Popular Culture Review 30.2
Whether it was in the form of speaking up or acting up , participation as their true selves was an important aspect of the event . Jessica participated in a panel addressing issues for the LGBTQIA + community . She shared that her mere presence as an asexual person was an act of representation : “ It ’ s talked about so little and acknowledged so little to the point that they ’ re just adding the “ A ” to the LGBTQ and it was just something I felt very strongly about and I wanted to talk about it in a public forum ” ( Personal interview . 17 March 2016 ). The first time she spoke publicly on a panel about her sexuality and the experience of multiple people approaching her and “ one girl started crying ! And she was like ‘ Thank you for getting up there and talking about us because we ’ re barely acknowledged !’” ( Jessica ). The absence of popular culture representations for people to identify with seemed to be a motivating factor for participation in conversations where they could then proudly label themselves and let the audience relate .
For Tiana , a Black woman who dressed in elaborate cosplays , her participation was a response to the negative experiences she had as a non-conforming geek in her teens . She described always wanting to cosplay but being afraid that people would make fun of her and then one day deciding “ to speak up as much as possible because I would have loved to have someone speak up that much when I was entering the field when I was 18 .” She spoke of wanting to let people know that she knew what it was like to feel like you ’ re “ the only one ” ( Personal interview . 17 March 2016 ). It became obvious that Tiana was a very popular presence at the event . Over the course of our interview , Tiana was interrupted twice to take photos with other attendees . One woman expressed that she had been waiting to see a Princess Tiana and just had to have her picture taken with her . This may speak to the fact that the pop-
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