The real problem with these articles is that they describe a kind of woman and man a lot of us hate. She eats salads and obesses about diets, he overeats and is oblivious. I'd say they were a sterotype only except I just spent a few days with a woman whose whole sense of humor was of the "we girls must have our beauty sleep" variety. I could go into a whole feminist deconstruction of why she annoys me, but the real reason is she's boring and never funny.

that people actually act like? Having dumped women for acting as described in the article, I'm not sure.

No, but Mimi apparently is...she needs to get a life rather than continuing talking to her Size 0 friends, go out and meet real women (paging the Dove gals). Oh, yeah, and maybe give into gluttony and order a petite filet once in a while.

Because I found it hard to work up a sweat on this one -- frankly I found it hard to finish the articles

But my real reason for writing is this: Over the past few months there have been a handful of times when the Broadsheet writers lament their lot as the humorless feminists and then continue to be, well, humorless. Are you trying to prove that in the Broadsheet off-hours you can enjoy some off-color humor? Are you letting us know that you're taking one for the team on this one though it may not correlate to your personal belief on the matter? Frankly, I don't care. Sometimes, you are humorless and sometimes you ladies are quite funny. But please spare us the mea culpa. What makes a blog on a newsite interesting it the personal relationship it creates with the writer(s) and readers, especially on a site like Salon with such a colorful cast of letter-writing characters. And thus, more and more, when I read a Broadsheet post I am hearing the poster already responding to what s/he perceives the comments will be. Sometimes, this makes for a much clearer more articulate article. And some times it just comes off as lip-service.

But back to the post: So this is a post about how poorly written two articles are. And we're tlaking about this here because both articles are written by women, as some sort of seinfeld-esque "Did'ya ever wonder why men like to bar-b-que and women only order salad on when their one a date..."

I empathize with Cayetana's experience and I'm thinking that the biggest offence in these articles may be the sheer BORINGNESS of the "humor" we are talking about.

I am a fit, healthy woman on the thin side. I find it hilarious (and a little sad) when I am the only woman at the table in a group who orders a hearty meal when all the other women order salad-- how boring to only eat salad all the time! I do order salad sometimes, but only if that is what I want-- I look at the whole menu and order what I'm in the mood for (shocking). Of course, I'm married to a man who, if he feels like a salad, will order a salad even if I'm having a burger. Apparently, we're weirdos with our crazy gender bending ordering! In any case, no one shall stand between me and my eats.

On a more serious note, a colleage of mine who was half-Italian, half-Somali and accustomed to eating lunch as her main meal of the day got raised eyebrows and giggles when she ordered a hearty portion of roast chicken and rice at a lunch where everyone else ordered salad. She started eating lighter lunches after that. What a shame. The funny thing is she had a perfect figure-- in this case, it wasn't about how she looked or being thin, it was that eating a big meal was seen as unfeminine. The lamest thing is that this is a sentiment that seems to be largely enforced by other women!

Because I don't know any of them. When my girlfriends and I go out to eat, we eat. We also go to the gym and watch what we eat. Sure we order salads, because veggies are good for you, but we also eat the entree too, a salad is never the meal, just part of it and is never an issue in non-european resturants. But never the less, I'm sure these women exist somewhere, maybe more in looks obsessed parts of the country or just where really good looking people seem to amass in droves. My good friend recently moved to So Cal and now she's a vegan and thinks she's old under 30 and is obsessed with being thin. In the 15 yrs I've known her, she's never acted that way until she moved down south. She was never obsessed about what she ate before and never has been overweight.

For the male stereotype, well, I've come across many men who just refuse to eat veggies, including my brother. He refuses to ever eat veggies unless they are mixed in the meat dish and I think that is much more of a problem than any woman being so concerned about being fat she only orders salads. Think of tailgating parties, my husband is either never making veggies or they come home as leftovers.

Why do men degrade natures offerings as "rabbit food", it's like for some men eating veggies is akin to admitting your an environmentalist liberal nut job and real mean like really hard shit, excessive heartburn and gas?

It really is a problem if you have time to read while doing number two. It's not healthy to need to have a newspaper or book because you're going to be sitting on the toilet for 10 minutes. I've never read in the bathroom because I don't need too, it takes a couple of minutes to take care of my digestive system unless I'm sick and ate something that didn't agree with me, which sometimes happens with resturant food.

No, but Mimi apparently is...she needs to get a life rather than continuing talking to her Size 0 friends, go out and meet real women

Yes, because Size 0 women aren't actually "real women," right? No one who is size 0 could possibly be funny or intelligent or interesting or a "real woman" -- you have to be at least a size 8 to be a "real" woman. "Real women have curves" and all that. Size 0 women are the subject of everyone's scorn and jealousy. :( Probably as much as really fat people are the subjects of everyone's scorn too.

Stop hating on the thin. It makes us sad. We have to cry in our salads. : -(