Ragen Chastain

Ragen Chastain

Bio

Ragen Chastain is a professional speaker, writer, and real live fat person.  She has spoken everywhere from friend's living rooms to Google Headquarters to Cal Tech and Dartmouth.  She will not stop until we live in a world where the full diversity of body sizes is respected, and fat people are able to live in fat bodies without shame, stigma, bullying, and harrasment, regardless of why they are fat, what being fat means, and if they could (or even want to) become thin. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner Julianne and their adorable rescue dogs, and is training for her first (and hopefully only!) IRONMAN triathlon. If you can't get enough of her on Ravishly, you can check out her blog www.danceswithfat.org

Ragen Chastain Articles

Weight Watchers Black

Weight Watchers Is Back With New Nonsense

Let’s be honest for a minute, sex is pretty damn fantastic. But if you’ve ever felt self-conscious in the sack you’re not alone – we’ve heard that more than half of women have avoided sex because they were worried about how they look.

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In what world would a superhero's priorities be in this order?

Are You A Housework Superhero? Target Fails Again

You may be assuming that we’re going to be seeing pink, and if so, then you are partially correct. But they took that gender stereotyping and walked it right off a cliff. Instead of the logo and belt, the “bat girl” shirt has a four item to-do list.

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Fat acceptance allows us to free ourselves from diet culture to finally love our bodies!

Yes, It Is Fine To Be Fat 

The point of fat acceptance is to be clear that people of all sizes have the right to exist without shame, stigma, bullying, and oppression.

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I have seen “clean eating” designed as everything from a cock-full-o-meat paleo diet, to a vegan diet and plenty of eating plans in between. I’m “good” if I eat some broccoli, but “bad” if I eat it with cheese sauce? (Image Credit: Instagram/goop)

Celebrity Diet Culture: Just Stop Already

With celebrities suggesting that people eliminate entire food groups in the name of “cleansing” and/or “eating clean," Dr. Jessen comments: “I’ve had many, many patients, so many of them teenagers, convinced that their healthy lifestyle and their clean-eating regime was really helping them when actually all it was doing was helping them hide their increasingly disordered eating and to cover up an underlying eating disorder.”

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"A thin-obsessed world perpetuates eating disorders and fat phobia."

The Eating Disorder Community Has A Fat Phobia Problem

Suggesting that we should figure out how to apply a deadly illness to fat people is ludicrous on its face for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that THERE ARE FAT PEOPLE WITH ANOREXIA.

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When Sexism Drives You To Create A Pretend Dude

Reinforcing an oppressive sexism system so that you can get what you want is an option, but perhaps not one to be quite so proud of.

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image credit: Maria Kang instagram

Looks Like "No Excuses" Mom, Maria Kang, Found Some Excuses

You may remember Maria Kang from her fifteen minutes of fame a couple of years ago when she put some time and effort into looking like the cultural stereotype of beauty, had some success at that, then took a picture of herself wearing gym clothes with her three sons. Which is, of course, her prerogative and completely fine. But then she couldn't resist shaming people who made different choices (or made the same choices but had different outcomes) by adding the caption "What's Your Excuse?"

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Come for the fat girls and the internet will smack you down!

Come For The Fat Girls, Get No Girls At All

As a fat woman on the internet I know, “Don’t read the comments. Never, ever read the comments.” But this time was different and it was awesome!

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We need to talk about how the APA is Fat-Shaming Kids!

APA To Release Guidelines For Fat-Shaming Kids For Profit

What happens when you suggest diet behavior to a kid who’s about to grow a foot? How do you affect their growth? How to you affect their health? This is fat-shaming kids!

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Policing young women for men's behavior is flat-out wrong.

What Does Mike Pence Have To Do With Prom Shaming?

The internet has been ablaze recently with pieces explaining why

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