You don’t have to be a fan of competitive eating to have heard of Kobayashi (the first superstar of the genre) and Joey Chestnut (with the catchy made-for-media name). The casual observer might extrapolate from those two guys, and common stereotypes of women and men, to the conclusion that competitive eating is a man’s game. Wrong! Some of the most accomplished competitive eaters are women.

Newsweek has posted an interesting story about female competitive eaters, with a particular focus on Molly Schuyler, who recently consumed three 72-ounce steak dinners in 20 minutes at the Big Texan in Amarillo. We write about competitive eating occasionally here at LAF but not because we’re fans. We admit to having some measure of morbid fascination with the subject, but a line in the Newsweek story sums up our thoughts fairly accurately: “Competitive eating at once mocks and celebrates our awareness of how gross we have become.”