Women & Weight, I

This is why many women equate weight to self-worth:

skinny = attractive = sexy
No, skinny is not necessarily attractive or sexy. But some believe that not eating and exercising compulsively is an indicator of excellent discipline, self-control, and self-respect. This last trait, 'self-respect,' is especially perplexing--as if loathing your body and its natural weight indicates that you would never allow fat and sloth to seep into your life, and that you disdain it in others, and that this is a value everyone universally acknowledges. (Fat is unhealthy! Don't be a lazy, ice-cream stuffing bitch!) Having self-respect and discipline are attractive personality traits, certainly. But many women believe that hating your body is a step toward having those traits, as well as self-confidence (so they think.)
And women often think that if they lose weight, they'll be so much sexier. Really--"just a few more pounds!" they always say. "Then I'll be perfect."

sexy = people will have sex with you = people will love you
What women really mean is, "Just a few more pounds--then I'll be perfectly fuckable."
Simply because penises dote on you does not mean that hearts will dote on you. So often sex for women is about love--read women's erotica and you'll find her heart fluttering at the thought of his romantic words. Honeymoon stories are especially creepy: while having hot, wild sex in the middle of the woods the 'heroine' stops to think, "Thank god, he's all mine, this penis is all mine!" When suave men whisper romantic words into women's ears they get aroused. Love is so deeply arousing to a woman that they begin to equate sex with love, and begin to want to cuddle, and begin to want to marry. I think this must be a biological response that can not be mitigated much by reason.

The end result is that skinny = people will love you. One, because they want to fuck you so badly, and two, because you have such discipline that it's admirable.

More on the faults of this reasoning later. Just wanted to post the framework of this discussion (idea I had in my head) before I went to class.