By Ari Ebert-Standard
Edgewood College senior Sadie Cordova was accepted to the Midwestern Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference (MBLGTACC) in Wichita, Kansas, where she had the opportunity to present her ongoing research project.
Cordova studies Organizational Communications with a minor in Health and Society.
The conference, held Feb. 15-17, aimed to bring Midwestern colleges and LGBQT+ people together to discuss current issues.
Cordova’s research, “Queer Presence in the Media: The Misrepresentation of Femme Queer Women,” fit right in.
Cordova said this project is “about the way femme queer women are represented in film and television, and how it is often a stereotypical or objectified representation that is not realistic and misleads queer folk.”
To apply for MBLGTACC, one must fill out an application for workshop, then submit the research paper and abstract, as well as explain why the student feels they should present.
“I really wasn’t sure if I would get in,” Cordova said. “I am extremely passionate about my research, but sometimes I think other people don’t understand how important it is.”
Cordova was ecstatic when she received her acceptance. “I literally was working out when I got the e-mail and started crying in the gym,” she said.
“I was lucky enough to get a solo talk,” Cordova said, “so I spoke on my own and got to present my entire research and have time for questions.”
She thought attendance would be low for her presentation, but the number of viewers left her pleasantly surprised. Cordova said she was “shocked” the room was full.
Many of the audience members stayed after her presentation to talk to her about show suggestions that could expand her project.
Cordova said she was excited to attend MBLGTACC to make a difference in perceptions of femme queer folk, and the work is especially personal. “The project] is so important to me because I realized at a young age that there was no one like me in the media, and therefore I didn’t think I was queer,” Cordova said.
“Queer Presence in the Media: The Misrepresentation of Femme Queer Women” began in Professor Bonnie Sierlecki’s Qualitative Research Methods Communications class in spring 2018. In fall 2018, Cordova expanded her research in a Quantitative Research Methods class with Professor Leigh Maxwell.
Cordova appeared on the “Investigations in Communications” Edgewood Engaged panel last spring to present the original project along with two other students and their inquiries from the Qualitative Research course.
Cordova said she was encouraged by Sierlecki to apply and was included on the panel because it “was all about sexuality, representation, and awareness.”
Cordova will be presenting the expanded research at this semester’s upcoming Edgewood Engaged.
Although presenting at MBLGTACC is a significant accomplishment in Cordova’s scholarship, she said she does not intend on putting the project to rest anytime soon. She considers “Queer Presence in the Media: The Misrepresentation of Femme Queer Women” a “lifelong work.”
For more information on MBLGTACC, visit their website: https://mblgtacc.org/. For questions regarding Cordova’s research, contact her via e-mail at scordova@edgewood.edu.
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