{{Short description|Act of pulling down a person's trousers}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Use British English|date=September 2011}}
'''Pantsing'''{{efn|Also known as '''depantsing''', '''debagging''', '''dacking''', '''flagging''', '''sharking''', and '''scanting'''.}} is the act of pulling down a person's trousers and sometimes underpants, typically as a practical joke or a form of bullying.
Pantsing is a more common prank and occurs mainly in schools.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAFlDy4-3pkC&q=depantsing&pg=PA84 |last=Roberts |first=Walter B. |title=Bullying from Both Sides: Strategic Interventions for Working With Bullies & Victims |publisher=Corwin Press |date=2005 |pages=84–85 |isbn=1-4129-2580-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/parentsbookabout00voor |url-access= registration |quote= depantsing. |last=Voors |first=William |title=The Parent's Book About Bullying: Changing the Course of Your Child's Life |publisher=Hazelden |date=2000 |page=[https://archive.org/details/parentsbookabout00voor/page/6 6] |isbn=978-1-56838-517-4}}</ref> Some U.S. colleges before World War II were the scenes of large-scale "depantsing" scraps between freshman and sophomore males, often involving more than 2,000 participants.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&Appname=2%2525252525252526amp%252525252525253Benter%252525252525253Dtrue%2525252525252526amp%252525252525253BBaseHref%252525252525253DDCG%252525252525252F1950%252525252525252F09%252525252525252F13%2525252525252526amp%252525252525253BEntityId%252525252525253DAr00100 |title=Customs Were Rugged Then |work=The Daily Collegian |date=13 September 1950 |volume=51 |issue=2 |page=1 |access-date=25 August 2009 |via=DigitalNewspaper.Libraries.PSU.edu |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194307/http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&Appname=2%2525252525252526amp%252525252525253Benter%252525252525253Dtrue%2525252525252526amp%252525252525253BBaseHref%252525252525253DDCG%252525252525252F1950%252525252525252F09%252525252525252F13%2525252525252526amp%252525252525253BEntityId%252525252525253DAr00100 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is also an initiation rite in fraternities<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4htx62wIXIgC&q=depantsing&pg=PT177 |last1=Hodapp |first1=Christopher |last2=Von Kannon |first2=Alice |title=Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies for Dummies |publisher=Wiley |date=2008 |page=159 |isbn=978-0-470-18408-0}}</ref> and seminaries.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MUYn5ydZ_HwC&pg=PA164 |last=Jordan |first=Mark D. |title=The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=2002 |page=164 |isbn=978-0-226-41043-2}}</ref> It was cited in 1971 by Gail Sheehy as a form of assault against grade school girls, which did not commonly get reported, although it might include improper touching and indecent exposure by the perpetrators.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=B-MCAAAAMBAJ&q=pantsing&pg=PA28 |last=Sheehy |first=Gail |title=Nice girls don't get into trouble |work=New York |date=15 February 1971 |page=28 |access-date=25 August 2009}}</ref> The United States legal system has prosecuted it as a form of sexual harassment of children.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martinson |first=Floyd Mansfield |author-link=Floyd M. Martinson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ym-Zjn9-zQC&q=depantsing&pg=PA137 |title=The Sexual Life of Children |date=1994 |publisher=Bergin & Garvey |isbn=978-0-89789-376-3 |page=136}}</ref>
== Alternative names == In Britain, especially historically at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England, the term is known as {{lang|en|debagging|italic=yes}} (derived from Oxford bags, a loose-fitting baggy form of trousers). In Northern England, the dialect renders the word "dekekking" or "dekecking" where "keks" is a local word for underwear.<ref>English slang, [https://idoc.pub/documents/english-slang-qn857xdrzkn1 p. 18]</ref>
