Dianna Agron has just written a blog post on Tumblr responding to the controversy surrounding the “Glee Gone Wild” GQ photoshoot in which she and Lea Michele posed provocatively in stylised schoolgirl lingerie while Cory Monteith smiled goofily at the camera, like he couldn’t quite believe his luck. In her words, “Glee is a show that represents the underdogs, which is a feeling I have embraced much of my own life, and to those viewers, the photos in GQ don’t give them that same feeling. I understand completely.”
I won’t mince my words. The photoshoot was utterly gross in every sense of the word. The fact that Monteith was just standing gormlessly around while Agron and Michele pouted, preened and displayed their bras only heightened the essential message of the shoot, which was “how awesome that a guy gets to hang around with these hot girls all day. Yes, that’s right. They’re HOT. What more could you possibly need to know about them?” In addition, as has already been pointed out by some, it is deeply depressing that Glee is a show about inclusiveness and being proud to be different, yet the only actors who seem to be getting the celebrity treatment are the skinny white pretty ones who are willing to adhere to all the boring old Playboy gender stereotypes in order to move forward. To note, though, for this I don’t so much blame the actors as their agents and the members of the press who daily insist that they are only giving the public what they want, and refuse to change.
Ick
Not only this, but, and I don’t think this has been mentioned enough, on a fashion level the styling of the girls was actually abysmal. The photo quality was bad too. Both of them looked terrible. And trashy.
It’s not surprising then, that Agron decided to try to find a way to tactfully distance herself from the shoot and the questionable artistic decisions surrounding it. In her blog post, I think she’s done a very good job of measuring her own uncertainty about taking part against her equal desire to try new things and do what’s right for her career. Her clear desire now is to move on and put it behind her, though to me it is frustrating that she still emerges as rather ambivalent about the appropriateness of the shoot as a whole. Nevertheless, it was a respectable, and honest, attempt to explain her feelings on the matter. Regardless of my opinion on the shoot, I recognise that actresses are under an immense amount of pressure to do what they’re told and encourage the boys to go ga-ga over them as often as possible and for as long as possible. Once you tap into the pop culture zeitgeist, everyone with a camera or an editorship is going to be asking you to get your kit off and spread your legs for the good of your career and fanbase. It’s a shame that, in this case, Agron and Michele caved, but it’s not a shock, and they shouldn’t be despised for it.
I would say this though. Like Agron, I am not convinced by the argument that the potential for children to see distressing images is a reason not to create them. However, I do not agree with the arguments by many that, as 20-something year old stars in a show aimed at teenagers, they are under no obligation to represent the ideas of the programme in their public lives while the show is still running. This is a show that has launched their careers in the most incredible way, and the message at the centre of Glee - to be yourself, have self-respect, and not conform to the expectations of others - is not exactly an unpalatable one. They should respect the viewers, the show, the message, and the exposure it has given them. And I’m not just talking about Lea Michele and Dianna Agron here. It’s easy to forget that Cory Monteith was also a willing, and fully-clothed, participant in this shoot. His role in the photo represented every ogling boy hitting puberty who are going to gawp at the bodies of his colleagues. His innocent little grin tells them that it’s okay to stare. Now, if any of these three have come to the conclusion that the ideals of Glee simply cannot find a place in today’s media and celebrity world, they should do the respectable thing, bow out of the show and move on with their careers. Except, of course, that Glee is currently such a fame juggernaut that that would be career suicide, in which case they should stop trying to have their cake and eat it, accept that they have bought into an idea as well as a TV show, and see the distance to the end of their run on the programme.
Too much to hope for? I suspect it probably is. No doubt at least one of them will be eaten up by the Fame Monster and they’ll be heading off to Hollywood without looking back within a few years. And then who’s going to care about the integrity of a shoot like this? Probably no one. And there will be other zeitgeist-tingling teen shows and other pretty white girls who are told to bare their thighs and lose some weight and that it’s just a bit of fun and even that its empowering. And everyone will forget that that was exactly the trend that Glee was trying to reverse. And instead in all those nostalgia trips and show reunions everyone will just talk about what a crush they had on Lea Michele, and how they fantasised about Dianna Agron at night, and how damn cute Cory Monteith was.
Sigh.
