Sean Griffin

Sean Griffin is a critical queer film theory scholar and professor at the Meadows School of the Arts.^[1][2][3] His work includes Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out, which was adapted from his dissertation.^[1][4]

Tinker Belles and Evil Queens

Tinker Belles and Evil Queens (2000) suggests that The Walt Disney Company, despite having a focus on heterocentric "family values" in its films, has long attracted gay audiences, particularly through queercoding and gay subtext of its films.^[4][5][6] It was described by journalist Nico Lang of Harper's Bazaar as "the book on the gay history of Disney".^[7] According to Jonathan Alexander, Griffin argues that Disney did this out of economic considerations of LGBT consumers paying for Disney products.^[8]

In 2023, Hbomberguy accused James Somerton of plagiarising text from Griffin's Tinker Belles in one of his YouTube video essays.^[9][10]

Select publications

• Griffin, Sean (2000). Tinker Belles and Evil Queens : The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814738702.
• Benshoff, Harry M.; Griffin, Sean (2004). America on film: representing race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies. Wiley. ISBN 9780631225829.
• Benshoff, Harry M.; Griffin, Sean (2005). Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9780742568570.