A corresponding term in Australia (aside from ''pantsing'') is {{lang|en|dakking, dacking|italic=yes}}, or {{lang|en|daxing|italic=yes}}, which originated from DAKS Simpson, a clothing brand that became a generic term for pants and underwear.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oup.com.au/dictionaries/wotm/dak |work=OUP.com |publisher=Oxford University Press |title=Word of the Month: The Making of Australian English – Dak |year=2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101229091521/http://www.oup.com.au/dictionaries/wotm/dak |archive-date=29 December 2010 |url-status=dead |access-date=22 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=McClure |first=Geoff |url= http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/campo-point-of-view-gets-a-makeover/2006/02/15/1139890806854.html |title=Campo 'point' of view gets a makeover |work=The Age |date=16 February 2006 |access-date=25 August 2009}}</ref> The term ''double-dacking'' is used when both the pants and underwear are pulled down. In Scotland the process is often known as {{lang|en|breeking|italic=yes}} or {{lang|en|breekexxing|italic=yes}} from the word ''breeks'' meaning 'trousers'. In New Zealand, the act is known as giving someone a ''down-trou'' (though this can have a more specific meaning, relating to loser-shaming in pool playing and other competitive games); in Ireland, it is {{lang|en|jocking|italic=yes}}, {{lang|en|zoonking|italic=yes}} or {{lang|en|ka-blinking|italic=yes}}; in the north and south-west of England {{lang|en|kegging|italic=yes}} (or {{lang|en|quegging|italic=yes}}).<ref>[http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/k.htm A dictionary of slang]</ref>
An alternative term is {{lang|en|sharking|italic=yes}},<ref>{{cite web |first=Paul |last=Higgins |title=Fourth charge put to Lisburn teen accused of sexual assault by 'sharking' |work=Belfast Telegraph |date=2 October 2015 |url= https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/fourth-charge-put-to-lisburn-teen-accused-of-sexual-assault-by-sharking-31576647.html |access-date=23 June 2018}}</ref> which usually implies a sexual assault on a stranger rather than a prank or bullying between peers, and is sometimes applied more broadly to the pulling down of blouses and other top clothing.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
Another prank, in which the victim's underpants are yanked upward rather than downward, is called a wedgie.
==Bullying== Pantsing can be used as a form of bullying and is technically the crime of simple assault. The practice has been viewed as a form of ritual emasculation. In 2007, British Secretary of State for Education and Skills Alan Johnson, in a speech to the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, criticized such bullying and criticized YouTube for hosting a movie (since removed) of a teacher being pantsed, saying that such bullying "is causing some [teachers] to consider leaving the profession because of the defamation and humiliation they are forced to suffer" and that "Without the online approval which appeals to the innate insecurities of the bully, such sinister activities would have much less attraction."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://watfordobserver.co.uk./news/localnews/display.var.1324861.0.youtube_condemned_by_minister.php|title=Youtube condemned by minister|date=12 April 2007|work=The Watford Observer}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://people.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=126198|title=British education minister warns malicious online videos hurting teachers|date=10 April 2007|work=Broadcast Newsroom|agency=Associated Press|access-date=17 April 2007|archive-date=8 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208135713/http://people.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=126198|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/article2445862.ece |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120731155612/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/article2445862.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 July 2012 |title=Teachers are devastated by pupils' net effects |date=13 April 2007 |work=Belfast Telegraph }}</ref>
Juanita Ross Epp is highly critical of teachers who regard pupils pantsing one another as normal behavior, saying that pantsing makes pupils feel intimidated and uncomfortable and that "normal is not the same as right".<ref>{{cite book|title=Systematic Violence: How Schools Hurt Children|editor=Juanita Ross Epp and Ailsa M. Watkinson|author=Juanita Ross Epp|chapter=Schools, Complicity, and Sources of Violence|page=17|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-7507-0582-5}}</ref>
==See also== * Kanchō
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Wiktionary|pants|pantsing|debag|debagging}} {{Reflist}}
Category:Assault Category:Harassment and bullying Category:Practical jokes Category:Sexual harassment Category:University of Cambridge Category:University of Oxford Category:Sexual violence Category:Sexual fetishism