The National Eating Disorders Association defines pica as “the recurrent eating of non-food substances that offer no nutritional value and are not part of a culturally sanctioned practice”.1 To be considered a disorder, this behavior must take place over at least one month.2 Some of these substances may include cloth, hair, wool, starch, soil, string,…
Tag: culture
Gender Binary
The gender binary is a system that pairs together sex (which is based on an individual’s reproductive anatomy) and gender (which refers to the socially constructed ideas and expectations that a culture has for certain sex). More specifically, it classifies two distinguishable, distinct, and oftentimes contrasting genders: males who identify as men and females who…
When to Lose Your Virginity
Defining “Losing Your Virginity” What exactly does “losing your virginity” mean? Virginity can be defined in different ways according to your sexual orientation, beliefs, and culture. Losing your virginity is often described as engaging in penetrative sex, including anal sex, for the first time. The definition can also be expanded to include oral sex and manual stimulation. Oftentimes, when sexual intercourse and virginity…
Female Infertility in America
Disclaimer: This article focuses on the social and psychological aspects of infertility in America. For information regarding the biological aspects of female infertility click here. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 10% or 6.1 million women in the United States struggle with infertility, which is understood as the inability to conceive or…