Women are fat because they don't do enough housework anymore. No, really, it's science!

Women are fat and lazy. Science! Because no intrepid reporter at the New York Times was able to track down Generic Successful Career Woman^TM to share her personal anecdote of woe about how hard it is to find a man, in order to meet the newspaper of record's monthly lady-bashing quota, we get this:

One reason so many American women are overweight may be that we are vacuuming and doing laundry less often, according to a new study that, while scrupulously even-handed, is likely to stir controversy and emotions.

Well, of course telling women they've really packed on the pounds since they stopped doing the housework with that good old-fashioned 1950s vigor is going to stir emotions. Everyone knows how hysterical ladies get. Even though it's a fact, a scientific fact, from a study. A published study.

The study, published this month in PLoS One, is a follow-up to an influential 2011 report which used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine that, during the past 50 years, most American workers began sitting down on the job. Physical activity at work, such as walking or lifting, almost vanished, according to the data, with workers now spending most of their time seated before a computer or talking on the phone. Consequently, the authors found, the average American worker was burning almost 150 fewer calories daily at work than his or her employed parents had, a change that had materially contributed to the rise in obesity during the same time frame, especially among men, the authors concluded.

Right. So Americans have more desk jobs now and burn fewer calories, which is the same thing as women being fat because they don't do the laundry anymore because ... um ... because that's why. Head below the fold for more of this riveting "research."