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

Dickens was shocked to receive a letter back stating that, because of her weight as reported on the form, her child was required to schedule a follow-up visit with her pediatrician and provide documentation of it to the school.

Back-To-School Body Shaming

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?

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They aren’t thin, they are dead, and that’s nothing to shrug off. (Image Credit: Instagram/california_smartlipo)

Swallowing Balloons Is Killing Fat People

As long as the medical community is allowed to make a profit from the promise of thinness, fat people cannot trust them to have our best interests (or even just our continuing to be alive) as a priority. I know exactly where to stick these balloons, and it’s not in the stomachs of fat people.

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All police officers, no matter how well intentioned, live in — and are affected by — a society rife with racism and ableism.  Image: Utility_inc/Pixabay.

Yes, Being A Cop Is A Tough Job. No, That Doesn't Excuse Incompetence.

It is a very difficult and dangerous job, and it does require officers to have the ability to make good split second decisions. None of that should mean that it’s OK to be incompetent, or that we should all rush to justify, ignore, or excuse incompetence, racism, ableism, and the inappropriate use of force.

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(Image Credit: Thinkstock)

The War On Obesity – Dead Or Alive

In the face of funding shortages, Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has decided that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above, as well as smokers, will be barred from most surgery for up to a year. But don’t fool yourself, this isn’t about health, or healthy behaviors – this is about money, and it’s about the people in charge deciding whose blatant oppression the general citizenry will tolerate. Years of campaigns suggesting that it’s fine for people to stereotype fat people and blame us for their problems have led to a situation where people are comfortable with us being denied the same medical care that they receive. And that should horrify you.

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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 via Flickr (Inhabitat).

The Tiny House Movement: Who Really Fits? 

A revolution in affordable housing! A revolution in fighting homelessness!

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You should know better than to market sizes to XXL as “all shapes and sizes” or “clothes for every person.”

Is It Really Clothing For Every Body If The Sizes Stop At 2XL​?

The fashion world has long screwed up when it comes to fat bodies. You should know better than to market sizes to 2XL as all shapes and sizes.

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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).

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Nobody needs our white asses jumping in to whitesplain racism to People of Color. Just don’t.

A Guide For White People Who Don’t Think That Thing Is Racist

For many white people, our first reaction to hearing about racism is to immediately look for a reason to say “That’s not racist!” That said, in conversations I’ve had where people are struggling with this, they have asked for specific ways to work through this. So if you find yourself in this situation, here are some steps that you can take yourself through.

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Let’s stop all this one-size-fits-all, unrealistic expectations approach to pregnancy, and let’s put our energy into making sure that pregnant people have the support and resources they need for themselves, their fetuses, and their kids. (Image Credit: Instagram/stylish_bump)

Please Don't Expect All Pregnant People To Be Serena Williams

The last thing pregnant folks need is the message that they can (and should) be able to work at the level of professional athletes and actors while they are dealing with the life-altering symptoms that happen when you are growing a fetus.

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