Ever since Megan Fox came into the picture in cinema, there hasn’t been a more controversial figure in the feminist rhethoric. Many would call her the “Marilyn Monroe” of our era; she’s beautiful, smart, sassy, and talented to a degree that many people can’t help but envy. However, both Hollywood and the media have always tried to peg her down a few notches. Case in point, her impersonation of a man-eating demon that exposes a darker metaphor for sexual assault and the commidification of Jennifer’s body was Oscar-worthy (too bad that the female gaze is not wholly celebrated as it should be in present day), and she was swiftly blacklisted for her comments regarding Michael Bay’s less-than-stellar behaviour with female actresses under his direction.
After all these years, it’s pretty evident that he has a pretty weird conception of what a decent female character is like. Back when Megan Fox was 15 years old (you know, a minor), she was casted as an extra for Bad Boys 2 (2003) and had to put on a bikini and dance seductively under a waterfall. Who was the director with the brilliant idea? You guessed it, Michael Bay. Moreover, who can ever forget the scene in Transformers where Fox’s character Mikaela was checking out Sam’s quirky carand instead of being a serious scene where we could admire her skills as a mechanic, the camera spent the whole time panning and swiveling upwards and downwards all across her body. I remember feeling weirdly uncomfortable during that scene as a preteen, even though I couldn’t articulate the exact reason why. From then on, Hollywood (and perhaps the whole world) proceeded to treat her like a sex symbol. Actually, not a sex symbol; THE sex symbol. Everybody knew who Megan Fox was! Although several years have come and gone since the release of this careerーor more accurately, imageーchanging movie, there’s hardly any woman today who can compare to her reputation as one of the most beautiful women alive. This revelation always sat wrong with her own perception of herself, i.e. that we’re not the fleshy shell that this world gifted us; but rather, we’re way more than what we look like. This is precisely why she defended herself and decried her sexual objectification in any place she stood on.
In fact, in an ET interview she talks about one of the many awkward encounters she has had throughout her artistic career. She decided to retell the time where she participated in GQ’s “Man of the Year“ party (2008), where a male reporter literally said and I quote: “A lot of guys are obsessed with you,” with a slimy grinーno context whatsoever. Occurrences like this happen to her all the time. In an ET video she states with emotion: “I don’t know why. I don’t know why those are always the questions and I don’t know how you’re supposed to answer a question like that. You know there’s no real eloquent, smart way to answer someone who’s asking you like: “Guys are obsessed with you”, “Guys like your body”ーlike, what am I supposed to say? “Thank you, my God, thank you. I really work out a lot. I’m like, super happy about it. I deserve it”. I’m not offended if someone were to say: “Hey, people think you’re sexy”. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being sexy, it’s just the problem that that part was so loud that it muted the rest of who I was and has continued to do so even now, when I’m 33. So that was the difficult part, because, when I was young, if I was a cute kid no one told me. I literally had no idea, and always thought that, if anything, I was really probably pretty ugly, and that (physical beauty) was just not a tool I had in my belt. I wasn’t like: ”Oh I’m a pretty girl and that’s something I can use to my advantage.” I knew I was smart, I knew that I was funny, I knew that I was strange in a good way, and those are all things that I thought were my strengths. Those were things, that’s who I was…and then all of a sudden I was none of those things. I was supposed to just be a sexy girl or the prettiest girl or the most beautiful, which is the most burdensome title to have to carry around; especially when you don’t feel that way about yourself, because you feel like eventually people are gonna figure out that this is not true like, I know it’s not true right now, but the other shoe is gonna drop at some point, and then what? What am I valued for? I‘m valued for this thing which is a farce that’s a very difficult thing to navigate, honestly.”ーend of quote.
Sadly, I wish I could say that this made other women support her and join her commentary, given that she was a powerful voice in the feminist movement that went completely ignored. In fact, she admitted in that same interview that she didn’t feel welcome in the women’s rights community. In addition, men never stopped enclosing her in a rigid cage whenever her sexuality was the focus point; there was a lot of hate directed at her for calling out misogyny because of her looks and, needless to say, her sex. We all know that pretty privilege confers the person good attributes that may or may not exist.
