I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit jealous. Okay, maybe a lot jealous at the new “scandalous” GQ Magazine photo shoot of Glee stars Lea Michele and Dianna Argon. These primetime princesses are my age and have been granted the opportunity to play dress up on an international scale everyday. Sometimes I just want to drop the politics, hike up my skirt and feel desired, sexy and even powerful.—with all the historical baggage of those terms. Despite her boo-hoo to Barbara Walters, was this not the quoted impetus behind Rielle Hunter’s photo spread in the same magazine?
It would be easy to point the finger again to society, in which men and women alike play critical roles monitoring and upholding sexist norms and unfair gender expectations—just as we did with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Hillary Duff and Miley Cyrus. Doing so positions Michele and Argon as mindless victims, who are forced to bare some, or all, to bolster their careers. This would be easy indeed. The road less traveled would be to grant these women (adult women, by the way) their rightful agency in this action. Isn’t that what feminism is all about? It is not the choice that we make per se, however limited they may be, but rather the ability to make the choice.
Hold the apologies ladies and let's mix it up This time: how about questioning the suits at GQ who profit from these photos about their decision to continue exploiting women’s bodies to pad their pockets.
