--- title: Macy's Removes Plates Accused of Promoting 'Body Shaming' description: Macy's has removed dinner plates from its stores after receiving backlash that the lettering on the plates "fuels eating disorders". canonical: https://time.com/5632168/macys-remove-plates-eating-disorders-pourtions/ author: Josiah Bates article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-23T00:14:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T00:03:03.548Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Macy's Asked to Remove Plates That Promote "Body Shaming" og:description: The plates were made by Pourtions og:url: https://time.com/5632168/macys-remove-plates-eating-disorders-pourtions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31365ee19a98b80/698941c5656a3fa95abd6452/macys-new-years-2018-hours.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: macys-new-years-2018-hours og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Macy's Asked to Remove Plates That Promote "Body Shaming" twitter:description: The plates were made by Pourtions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31365ee19a98b80/698941c5656a3fa95abd6452/macys-new-years-2018-hours.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Macy's Removes Plates From Its Stores Over Accusations That They 'Promote Eating Disorders' by [Josiah Bates](/author/josiah-bates/) ## Josiah Bates Josiah Bates is a criminal justice reporter and a former TIME staff writer. He currently works for The Trace. Jul 23, 2019 12:14 AM CUT  Shoppers during Black Friday at Macy's store on 34th St. in New York City, United States on November 22, 2018\. (Photo by Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Shoppers during Black Friday at Macy's store on 34th St. in New York City, United States on November 22, 2018\. (Photo by Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)Anadolu Agency—Getty Images by [Josiah Bates](/author/josiah-bates/) ## Josiah Bates Josiah Bates is a criminal justice reporter and a former TIME staff writer. He currently works for The Trace. Jul 23, 2019 12:14 AM CUT Macy’s has pledged to remove dinner plates from its stores after receiving backlash that messaging on them “fuels eating disorders.” On Sunday, CBS Science Correspondent Ali Ward tweeted a picture of the plates, calling them out. The photo she used showed a plate with three circles, labeled according to how much food was on the plate. The labels read “mom jeans” for the largest circle, “favorite jeans” for the medium one and “skinny jeans” for the smallest. “How can I get these plates from Macy’s banned in all 50 states,” Ward said. The tweet caught fire and has over 37,000 likes at the time this writing. > [](https://twitter.com/alieward/status/1153028416482029573) The plates were made by [Pourtions](https://pourtions.net/collections/tabletop "undefined"), a brand whose items are sold in Macy’s in-store shop called Story. According to the Pourtion’s site, the tableware is supposed to provide “helpful and hilarious visual cues.” The Macy’s Twitter account shortly [responded](https://twitter.com/Macys/status/1153094129850732545 "undefined") to Ward saying “we appreciate you sharing this with us and we agree that we missed the park on this product.” They vowed to remove the product from all Macy’s locations. In a statement sent to TIME, Pourtions President Mary Cassidy said that they didn’t intend for the phrases on the plates to offend anyone. “As the creators of Pourtions, we feel badly if what was meant to be a lighthearted take on the important issue of portion control was hurtful to anyone. Pourtions is intended to support healthy eating and drinking,” the statement said. “Everyone who has appreciated Pourtions knows that it can be tough sometimes to be as mindful and moderate in our eating and drinking as we’d like, but that a gentle reminder can make a difference. That was all we ever meant to encourage.” After Ward’s initial tweet, many people responded on social media, calling the phrasing “awful”, “unacceptable” and that the plates were “promoting eating disorders and body shaming.” > [](https://twitter.com/aubswashername/status/1153036976515272704) > [](https://twitter.com/SusanFeldkamp/status/1153139148976513024) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5632168/macys-remove-plates-eating-disorders-pourtions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5632168/macys-remove-plates-eating-disorders-pourtions/"},"headline":"Macy's Removes Plates From Its Stores Over Accusations That They 'Promote Eating Disorders'","datePublished":"2019-07-23T00:14:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T00:03:03.548Z","description":"The plates were made by Pourtions","url":"https://time.com/5632168/macys-remove-plates-eating-disorders-pourtions/","keywords":["health","Macy's","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31365ee19a98b80/698941c5656a3fa95abd6452/macys-new-years-2018-hours.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Josiah Bates","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/josiah-bates/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31365ee19a98b80/698941c5656a3fa95abd6452/macys-new-years-2018-hours.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"macys-new-years-2018-hours","caption":"\"Black Friday\" sales in New York","creditText":"Anadolu Agency—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5632168/macys-remove-plates-eating-disorders-pourtions/","name":"Macy's Removes Plates From Its Stores Over Accusations That They 'Promote Eating Disorders'"}}]}] ```