Ragen Chastain

You know what’s more “ostracizing” than being called plus-size? Actually BEING plus-size and unable to find clothes that fit you and that you like.
Plus-size people do not have the same choices as those who wear straight sizes — not in style, quality, price point, or availability. THAT'S ostracizing.

We are passing our unhealthy obsession with thinness onto girls and it’s causing them to have issues with food, movement, self-esteem, and body image that can last a lifetime.

As a frightening and dangerous new regime takes office and the resistance begins in earnest, many of us will face the sometimes daunting task of mo

Weight Watchers announced on Monday that they are changing their name to WW to reflect their focus on wellness and health. This is BS.

Fat shaming doesn’t have any positive outcomes, but it has plenty of negative ones. A study found that fat shaming leads to eating disorders for some girls.

Should we ignore our bullies? The problem isn’t the reactions of the people being bullied, it’s a culture where bullying is considered acceptable.

Suggesting that there is some weigh at which we are no longer allowed to love our bodies is fat-shaming and oppressive. Suggesting that you should have to achieve some level of “health” to love yourself is healthist and oppressive.

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?"

Fat shaming is wrong in any guise, and people who are trying to be funny (and/or trying to cover for a woefully incompetent press secretary) will just have to do better than relying on cheap stereotypes, shaming, and bigotry.

How are kids going to have any chance to develop a lifelong love of movement when we teach them that exercise is either punishment for having a body that is “too big” or something to be done in order to keep kids from looking like their larger classmates?