Thread by @flamwencogirl

A few days ago I came across a video essay about queerness in Disney movies. I watched because as you may know, I have an interest in LGBTQ animation. But as the video went on, its points of analysis sounded familiar. tl;dr it was plagiarized.

James Somerton plagiarized the book Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out by Sean Griffin (2000) for his video essay Evil Queens: A Queer Look at Disney History. The script is nearly identical.

If you want to compare the book to the video yourself, you can read it here: The dissertation version from 1998, Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: Consuming Disney Queerly, is available to download for free from USC Libraries digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collec…

The ebook of Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out is available to download for $15.12 from Google Books. Many pages are also available to view for free. books.google.com/books?id=mOmgB…

Until yesterday, there was no mention of Tinker Belles in the video nor in the description on Youtube. I asked Somerton through DMs, a Youtube comment, and a public Twitter reply why he didn't credit it. He responded only to my Twitter reply that he would add it.

I'm not impressed with his explanation, as you can see. You don't have to be ~an academic~ to know what academic dishonesty is. He blocked me for these messages and proceeded to vaguetweet about me. I'll "read him to filth" as he wishes.

The thing is, there are citations within the Evil Queens video. They're all the same quotations used in Tinker Belles: Cassandra Amesley, Michael Bronski, etc. When your essay credits other people, whatever is not credited comes across as your own thoughts and opinions.

Many viewers believe the analysis in Somerton's video to be his own. At best, this is highly irresponsible, so I told him to take responsibility. At worst, he deliberately concealed any mention of Tinker Belles because otherwise people would know his video is unoriginal.

Somerton was “paid hundreds of dollars” through YouTube monetization for Evil Queens before it was demonetized, on top of monthly income from his patrons through Patreon. Not only did Somerton plagiarize, he made money off it.

Somerton claims not only Griffin’s ideas and words are his own, but at one point also quotes Jack Babuscio with no credit. Somerton criticizes Disney for profiting off people with AIDS through PR stunts, but hypocritically plagiarizes the work of someone who died because of AIDS.

Whether or not his other videos are plagiarized and whether the author/publisher seek legal action against him, I suggest not supporting him. He is a known plagiarist and does not take well to criticism. The rest of this thread will detail the plagiarism in Evil Queens.

The plagiarized segment begins with The Days of Uncle Walt in the video. Somerton occasionally changes word choices, removes portions, and inserts additional thoughts to Griffin’s text. Besides those small tweaks, the video plays like an audiobook of the original.

My side by side comparison is based on the 1998 dissertation, because it is free and therefore the most accessible to anyone who wants to cross-reference this doc with their own downloaded copy. Page numbers and text may differ in a digital or print version of the 2000 book.

There may also be slight typographical errors in my doc due to copy/pasting from an imperfect PDF as well as my own human error in transcribing the video, but I believe the resemblance is still blatant. Disney movies and TV shows released after Tinker Belles (Love Victor, Mulan)

were obviously not included in the book, so Somerton’s analysis of them could not be plagiarized from Griffin. Still, I hesitate to call his additional segments “original” since they could have been plagiarized from other sources. Please contact me if you recognize any.

He does not provide a Works Cited even for quotations within the video. This is similar to when Cathy Frye realized the podcast Crime Junkie didn't provide sources for any episode when they were caught plagiarizing her journalism. vulture.com/2019/08/crime-…

I suspect more of Somerton’s videos may be plagiarized, but I’m not familiar enough with their topics to draw connections to other people’s work. I just happen to be interested in LGBTQ animation and recognized all his analysis from Sean Griffin’s book.

First, even the titles are similar.

Somerton often changes Griffin’s use of the words “gay” and “homosexual” to “queer” or “LGBT” throughout the video, which does not always apply.

Some words have been cut off in my screencaps in order to fit, but I'm sure you can still see the resemblance.

Here Somerton uses the same quote from Jack Babuscio, the author of Camp and the Gay Sensibility who died in 1990, but does not cite him and thus claims the words are his own.

