If anything justifies a slushie in the face, surely it's this kind of nonsense.
Yesterday, GQ's requisite hit-it-big, do-a-sexy-photoshoot spread featuring Glee hotties Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Dianna Agron hit the Internet.
But while the snaps elicited the usual squees from teens and passing interest from adults, the ever-offended Parents Television Council had quite a different reaction: the conservative watchdog think it's tantamount to pedophilia.
The fact that the people involved are well past their years as minors—Michele and Agron are 24, Monteith's 28—seems to make no mind to the PTC.
"It is disturbing that GQ, which is explicitly written for adult men, is sexualizing the actresses who play high school-aged characters on Glee in this way," PTC President Tim Winter said. "It borders on pedophilia. Sadly, this is just the latest example of the overt sexualization of young girls in entertainment."
Now, now, Winter. If you wanted attention, all you had to do was ask for it.
"Many children who flocked to High School Musical have grown into Glee fans. They are now being treated to seductive, in-your-face poses of the underwear-clad female characters posing in front of the school lockers, one of them opting for a full-frontal crotch shot. By authorizing this kind of near-pornographic display, the creators of the program have established their intentions of the show's direction. And it isn't good for families."
Well, maybe not so much the creators of the program as the magazine's photographer, but potayto, potahto.
"With a demonstrated market of eager fans for an entertaining, musical-themed program like Glee, we wonder why the show's creators feel the need for such graphic sexualization of women. Interestingly, the photos of the male character showed him wearing a shirt, tie and vest."
We hear you, PTC. Next time, we want some equal-opportunity full-frontal crotch shots.
Guess this means we can cross "naughty schoolgirl" off the PTC's list of approved Halloween costumes.
UPDATE: GQ has releasted the following statement courtest of editor-in-chief Jim Nelson:
"The Parents Television Council must not be watching much TV these days and should learn to divide reality from fantasy.
"As often happens in Hollywood, these 'kids' are in their twenties. Cory Montieth's almost 30! I think they're old enough to do what they want."
(Originally published Oct. 20, 2010, at 10:13 a.m. PT)