Melissa A. Fabello, PhD is a feminist educator whose work focuses on body politics, beauty culture, and eating disorders. She holds a PhD in Human Sexuality Studies from Widener University, where her research focuses on how women with eating disorders make meaning of their sexual experiences. Previously, Melissa worked as a Managing Editor of Everyday Feminism, one of the largest independent feminist media websites in the world. Her expertise has been featured in The Guardian, BuzzFeed, SELF, and TeenVogue, and on MSNBC and the BBC, among others. In this episode, Melissa goes into detail about the five-month social media break she took last year—what her fears were about getting offline, why she needed to do it anyway, and which boundaries she’s put in place now that she’s back. We also dig into a conversation about her PhD program, the problems of academia, and why she wishes she would have quit. She shares some of her research on the intersection of eating disorders and sexuality, which leads us into a conversation about her own often misunderstood sexual and relationship orientations (like demisexuality and polyamory). Melissa then shares how and why polyamory works for her, what some of the biggest myths are about practicing polyamory, and so much more. On the whole, this conversation was such a comforting reminder of why we all need to question what we’ve been told we “should”, and I hope you enjoy getting to know Melissa a little better as much as I did! (more…)