A recent ad for Macy's in the New York Times strutted its stuff with an ingenious title for the department store's plus-sized women's clothing department. MACY WOMAN, it read, emblazoned over a captivating photograph of a woman who looked perfectly normal, if perhaps outside the category that certain clothing manufacturers deceptively call a size 6.

Macy's nomenclature suggests that those women who wear plus-sizes (generally considered size 16 and up) are somehow more qualified to bear the title of "woman" than those who wear skirts in the single digits. What, then, would they call the department for those who wear sizes two through 14--Macy Waif?

By calling the plus-size department "Macy Woman," is the store trying to attract slightly heavier women by appealing to their self-esteem? By insinuating that their female, companions with less flesh on the bones are somehow less woman and more girl?

It seems that in thus naming its department, Macy's has taken a bold step against the prevailing norms of our culture, in which cover models are often anorexic and Cosmopolitan regularly runs articles on how to be 5'6" and 110 pounds. We at Dartboard applaud this supposed attempt to affront societal stereotypes. We wish, however, that we could believe that Macy's did it on purpose.