Megan Fox: "I think I was ahead of the #MeToo movement by almost a decade"

The Jennifer's Body actress opened up about being "ridiculed" for calling out misogynistic experiences she faced in the 2000s

By Savannah Olson  |  April 27, 2022 | 9:28pm
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Megan Fox:
Megan Fox at the 2021 Met Gala. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Since her time acting in blockbusters like Michael Bay’s Transformers films and Karyn Kusama’s horror-comedy Jennifer’s Body, Megan Fox has had something of a resurgence in the culture. Her portrayal of the demon-possessed teen with an appetite for boys in Jennifer’s Body has reached cult-status for a new generation of film lovers, giving fresh life to the snarky horror flick that was highly misunderstood by critics back in 2009.

Along with Jennifer’s Body, the perception of Fox stemming from coverage of her during the 2000s has altered, too. From the hyper-fixation on her body after being deemed a sex symbol, to the backlash Fox faced for speaking out about her experiences on film sets, it’s easier in 2o22 to see the misogyny she experienced daily.

In a recent cover interview with Glamour UK, Fox describes the difficulty she encountered with calling out sexist practices in the 2000s.

“I think that I was ahead of the #MeToo movement by almost a decade,” Fox explains. “I was always speaking out against some of the abusive, misogynistic, patriarchal things that were going on in Hollywood back in 2008 and 2009, way before people were ready to embrace that or tolerate it. And I actually got ridiculed for doing it. I think people just have had time to review that, in retrospect.”

Fox says that she was concerned about speaking out on her “genuinely harrowing experiences in a ruthlessly misogynistic industry,” and adds that she didn’t feel seen as a “very sympathetic victim” for feminists at the time.

“I didn’t feel like I was accepted by much of the feminist community,” continues Fox. “Whatever I provoke in them is not something that they can digest very well. And so that comes back on me, as they reject me for those reasons.”

This feeling of being “dehumanized” is what Fox explains led to a “psychological breakdown” around that time, leading her to avoid public life for many years.

“I wasn’t allowed to be a human, because I was a topic of conversation and gossip and punch lines,” Fox adds. “I was essentially in hiding for several years of my life.”

Even as she’s currently being celebrated as a feminist in 2022, Fox said she still faces criticism over certain things like calling her fiancé Machine Gun Kelly ‘daddy’ on an MTV VMAs red carpet—something that sent the internet into a frenzy.

“A lot of people got upset about that, which I think is a funny conversation to actually have, because that goes into allowing women to be…women,” Fox pointed out. “Allowing us to experience what we want in life, what we like. That is feminism.”

 
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