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

"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.

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Photo by Annie Gray on Unsplash

No, You Shouldn't Ditch Your Fat Friends ​

Slimming World (UK version of Weight Watchers) is telling those who have reached their “target weight” to ditch their fat friends.

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Kids fitness — by any definition — isn’t an obligation or barometer of worthiness.

Fitspo Is Not For Ten-Year-Olds​

While it's fine for child athletes to be on social media, it should be clear that what they are doing certainly isn’t necessary, or even appropriate.

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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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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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Keep working, keep pushing, live so that these people call you attention seeking activists every day.

A Love Letter To "Attention Seeking" Activists

Keep working, keep pushing, live so that these people call you attention seeking activists every day. You are making the world better.

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There Is No Right Way To Ask Someone To Lose Weight For You

People’s health and looks change over time — if you only want to be in a relationship with someone “healthy” you should probably just stay single.

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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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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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Roxane Gay at a significantly less dreadful interview with Trevor Noah

How Mamamia's Treatment Of Roxane Gay Reveals The Fatphobia In Feminist Spaces

One has to wonder what they would have done if they had been trying to do it with a “mean spirit.”

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