Sex! Sex, sex, sex!
Sex sells, sex saves, ‘sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.’
Anyway you put it, sex is on everyone’s mind all of the time. If you weren’t thinking about it before reading this, you certainly are now.
Last week, photos surfaced from the November issue of GQ magazine featuring Lea Michele, Dianna Agron and Cory Monteith, members of the already over-sexed cast of “Glee.” The nature of the photos was ‘risqué’ or sexual to say the least, having been shot by legendary fashion photographer Terry Richardson, whose reputation for being a perverted sleaze overshadows his talents behind the lense.
Naturally, when America feels something is unfit for the eyes of the youth, tempting or sexually suggestive in any way, we can’t leave it alone.
There are schools in rural Appalachia where students have never used a computer and read from outdated history books; America’s inflated national debt is rising nearly as fast as the all-time-high divorce rate, but gosh darn it, who’s to say the unspeakable horrors to come if little Jimmy’s virgin eyes see his favorite Gleek in her underwear.
If you think about it, the “Glee” script is sometimes structured like a porn film. Any dialogue, event or character interaction is only used as transition into a “money shot” in which the cast is either having sex or singing a song that symbolizes the lesson of the episode.
Who cares if they stayed in character for the shoot? Why fuss over the fact that the shoot was sexual or suggestive? It’s not like we weren’t freaking out about Britney Spears asking to be “hit one more time,” and it’s not like two weeks from now the news stations won’t be broadcasting relentlessly about some new politician’s sex scandal, a perverted text message from an NFL Star or celebrity sex tape. Hey conservative America, in case you didn’t know this, you’re naked under your clothes. It’s time to stop making our most primal instinct so taboo.
The objectification of any man or woman is one thing, in regards to the “Glee Gone Wild” photo shoot; this is simply not the case. Lest we forget, GQ is a men’s magazine. Aside from advertisements, magazine publications rely on circulation and sales revenue to survive. Should we not expect these kinds of feature articles? Would a “men’s magazine” sell with Martha Stewart on the cover? No.
We live in a country where freedom is something valued by our citizens. The freedom extended to the press is no different than the freedom consumers have to simply look away. If you don’t want to see Lea Michele in some pink American Apparel hot pants, don’t buy the November issue of GQ, or for that matter, read any entertainment print media for the next two weeks. Similarly — I don’t want to be brainwashed by right-wing extremists, so I tend to stay away from Fox News. To each his or her own.
Send any entertainment oddities or make fun of him for knowing anything about “Glee” at bkarris@asu.edu
