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

Kerryn manages to commit every fallacy of fatphobia in less than three minutes. Image: screengrab — Steven Tanenbaum/Vimeo.

Kerryn Feehan: Concern Troll, Fatphobe, and Bullshit Artist

Actress and comic Kerryn Feehan decided to use a publicity opportunity on a radio show to go after the show’s intern Whitney Way Thore, who is the subject of the reality show My Big Fat Fabulous Life.

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Aidy Bryant  by Behind The Velvet Rope TV

Aidy Bryant Puts Fat Shaming In Its Place 

Aidy Bryant’s recent interview with The Cut is so refreshing! Aidy is crystal clear that the problem isn’t fat bodies, but rather fatphobia.

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Let’s take a moment and soak this in: women make up half the population and only 1/13th of the Doctors from Doctor Who, and there are actually men out there deluded enough to claim that this is unfair to men. (Image Credit: Instagram/nymag)

The Misogyny Of 'Dr. Who' Fans - Dudebros Are NOT HAPPY With A Female Lead

Ms. Whitaker is a white woman, so obviously 'Dr. Who' is still desperately behind and lacking in their Doctor diversity. But the show has finally introduced a woman as the main character and men (and a few women, because internalized oppression is a thing) are flipping out.

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March has been a pretty stellar month for The Resistance, actually. (Image Credit: Flickr/Fibonacci Blue)

March Activism Success Roundup

In the U.S., we are living in frightening times.

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Judging on appearance - even of Trump & his team - is aiding and abetting the enemy. (Image Credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

Stop Body Shaming The Trump Regime

Donald Trump was recently told of a state senator who is in favor of civil asset forfeiture reform — a concept, it turns out, that is one of many t

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Perhaps the biggest problem with plus-size nominees not finding clothes is getting the fashion industry to overcome its fatphobia.

Naked On The Red Carpet: Plus-Size Nominees Can't Find Clothes

You would think that designers would want their clothes to be seen on a woman who represents billions in buying dollars, but it turns out they would rather cling to their fat bias.

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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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Image Credit: Netflix Insatiable

Alyssa Milano Needs To Stop Telling Fat People How To Feel About Fat Suits

Alyssa Milano take note - if a fat person has to become thin to find acceptance, that’s fat-shaming. If it requires a fat suit, it’s fat-shaming.

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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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It is absolutely OK to be whatever size you are, including hella fat. It is absolutely fine to not be “healthy” or “strong” by whatever definition. (Image Credit: Instagram/body.brave)

We Must Stop Making These Mistakes About Health & Body Positivity

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.

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