Two people may be able to come to these same conclusions independently, but the wording is the same. Somerton’s lesbian reading does not come from Griffin but I hesitate to call it “original” since it could be plagiarized from someone else. TW for transphobia and lesbophobia

TW for homophobia and child sex abuse

TW for homophobia and the F-slur

Here is one point where Somerton changing “gay” to “LGBT” doesn't hold up. Just because Disney had gay and lesbian employees doesn’t mean they had openly trans employees, for example.

Here Somerton sloppily combines Rather and Erb’s quotations into one, attributing them both to Rather. TW for AIDS

When Somerton intersperses the plagiarized segments with his person observances (like the appeal of Prince Philip and Robin Hood), it makes everything seem like his own analysis even more.

Part of the Lion King analysis seems to be the only time Somerton significantly rewrote the text of the original, but the ideas are still the same.

TW for nazis

The End! At this point, the video moves onto movies released after the Tinker Belles dissertation was submitted.

if he keeps denying it I'll report him to Patreon+Youtube. for now I just couldn't stand by while he lied to his followers. it's unethical and hypocritical to condemn Disney for profitting off work and support of LGBTQ people but to steal the work of a gay researcher for money.

he deflects with how he's "not an academic" and it's not for a college assignment but honestly I think it's much worse to plagiarize to make hundreds of dollars than to just get a good grade at school!

Somerton blocked me so he may not even see this thread. I gave him a chance by contacting him privately first but was ignored. I only commented on YouTube bc his Twitter got suspended and publicly replied on Twitter bc I was ignored.

I did not harass him nor do I approve of harassment. I can no longer directly communicate with him through Twitter. he must be held accountable, but that does not mean harassment (i.e. spam or death threats) from other people. thank you.

oh wow, he put the vaguetweets about me on his Youtube community page too (not sure there's a way to link this on mobile). over 400 people showed him support with likes and all the comments are kissing his ass

one person asks for clarification. Somerton makes it seem like I (plus the stranger he assumes is also me lol) don't know what plagiarism is. the point is he didn't quote Griffin! he didn't even namedrop the book until I confronted him.

multiple comments insinuate that I don't know what plagiarism is but when they give an example of "real" plagiarism (copying entire passages without credit) it's exactly what Somerton has done.

I left replies to some of the comments but let's see how long they stay up lmao. maybe the commentors will see them in their emails even if they get deleted?

ANYWAY thank you to everyone for rting and spreading the word so far 😊

he deleted this community post because there were comments (some by me and some by others) linking my twitter thread 🤷‍♀️ he won't address the thread directly because it would lead to people seeing I'm right

this reply led me to look further into Unrequited: The History of Queer Baiting and its relation to The Celluloid Closet, a 1996 documentary based on the 1981 book of the same name.

when I checked his videos for any kind of works cited, this "very special thanks" to Vito Russo (who died in 1990) and The Celluloid Closet stood out as the closet thing. I didn't watch the video then since I was focused the plagiarism in Evil Queens.

I've now watched Part 1 of Unrequited and even though I haven't seen The Celluloid Closet in years, a lot of Somerton's phrasing rings a bell. Jane Bennet's comment points out Somerton took original video footage from the film as well.

Somerton didn't respond to Bennet but did to this comment by another person. he got permission to "use" the film (the original video was taken down due to copyright violation, edited, and reuploaded from what I can tell) but honestly doing so is still lazy

you can rent The Celluloid Closet ON YOUTUBE for only $4. you can read the dissertation version of Tinker Belles and Evil Queens FOR FREE. there's no need to make them more "accessible" by copying and trimming them.

The Celluloid Closet loses nuance in Somerton's edit. Unrequited includes only one interview about how "the sissy" stereotype in film is offensive. in Celluloid Closet there are multiple interviews, including one about admittedly liking "the sissy."

I wouldn't be surprised if Unrequited's video descrption didn't mention The Celluloid Closet until someone confronted Somerton about it, the same as how he only "credited" Tinker Belles and Evil Queens after I publicly brought it up.

