Females' Views on Femininity Make Me Lose My Appetite

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2009/08/women_eat_daintily_around_men_1.html

I found this article from the Washington Post about a study done in Ontario, Canada that women ate less around men because of their idea of feminine was to eat smaller portions. First, I don't understand how people can NOT eat. I love food, and if you want to have energy, be healthy, and SURVIVE, you E A T. Who ever said ladies shouldn't eat until satisfied?
However, I will agree that I have read books, seen movies, and somehow have the little tidbit ingrained into my memory, and the results did not surprise me. This article jumped out at me because 1) it's true and 2) I can't comprehend WHY. I thought the feminine things guys are attracted to in women are due to something that used to be practical. A teacher once explained guys tend to go for girls with bigger breasts because they'd have more milk to feed their offspring. So as much as that bothers me to be judged so, that makes sense. BUT, how does starving yourself do any good? An unhealthy woman equals an unhealthy baby and premature death (of one or both) and thus more work, pain, and suffering for the husband. On the other hand, I would like to conjecture that this eating "like a bird" as one commenter quoted from Gone With the Wind is really a new idea of femininity. In America today, we seem to like ridiculously skinny, tall, blonde girls as models and girlfriends. Oh, not to mention if they're really ditzy, too. Just imagine Paris Hilton (the cash it the exra bonus). I have no clue how we jumped from practical (yet slightly uncomfortably vulgar) to plain out unhealthy silly girls. My second problem with such an idea of femininism is that women don't feel good about their body this way. Even for me it's a problem. In this day and age, girls must be skinny, and if possible, they should be fit AND healthy AND maybe a little athletic. The pressure to fit in and attract guys with the feminine-ly skinny body leads to such mental problems as anorexia and bulimia. Not to mention, lying to oneself and one's love interest isn't going to make the relationship last very long. If a guy doesn't like the way a girl sustains herself, that's the guy's problem, not hers. I really hope this expectation of skinny girls dies out with shoulder pads, seriously.