Sean Griffin is a

critical Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine * Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing i ...

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...

scholar and professor at the

Meadows School of the Arts The Algur H. Meadows School of the Arts is the fine arts unit at Southern Methodist University, located in University Park, Texas, U.S. It is known for its programs in advertising, art, art history, arts administration, cinema, performing arts, jou ...

. His work includes ''Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out'', which was adapted from his dissertation.

''Tinker Belles and Evil Queens''

''Tinker Belles and Evil Queens'' (2000) suggests that

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

, despite having a focus on heterocentric "

family values Family values, sometimes referred to as familial values, are traditional or cultural values that pertain to the family's structure, function, roles, beliefs, attitudes, and ideals. Additionally, the concept of family values may be understood ...

" in its films, has long attracted gay audiences, particularly through queercoding and gay

subtext In any communication, in any medium or format, "subtext" is the underlying or implicit meaning that, while not explicitly stated, is understood by an audience. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "an underlying and often distinct theme ...

of its films. It was described by journalist Nico Lang of ''

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'' as "the book on the gay history of Disney". According to Jonathan Alexander, Griffin argues that Disney did this out of economic considerations of LGBT consumers paying for Disney products. In 2023, Hbomberguy accused James Somerton of plagiarising text from Griffin's ''Tinker Belles'' in one of his

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Select publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Sean Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Queer theorists 21st-century American LGBTQ people American gay writers American academics American LGBTQ academics Disney and LGBTQ Film theorists