Melanie is a Women’s Studies and Sociology lecturer in Southern California. She has been teaching and guest lecturing since 2003, specializing in the intersectionality of popular culture, media literacy, and body image.
Melanie has an extensive background in yoga, meditation and awareness and has maintained a regular yoga practice for 14 years. She attributes feminism and yoga as the primary influences in her life.

Naturally, she fuses her academic background with her studies and experience in the healing arts. Combining these influences and drawing on her own personal experiences Melanie speaks honestly and passionately about the state of women’s physical and emotional state in a mediated culture.

She is committed to raising consciousness, promoting media literacy, and facilitating healthy body images and healthy body relationships. Feminist Fatale sprang from her conversations inside and outside the classrooms as a larger platform for these observations, insights and comments on the cultural landscape.

She is inspired by the work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Stephanie Coontz, Susan Douglas, George Gerbner, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Robert Jensen, Jackson Katz, Jean Kilbourne, Audre Lorde, Vandana Shiva and Tim Wise.

Melanie’s work may also be found at Adios Barbie, Elephant Journal, the Ms. Magazine blog and WIMN (Women in Media and News). When she’s not tweeting, blogging, or teaching, she enjoys the salt air and sunshine near her home with her partner and their son.

LIZ ACOSTA, Contributor
Liz is a photographer, writer, artist, cyclist, and activist in Los Angeles. With a degree from the University of Southern California, her work is primarily focused on questions of the body and its relationship to gender, sexuality, and performance. She blogs at www.happyland2007.com

RACHEL O, Contributor

Rachel O hails from a liberal family on the east coast, and can’t recall a time when she didn’t identify herself as a feminist. She credits her mother with her socially progressive views, and love for activism.  She is a self-professed pop culture junkie, gamer, and craft maven. Rachel began blogging as an active outlet for the sexist crap spewed forth by the mass media. Listening to her mother deconstruct everything from television to politics growing up, she began doing the same as she got older.  As opposed to ranting about Spike TV and bitching about the one-dimensional representations of women to her boyfriend on the couch, she rolled up her sleeves and began typing to let the world know. She likes to blog about sexism in geek culture, and famous women (whether they be comedians, actresses, or singers) who are willing to take on the “feminist” label. Rachel finds inspiration to write on a topic – from an ad during a commercial break, to a news blurb on Jezebel, to a celebrity interview posted on ONTD.

Her work may also be found at Jezebel.

When she isn’t blogging, gaming or crafting, Rachel is reading or hanging out with her feminist boyfriend, Mike, and their two cats, Tiberius and Snake.

LANI SMITH PHILLIPS, Contributor:

Lani grew up in a conservative, Christian, working-class family in Texas . These experiences have greatly shaped her feminist paradigm, and motivated her to break away from the conservative dogma that was so prevalent in that community.

Lani is a writer, eternal student of sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and feminism (and, whatever else captures her attention in that moment), human and animal rights activist, and a worker bee in various forms and fashions.

She attended California State University , Northridge, and received her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with an emphasis on gender studies. She will return to school…eventually to work towards her Master’s Degree in International Studies with a concurrent degree in Feminist Studies.

Lani interned with Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County in their Domestic Violence Legal Self-Help Center for 10 months which led to her activism related to violence against women.

Her areas of interest include: eco-feminism, international feminisms, international aid, movies (more specifically…good ones), and cooking/food politics.

She is inspired by the work of Angela Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde and Jodi Evans.

For now, she spends a lot of time in her fabulous kitchen, blogging, and hiking in the Topanga mountains.

She lives in a canyon with her partner, Josh, and her dog, Barley.

MARLEY KOZLOW POYO, Contributor:

Marley, the daughter of a Rabbi and a Cuban international economist, was born in Costa Rica and raised in the Dominican republic. In total, her family has lived in more than seven countries, cultivating her global consciousness. Religion and pop culture are predominant areas of interest for Marley, having witnessed the effects of religious ideology and the export of mass produced pop culture images from the United States on women the world over.

As she pursued higher education, the fight for human equality, specifically issues impacting girls and women, became the driving force in her studies. One of the most profound personal realizations came from her time as a Women’s Studies student, the recognition of the intrinsic paradox in her upbringing. At once encouraged to be critical of the treatment of women globally, she was simultaneously encouraged to be critical of herself. Marley has come to realize that this paradox is neither uncommon nor fixed and inevitable. She is committed to raising consciousness, empowering all people regardless of sex/gender, class, race or national origin and creating social change.

Some of Marley’s influences include the work of Gloria Steinem, Frida Kahlo, Laura Gutman and Jackson Katz. She is also influenced by yoga, art, and travel. She credits the diversity and artistic creativity of her family with a deep thirst for new perspectives and knowledge.

ANITA SARKEESIAN, Tech Support

Anita is a feminist cultural critic who produces an ongoing web series of video commentaries from a feminist/fangirl perspective. She has earned her bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies and her Master’s degree in Social and Political Thought.  Anita’s research interests are on privilege and systems of oppression specifically focusing on representations of race, gender, sexuality, class and ability in popular culture.  Anita is a regular blogger on Bitch Magazine’s Mad World Virtual Symposium about advertising, gender and media literacy as well as a contributor at Critical Commons.

Anita is also a social justice activist who has provided media support work (photography, video recording/editing, webdesign) for a variety of movements across the United States and Canada.  She has designed websites for authors such anti-racist activist and educator Tim Wise and Allan Johnson, a writer and public speaker who has worked on issues of privilege, oppression, and social inequality.  She maintains the tech side of Feminist Fatale (as well as Melanie’s class blogs) and her videos are regularly featured here.

Anita can be found at www.FeministFrequency.com