Dear Bartels,

Do I look like a bird? No? Then stop feeding me like I am one.

As a female student on this campus who pays for her food just like everybody else and pays the same amount as everybody else, I’m tired of getting portion sizes that would not even satiate a small child. Sure, this might not seem like a big deal, but when my female friends and I get in line for food and notice that the male student in front of us receives 2-3 times as much food as we do without asking – healthy portion sizes of food, if we’re being honest – without asking, and we receive the equivalent of three spoonfuls of rice, four broccoli florets, and two and a half of the smallest beef tips you can manage to scrape out of the pan time and time again, then yes, it gets a little annoying after a while.

Sure, if we ladies had the egos of Donald Trump and our bodies weren’t constantly scrutinized by society (since, you know, that’s all women are good for anyway), then maybe it wouldn’t bother us when, should we ask for extra portions to match those received by the guys, whose plates are so piled high with food that the slightest gust of wind would cause the entire plate of food to topple over, we are met with one of the two following responses:

“Hmmm, I guess someone’s hungry today,” or, the ever condescending

“If you’re still hungry after you’re finished, then you can come back up for seconds,” which is followed by them brusquely turning their attention to the student behind us and asking what they would like to eat. If it is another female student, then the cycle is repeated, and if it is a male student, then his plate is inundated with food to the point of adding insult to injury.

Not to mention, should a girl decide that yes, she is still hungry, and returns for seconds, the looks of disgust and judgement of the Sodexo workers, upon recognizing the repeat offender, are enough to deter her from ever making the mistake of pulling an Oliver Twist and asking for more ever again.

Either response is inherently rude and completely unnecessary – women need to eat just as much as men. From a biological standpoint, our genitalia is the only thing that differentiates women from men, and, you can be rest assured, none of that has to do with needing proper nutrition and adult-sized portions. What a woman puts into her body is none of your business. Your business is to ensure that students are properly (and equally) fed. And yet, I cannot even begin to count the number of dejected, wholly insecure looks on my fellow female peers’ faces as they walk away to go pay the same price for dinner as the male student with so much food that you would think he’s storing up for hibernation.

You can try to come up with as many excuses as you’d like, from conservation of food, to me just having a chip on my shoulder, but when this is such a common topic of conversation amongst female students, it might be in your best interest to take notes and listen. The way the situation is being handled if it is even being handled at all, is wrong, and better action should be taken, end of story.

If you would like, I would be happy to have The Charger Bulletin publish my birth certificate and a note from my doctor, so that you may see that I am, in fact, a healthy, female human being, rather than whatever small mammal with which you seem to be confusing me.

Perhaps a quick lesson in biology can help you determine the difference – you can fund it with the money that female students are paying for overpriced plates of food that are less than half full.