GQ: Sexploitation

GQ fancies itself an arbiter of style and culture, cluing its male readers in on
natters of taste and lifestyle choices in a way similar to Hugh Hefner’s self-
appointed role as a promoter of the Playboy Philosophy, a guide to what he
saw as sophistication and the good life. In one issue, GQ decided to have a
photo shoot featuring the Glee stars Dianna Agron, Lea Michele, and Cory
Monteith. The feature was no doubt supposed to be suave and stylish, but
The Parents Television Council, having gotten a peek at the leaked pictures,
saw porn, not glamour. The watchdog group’s president, Tim Winter,
denounced the photographs as “disturbing” in the way they sexualized
“actresses who play high school-aged characters.” The pictures bordered “on
pedophilia,” he said.

GQ editor-in-chief Jim Nelson saw nothing wrong with the shoot and attributed
the Council’s outrage to its members’ inability to distinguish “reality from
fantasy, reminding Winter that “these ‘kids’ are in their twenties [and] Cory
Montieth’s almost 30!” As adults, Nelson added, “they’re old enough to do
what they want.” Agron seemed to take a middle position between that of
Winter and Nelson, suggesting she understood that some people’s comfort
levels might have been pushed by the more permissive and exhibitionistic
turns pop culture has taken “in the land of Madonna, Britney, Miley, [and]
Gossip Girl,” but parents should exercise their responsibility for the material to
which they allow their children to be exposed. For her, the photo shoot, she
implied, was just another gig and, although the session wasn’t her “favorite
idea,” she was ready to move on and put the controversy behind her.