not because of the inquiry itself, wich seems valid, but because the way it's posed, which suggests it's just a bait for grandstanding

it's pretty obvious it's the hackernews patriarchal bubble. men seem to think they know everything about women, and anyone questioning that is put in their place.

FWIW, I would be interested in hearing why you disagree. I think some of the downvotes probably came because the reasons behind the original statement seem very obvious (there is and has been a lot of social pressure on women to look thin; appearance is commonly referred to as a 'superficial' characteristic), so asking for a list instead of just responding to the obvious interpretation can come across as disingenuous.

I don't think asking for clarification on an ambiguous statement is disingenuous, but I'm willing to listen to why you think that.

I said it can come across as disingenuous, largely because the original statement didn't seem ambiguous to me, nor I suspect to the people who downvoted you. And sometimes people pretend not to have understood something, as a way to indirectly criticize it without having to get specific or engage directly. The topic being potentially a controversial one (relating to gender), it seemed like you might have been hinting that the statement was sexist without actually saying why. But I don't know what your actual intent was. (And I'm still not sure whether you have a disagreement with the main substance, i.e. you doubt there would be a relevant difference in prevalence of calorie restriction in men and women, or you think the use of 'superficial' was disrespectful, or something else.)