2,229 articles
Watermelon stereotype
The watermelon stereotype is a post-emancipation American racist trope falsely linking African Americans to excessive watermelon eating, built to ridicule Black freedom, spread through prints, ads, and films, and historically distinct from the watermelon as a Palestinian solidarity symbol.
Wave Hill walk-off
The Wave Hill walk-off, also called the Gurindji strike, began in August 1966 when about 200 Aboriginal workers led by Vincent Lingiari left Wave Hill Station, Northern Territory, over pay and conditions.
Wedding anniversary
Wedding anniversary: the annual celebration of a wedding, with traditional gift materials such as paper (1st), silver (25th), gold (50th), and diamond (60th/75th); custom traces to 18th-century Germany and was standardized commercially in the US from 1922.
Wedding customs by country
Wedding customs by country: cross-cultural marriage practices including bride wealth and dowry, Chinese Six Rites, Punjabi-Chinese ritual homologies, Greek diaspora weddings, same-sex marriage legalization, and the destination wedding industry.
Wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant
The 2024 wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant: Hindu-Gujarati ceremonies at Mumbai's Jio World Convention Centre, July 12–14, after a Jamnagar pre-wedding; cost estimates disputed from $132 million to over $600 million.
Wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and Lauren Sánchez, a former television journalist, married on June 27, 2025, in a Venice ceremony that drew roughly 200 guests and protests.
Wedding of Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema
The 13 October 2011 Buddhist royal wedding of Bhutan's Fifth King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema at Punakha Dzong, with Je Khenpo-led rites, the Dar Na Nga, Golden Bumpa offering, and her crowning as Druk Gyal-tsuen (Queen).
Wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles
The wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles took place at Windsor Guildhall on 9 April 2005, followed by a blessing at St George's Chapel.
Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer
The 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, held 29 July at St Paul's Cathedral, drew 750 million TV viewers, the Emanuel 25-foot-train gown, and the 'wedding of the century' label.
Wedding of Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson
Wedding of Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson: the private civil marriage on 3 June 1937 at Château de Candé, France, between the abdicated Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Warfield, held with about 16 guests and no royals present.
Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, also the marriage creating the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, was held 19 May 2018 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, drawing nearly 18 million UK and over 29 million US viewers.
Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton
Marriage of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton, 29 April 2011, 11 a.m., Westminster Abbey, London. About 1,900 guests, Sarah Burton dress, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, up to 2 billion viewers.
Wedding reception
Wedding reception: the party held after a marriage ceremony, also called a wedding party or walima in Islamic tradition. Typically the largest wedding expense, averaging 116 US guests, now often part of multiday celebrations.
Wedding ring
Wedding ring: a metal band exchanged to mark marriage, rooted in Roman custom. Key facts: Roman silver/gold gendered rings, Byzantine OMONOIA rings, 1940s double-ring marketing, USD 106.6 billion 2026 market.
Weddings in India
Weddings in India, also called shaadi or vivah, are multi-day religious and regional marriage ceremonies governed by separate personal-law acts, with about 90% arranged, a ₹6.5 lakh crore wedding economy, and strong caste and religious endogamy.
Weinstein effect
Weinstein effect: wave of sexual misconduct accusations, dismissals, and legal action following the October 2017 Harvey Weinstein exposés and viral #MeToo movement, distinct from Tarana Burke's earlier 2006 Me Too campaign.
West African migration to the Canary Islands
West African migration to the Canary Islands is the sea route from West African coasts to Spain, one of the longest and deadliest irregular migration journeys to Europe.
Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an unaffiliated Topeka, Kansas congregation founded by Fred Phelps in 1955, is an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group known for picketing military funerals, its Snyder v. Phelps Supreme Court win, and its post-2014 decline to 60-70 members.
Westermarck effect
The Westermarck effect, or reverse sexual imprinting, is the hypothesized sexual aversion between people raised together in early childhood, proposed by Edvard Westermarck in 1891, opposed by Freud, and tested through Taiwan minor marriages and Israeli kibbutzim.
Western European marriage pattern
Western European marriage pattern, or European marriage pattern (EMP), is the Hajnal-described regime of late female marriage (~25), high celibacy (>10%), and low illegitimacy west of the Hajnal line (St Petersburg–Trieste) from the 16th century to WWI, linked to Malthusian preventive checks and economic development debates.
Western values
Western values: a contested set of norms, individualism, human rights, secularism, liberal democracy, traced to Greek, Roman, Jewish-Christian, and Enlightenment roots, criticized as Eurocentric and challenged by Asian-values and civilizationist debates.
Wet and messy fetishism
Wet and messy fetishism (WAM, sploshing) is a sexual fetish for slimy or messy substances like food, mud, or gunge applied to body or clothing, excluding body fluids; named partly after the 1989 British magazine Splosh!.
Wet T-shirt contest
Wet T-shirt contest: bar and spring-break event, also called wet T-shirt competition, in which women in soaked white T-shirts are judged on appearance; originated in 1970s America, declined after the 2000s, persists in northern Australia.
What Is a Woman?
What Is a Woman? is a 2022 Daily Wire documentary directed by Justin Folk, hosted by Matt Walsh, asking interviewees to define "woman"; released June 2022, it reached 170 million Twitter views in 2023 after Musk lifted restrictions.
Which Way Western Man?
Which Way Western Man? is a 1978 white nationalist book by William Gayley Simpson, published by Yeoman Press and later the National Alliance, arguing a Jewish conspiracy caused Western decline; its title became a far-right meme.
White genocide conspiracy theory
White genocide conspiracy theory: false white supremacist and antisemitic claim of a Jewish-led plot to erase white populations; popularized by David Lane, related to the Great Replacement, and cited in Christchurch, Buffalo, and other attacks.
White Night riots
White Night riots: May 21, 1979 San Francisco unrest after Dan White's voluntary manslaughter verdict for killing Harvey Milk and George Moscone; Castro march on City Hall, police retaliation, and lasting LGBTQ political impact.
White pride
White pride is a slogan used predominantly by white supremacist and white nationalist groups, tied to the Klan, Christian Identity, and neo-Nazi movements, and to slogans like the 14 Words, White Lives Matter, and It's okay to be white.
White savior
White savior (white saviour): a white person cast as heroic rescuer of non-white people, criticized in film, humanitarian aid, and development studies; theorized by Teju Cole as the White-Savior Industrial Complex (2012).
White supremacy
White supremacy: the belief in white racial superiority and the systems built on it, from colonial slave codes, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow, and apartheid to modern alt-right and white nationalist movements and hate-crime trends.