Ragen Chastain

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.

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.

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.

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?"

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.

Fat people on Instagram have been noticing a disturbing double standard when it comes to supposed “violations” of Instagram's guidelines.

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.

Mansplaining is rampant in our culture, and nowhere is it mansplain-ier than when men explain women’s bodies to us.

Companies make unjust policies all the time, and they rarely change them except by public pressure.

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.