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

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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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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Hey There Fatty Game via Kickstarter

Hey There Fatty: The Game None Of Us Need 

There is a new game on Kickstarter called Hey There Fatty! It comes packaged in a stereotypical Chinese food delivery container.

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image mashup: Mariah Aro Sharp @mightymooseart

Is Wonder Woman On A Diet?

We are passing our unhealthy obsession with thinness onto girls and it’s causing them to have issues with food, movement, self-esteem, and body image that can last a lifetime.

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This is the textbook definition of discrimination and fat shaming. It’s awful for the teachers involved.

Mom Refuses Fat Teacher – Then It Gets Worse

This is the textbook definition of discrimination and fat shaming. It’s awful for the teachers involved (apparently there was *gasp* more than one fat teacher at the nursery), though they also probably dodged a bullet avoiding having to deal with this woman.

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"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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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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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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Restroom sign. Image: Pixabay.

The Real Solution To The Trans Bathroom Debate

[CN: transphobia] Having apparently solved all the actual problems in the world, a number of conservatives in state and local governments have turned their “small-government” focus onto the bathroom needs of trans and non-binary people.

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Doctors need to tell the whole truth about weight loss surgery's frightful side effects.

The Inconvenient Truth About Weight Loss Surgery

For fat people, Weight Loss Surgery is often touted as the magic bullet that will solve everything from sickness to single-ness to stigmatization.

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