging is anal penetration of a partner with a strap-on dildo, originally a woman penetrating a man. Term coined in Dan Savage's 2001 Savage Love reader vote; de Sade described the act in 1795; guidance covers lubricant, flared-base toys and condoms.
Pegida
Pegida (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes) is a right-wing populist, anti-immigration protest movement founded by Lutz Bachmann in Dresden in October 2014, known for Monday marches peaking at about 25,000 in January 2015 and close ties to the AfD.
Pelvic thrust
Pelvic thrust: forward rhythmic pelvic movement used in dance styles (Trobriand mweki/Tapioca Dance, bucking, twerking), stage dance (Time Warp, jerk), and the barbell hip-thrust exercise.
Pen pal
Pen pal (pen friend): a person with whom you exchange letters as a hobby, usually abroad and unmet. Covers origins in the international correspondence movement, Eisenhower's People-to-People program, classroom uses, and apps like Slowly.
Pencil test (breasts)
Pencil test (breasts): folk test placing a pencil under an unsupported breast; if it stays, a bra is advised. Attributed to Ann Landers, spread by mid-20th-century magazines, later recast as a sagging or breast-lift criterion and widely criticized as unreliable.
Pengiran Raabi'atul Adawiyyah
Pengiran Raabi'atul Adawiyyah binti Pengiran Haji Bolkiah (born 1992) is a Bruneian former data analyst, wife of Prince 'Abdul Malik, whose title Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Anak Isteri was revoked by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on 8 August 2026; she has four daughters.