Our Love/Hate Relationship with Megan Fox
Megan Fox is an interesting creature. She evokes such extreme reactions from people and, generally speaking, they can usually be separated simply by the gender line.
(Photo Credit: Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for The New York Times)
She is a sex object and, from the beginning of her career until now, has been marketed as such. But what happens when your sex object status starts to alienate you completely from females and potentially jeopardize your career in movies? The New York Times Magazine explores this question in a lengthy but fascinating article.The NYT article suggests that there’s a disconnect between public perception of Megan Fox and what the actress is actually like in her personal life. This disconnect however has been aided by her handlers and Megan herself, with the sexy photos gracing every men’s magazine cover accompanied by the scandalous quotes found inside.
“Oh, I find women hot.” “Oh, my sex drive is like a guy’s,” etc, etc. These kind of statements are designed to titillate men—and generally repulse women. Girl T and I have spent more time than we care to mention judging and criticizing those females who choose to be entirely too vocal about their “bi-sexual” status and kinkiness—not because we are against either of those things but because we are against the fake notion of saying those things simply to attract guys.
But it works. Those sexy words, combined with a hot bod and gorgeous face, have elevated Megan Fox to sex symbol status, paper thin acting resume notwithstanding. But now, after the dismal box office numbers of Megan’s latest movie Jennifer’s Body, her handlers are worried that in pushing her sex symbol status, they may have irrevocably made her persona non grata to women—women who pay money to see movies with actresses they like in them.
Megan herself seems all too aware of this fact and asserts that the public perception of her is simply a character, and has nothing to do with real-life Megan. She is also aware of the general feeling that women seem to have towards her and chalks it up to jealousy, insecurity, and plain ole’ girl hate. In the article she says:
“Girls think I’m a slut, and I’ve been in the same relationship since I was 18. The problem is, if they think you’re attractive, you’re either stupid or a whore or a dumb whore. The instinct among girls is to attack the jugular.”
Wise words. Reading this particular Megan interview (and really any interview that doesn’t exist inside a men’s glossy) proves that Megan is clearly not dumb. She seems completely cognizant of the whirlwind fame she’s in the middle of and also seems to be struggling with where to go next. In fact, one can almost see a feminist living under that teased hair and boobs. She’s spoken often about the tricky relationships girls have with each other and the insecurities she still has about herself.
So, why are so many women still so viciously against her? Sure, she could be a bitch in real-life—but so could Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock or any other woman deemed as a “nice girl” in Hollywood. No, she’s not exactly the girl-next-door type, but please name me one big Hollywood actress who is. Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Garner may seem more approachable but they’re still gorgeous, rich starlets that most of us will never be in the same room as.
To me, it seems that most of female hatred of her stems from the reactions she is able to evoke from men—our men. No, our boyfriends wouldn’t ever have a chance with her or any other Hollywood star for the matter. But when they have such a visceral attraction to a girl who not only looks like Megan but makes raunchy (and most likely fake) comments like her, of course we feel threatened. We don’t look like her, we don’t act like her, and, as girlfriends to these guys, we don’t have that air of mystery that many men find so alluring. We can never be that person that they find so amazingly hot.
But shouldn’t that be more of a problem we have with our guys and less of a problem we have with Megan? She simply plays into the average male fantasy. It’s not her fault that the men who adore her find her “sex doll” version of sexuality more appealing than the average woman’s version—which usually tries desperately to rail against her version. And to be fair, we tend to believe Megan when she claims she spends most of her time at home with boyfriend Brian Austin Green (David Silver!) and away from the Hollywood scene—and drunk, stumbling “actresses” like Lindsay Lohan.
We’re not saying we love Megan Fox. We’re not saying we hate her either. We’re actually kind of on the fence about it. But we do think she has the opportunity to turn our society’s fascination with the “bad girl” brand of sexuality on its head if she allows some more of this alleged “Real Megan” to surface. Oh, and if she actually has some real acting chops when robots aren’t involved in some way.