I can't say for sure since the original upload of Unrequited Part One is gone so I can't see how any accusations played out in those comments, but I suspect that's what happened. even if the "special thanks" were there from the beginning he's not honest about how much he copied.

I may have to compare Unrequited and Celluloid Closet side by side next 🤷‍♀️ because by taking Vito Russo's work and gaining patrons on Patreons through it he's once again making money off plagiarizing the work of someone who died because of AIDS

This is getting ridiculous. Somerton now claims I’ve sent him death threats by lumping me in with whoever has. I haven’t even been able to DM him since he blocked me. Anything I could’ve said to/about at this point is public. I have not tweeted anything @ him since he blocked me.

I have a tweet thread detailing how he plagiarized and keeps denying he did so. I only used his full name in a single tweet. I refer to him in the third person. I’ve left a few comments on his Youtube videos and community posts linking to said thread. That’s not “harassment.”

I want to take death threat accusations against anyone seriously. But it’s hard for me to believe other people did so when Somerton claimed I did too and I haven’t. I already asked in my thread to not harass him. If anyone has, send me proof and I’ll deal with them myself.

He won’t show his supporters any screencaps of me “harassing” him because he just means my thread. If they saw what I was ACTUALLY doing, they would (hopefully) realize he’s a liar and I’m in the right to call him a plagiarist and demand accountability.

I also suspect he privated his videos less for security and more because I mused about comparing Unrequited to Celluloid Closet just before. It prevented me from doing so. Now that he’s convinced everyone I’m the bad guy and he’s the victim, he’s made the videos available again.

Now even if people agree he's a plagiarist they'll say death threats are too far, when I haven't even done that.
And Evil Queens is still private, which keeps it away from anyone who wants to compare it to Tinker Belles and Evil Queens like I suggest in my thread.

He has over 22k subscribers on Youtube and over 600 followers on Twitter. I have under 200 Twitter followers. His lies have led to his supporters calling for my imprisonment and institutionalization. But I’m the bad guy here for providing facts about his plagiarism?

I just want him to show some responsibility. To say sorry for plagiarizing, for lying, for turning his subscribers against me. I want him to own up to making money from plagiarism. Give financial support to the people he stole from.

turns out while I was putting together that batch of threads he announced he's making a video about the situation. can't wait to see how he lies and twists it in his favor this time

I watched the video... lmao

Some people believe I’m the one who sent a death threat to Somerton and contacted his workplace, even though Somerton himself has said otherwise multiple times. I’ve done no such thing. I don’t even know who did so. I’ve had no direct contact with such a person.

I already offered to deal with them myself, but Somerton has not unblocked me or messaged me about it. I cannot intervene.

https://twitter.com/notcarlene/status/1303198815533449217

I apologize for this tweet. It was petty and insensitive. I’ll be leaving it up for accountability only. Please don’t like it.

https://twitter.com/notcarlene/status/1303204191305834496

I contacted him privately first and was ignored. I publicly told him to be responsible and said he should be held accountable. These are examples of what accountability looks like to me:

Many booktubers, such as Hailey in Bookland, show their copies (if physical) and provide links to where to buy each book summarized in their videos whether or nor they recommend it.

Video essayists like Lindsay Ellis, Dan Olson, Shaun (and Jen), and Pop Culture Detective include bibliographies in the descriptions of their videos.

Jenna Marbles played her old videos during her apology video to be transparent about what exactly she did. variety.com/2020/digital/n…

Rae Geiger provided context for why what they did was wrong, discouraged bootlicking, and donated to a relevant organization.
raegeii.tumblr.com/post/627652457…

Noelle Stevenson gave specific examples of steps she would take to improve in the future among other points

https://twitter.com/Gingerhazing/status/1300904500538953729

These examples aren’t the same circumstances of course, but the methods could be applied to different situations. He’s already said future videos will have credits. These are only suggestions. I can't force anyone to do these things.

If Somerton does more things like this in the future, good, but there’s nothing more I can personally do to bring about any of it. I’ve already made my points. There’s no need for me to discuss this anymore.