"I think that I was ahead of the #MeToo movement"- When Megan Fox made her feelings clear about calling out misogyny in Hollywood
Megan Fox has been an iconic presence in Hollywood for decades now, and though she pulled out from the limelight for quite some time in between, she is back now and is once again appearing in mainstream movies. Fox's career goes back to when she was still a teenager. She first appeared in Holiday in the Sun in 2001.
Megan Fox faced the worst parts of Hollywood from an early age, something she tried to bring to people's attention. As she discussed in an interview with Glamour UK in 2022, she was ridiculed for trying to bring to light the patriarchy and misogyny that were so prevalent in the industry.
Talking about this, Megan Fox said:
"I think that I was ahead of the #MeToo movement by almost a decade,...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."
As most know, Megan Fox was subjected to a lot of attention and not always for the right reasons. She was also s*xualized from a very young age, which ultimately led her to pull back from the industry. She spoke about this in this interview as well.
"It was more related to just being dehumanized and criticized"- Megan Fox on her psychological breakdown
Having the kind of attention that Megan Fox did from such a young age is never an easy task, no matter how much people desire it. Rather, as she increasingly became the subject of gossip, criticism, and discussions, she felt closer to a psychological breakdown.
It did not help that the roles she took on almost constantly objectified her and used her as fodder for attention. She spoke about this in the same interview, saying:
"[Her fame didn't allow her] to be a human, because I was a topic of conversation and gossip and punch lines....I don’t know if the psychological breakdown was strictly related to being objectified, it was more related to just being dehumanized and criticized and judged constantly,"
Following this phase, Fox took a step back from the industry and even social media, which was near-constantly abuzz with discussions around the actress. She is still not a huge fan of social media platforms. She added about this:
"I have social media, but I don’t personally use it. I have somebody who posts for me and I decide what I want to say,...But I think it’s sinister. I think it’s evil....When so many people around the world are thinking about you or have negative thoughts or intentions towards you, that energy permeates and penetrates me. I don’t have boundaries and walls for that. I’m still human. I am still fragile in that way, I can feel. And that was part of the struggle,"
She also revealed in this interview that she desired to keep her children out of the limelight precisely because of what she faced even before she turned adult.
Hopefully, as Fox intends, her children will never face this scrutiny on social media and media outlets.