Regardless, this kind of privilege also comes at a heavy price. Because of it, some ill-intentioned jealous people could try to make her (or his) life way harder than expected. It’s only recently that fans have emerged to shine a light on her case, after many years of Megan having to repeatedly scream into a metaphorical void. She battled loneliness, self-esteem issues and a global culture that only values the superficiality of aesthetics. It’s no wonder she has been acting so strange lately.
Megan met her ex-husband Brian Austin Green on the set of Fox’s ABC sitcom Hope & Faith (2004). At the time, she was 18 and Brian was 30, an age difference that he later recalled was something that initially concerned him. However, as Fox said in a New York Times profile several years later, she developed a crush on him pretty fast. Soon after, they began a tumultuous relationship, and later had three children (one could honestly say that you could see it coming with an age gap of 13 years).
In truth, she wasn’t ready yet to make a lifelong commitment to him so early on, clearly expressing it in a Us Weekly interview: “Marriage isn’t a realistic goal for someone who is 23, that’s all. I just wanna concentrate on becoming a better person before I try to commit to being someone else’s wife.” Nevertheless, they married and endured for 15 years. Later on, she divorced him stating “irreconcilable differences”. Then, she spent some time single (by this point, Green wasn’t too happy about it and was still claiming that they would end up together again). Thankfully, Fox moved on and met rapper Colson Baker, aka Machine Gun Kelly. They met in Puerto Rico on the set of Midnight in the Switchgrass (which was suspended back then due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and they instantly clicked. They began dating and the rest is historyーeven getting matching tattoos was part of the ordeal! They’re adorable together and I wish them the best. Unfairly though, she wasn’t shielded from criticism for following her heart; and, during August 2020 she reacted to one of her ex’s postsーwhich essentially shamed her as a motherーwhile speaking with Entertainment Tonight. “For whatever reason, people are very trigger-happy to call me stupid or call me vain or call me a slut, which is crazy. I was in the same relationship for 15 years, you know?” she explained, adding, “It’s bizarre, this image that gets projected onto me that people have just accepted and that’s lived for over a decade and that I never really did anything to earn in the first place.” We still live in an era where it’s expected that a woman remains chained to a man just because they had children together, never mind the repercussions that a loveless marriage can bring upon the kids. She clearly wasn’t happy with him, and maintaining a clearly unstable and one-sided relationship would only serve to negatively impact the whole family sooner or later.
Here’s the deal, though: as much as I’m happy that she’s reliving the youth and happiness she lost in a marriage that was doomed from the start, I’m honestly confused about her stance on sexual objectification. I’m all for women’s expression of their sexiness, but I find it odd how she has changed her tune from sensual to almost naked in her recent public appearances. The outfit she wore for the 2021 VMA’s left very little to the imagination, and she attributed her choice of wardrobe to her boyfriend MGK. The following interview perfectly sums up her recent behavior.
After watching this clip, it’s pretty clear that there’s a stark contrast between that Megan and this Megan:
The relationship she holds with Baker seems healthy, crazy and exciting all at once. But at what cost? Feminism has fought long and hard to protect women, so why is Megan Fox feeding the narrative of women being sexual objects who exist solely to fulfill the male gaze? She’s a classy woman with potential for great things and her beauty is one of her biggest strengths; however, I don’t believe that sticking tongues out and acting less-than-what-is-desired on a red carpet is the way to go. There’s a time and place for everything. If you’re constantly fighting for your right to be seen as more than just a body, then don’t treat yourself the same way that men have been waiting for you to do. There’s a difference between sensuality and the brand of sexuality that is being pushed on women. Regardless of how we choose to express our sexuality, we’re far more than that. Our power comes from who we are and not what we look like or expose to the masses. At the end of the day, there’s really no need whatsoever to seek anyone’s approval but our own. It’s time to stop accepting the type of “empowerment” we’ve been sold and actually take back our power as women. We’re not blow-up dolls and never will be. I just hope that Megan realizes her value and separates what ill-intentioned people want from her and what will help us all in the long run in our quest for equality.