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

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!

Read...
"Moreno's case still deserves our attention... because it really brings to light the fact that fat-shaming hurts people of all sizes." Image: today.com

Fat-Shaming Should Not Be An Olympic Sport

Alexa Moreno recently found herself the subject of a whole lot of fat-shaming on social media. Normally that would be no surprise since, sadly, there’s tons of fat shaming on social media every day (ask any fat activist), but this was a bit different, in that Alexa weighs 99 pounds — and is a gymnast who had just finished competing in the freaking Olympics.

Read...
Even if moving to business models that include clothes for people of all sizes might take a while, the issues with models could be solved immediately. (Image Credit: Instagram/forever21)

Forever 21 & The 'All Shapes And Sizes' Lie

So this new line by Forever 21 goes up to “3X” which they’ve defined as a size 18. Forever 21 may be better than some in terms of carrying larger sizes, and they may want to “celebrate fashion for all sizes,” but let’s be clear that they aren’t even close to creating fashion for all sizes.

Read...
By Anna Hanks (@annaustin) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I Feel Pretty, Not Delusional  

Amy Schumer, of I Feel Pretty, keeps trying to sell us this narrative that she is fat (and ugly, which she seems to think mistakenly are the same thing).

Read...
Lush issues a half-baked apology that should never have been necessary in the first place. (Image Credit: Instagram/@lush)

Lush: More Bathbombs, Less Fat Shaming

The pictures Lush posted are media that was created by the film company — and the film is inherently problematic in terms of “diversity and inclusion justice.” Lush re-posting them is a problem. That they were created in the first place is a problem.

Read...
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.

Read...
Fat people need Megyn Kelly and Maria Kang to STFU.

What Megyn Kelly And Maria Kang Think About Fat Shaming Doesn’t Matter

Megyn Kelly and her guest, Maria Kang, bragged about how having their loved ones fat shame them has been part of their fitness and nutrition routines.

Read...
Reporters should be able to dress, at the very least, in accordance with the dress codes of their actual employers.

Question For Paul Ryan: Should Female White House Reporters Have The Right To 'Bare Arms'?

Recently, Paul Ryan decided that “appropriate attire” for women will exclude sleeveless dresses and open-toed shoes, and pretty soon thereafter, several women reporters were refused entry to the Speaker’s Lobby for showing their arms.

Read...
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.

How Fat Shaming Leads To Eating Disorders

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.

Read...
A world in which fatphobia suggests that fat women are undesirable, and then uses that as a defense of sexually assaulting fat women isn’t new.

#MeToo & Fat Women: Sexual Assault Is Not A "Favor" 

We live in a world which fatphobia suggests that fat women are undesirable. It's disturbing to have to say that sexual assault is not a favor.

Read...