Lea Michele, who stars in Fox's Glee as the resident goody-two-shoes, graced the March 2011 cover of Cosmopolitan, and has parents of pre-teens pissed. This is not the first time mothers of pre-teen or teenage kids have been up in arms over Michele's appearance on a magazine cover - it began last year with the GQ cover she shared with Dianna Argon and Cory Monteith. 

Apparently, if an actor or actress plays a conservative character, they have to be that way in real life, and avoid taking jobs or doing press for publications that are intended for adults. At least that is what some parents think. 

Fox News interviewed some mothers regarding the issue, and here is what Kim Trefcer from New York had to say:

“I think Lea Michele is sending the wrong message. She plays such a ‘good girl’ on Glee and a lot of kids look up to her persona. Then she poses very provocatively on two magazine covers which makes my almost-13-year-old son very confused and offended... I find it frustrating as a parent who is trying to teach right from wrong to their kids and then you have things like this happen which is showing middle schoolers things like sex sells and all that goes along with that.”

Aside from the fact that neither GQ nor Cosmo have kids as target audiences, how many 13-year-olds have you come in contact with who would be "very confused and offended," as an initial reaction to either of these magazine covers? 

Back to the concept of an actor playing a character, Michele's Rachel Berry may be in highschool, but the actress is 24 in reality. Yes, that is old enough to consume alcoholic beverages, have a boyfriend, and even Skype with that boyfriend, which are all part of her idea of a perfect night, according to her Cosmo interview. 

Fox also includes that other choices from "flashing her skimpy panties to revealing her cleavage on the cover of a magazine," are up to her to make, "but that doesn't mean parents have to like it."

It also doesn't mean that they need to censor Lea Michele in order to keep their kids in line according to their ideas of the right path.

None of these parents mentioned the fact that also included in Michele's interview is how proud she is of herself for never doing drugs. In trying to shield their children from the knowledge that sex sells, they are also keeping them from seeing that there are celebrities (who their kids idolize) that don't fall into the Hollywood drug trap, and are proud of it. The rest of her interview is very PG, according to Jezebel, so the real issue is based solely on appearance.

So much for the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover."

Glee, and of course Michele’s role, are not going to last forever. Michele does have the choice to position herself for roles other than the uber-uptight overachiever she portrays on Glee. However, Cooper Lawrence, author of Cult of Celebrity, and a supposed pop culture expert, says continual appearances in such overtly sexual photo shoots may be weakening her current appeal.

Lawrence told FOX411, “You can be sexy without looking ridiculous, and she just looks ridiculous. It’s not genuine.” He added, “Lea Michele may be an adult, but to pretend that she doesn’t know her fans are 11 is just ignorance. Why take the risk that even one teenage will get the wrong message from her idol? Now she is just turning off the parents of these kids who are her future consumers.”

A spokeswoman for Hearst, Cosmo’s publishing company, noted that Cosmo’s intended audience is adults, and they have no regrets regarding Lea Michele’s cover. The rep told FOX411, “We’re thrilled to feature Lea Michele on the March cover of Cosmopolitan magazine and think she looks stunning. Michele is a grown woman and Cosmopolitan is a magazine for adults.” 

The adult women who read Cosmo are also a large part of Michele's fan base. The viewer demographic for Glee is not limited to just young viewers; it happens to appeal to kids and their grandparents all the same. 

Follow SheWired on Twitter!

Follow SheWired on Facebook!