Megan Fox is most well-known from her tenure in the Transformers movies but was “canceled” before canceling became synonymous with many actors and actresses. The general consensus is that her comments about director Michael Bay are what got her removed from the Transformers franchise with comments like: “He’s like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous madman reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is.” Now, this reputation is synonymous with many of the “great” directors like Quentin Tarantino; however, Fox was one of the first casualties of the cut-throat, double-standard of Hollywood. Now, she is making a comeback.
One of my all-time favorite movies that I rewatched for this article was Jennifer’s Body, a cult classic that drops the infamous “hell is a teenage girl” line within the first five minutes. The victimization of an uncaring teenage girl trope mixes with the horror fantasy of demonic possession. Fox’s character, Jennifer, undergoes transformations amid the queer-coded sex scenes while coping with small-town high school life. The world was not ready for Fox’s genius. This was her first role after being removed from Transformers and was marketed towards a younger male group rather than living up to the feminist cult-classic title.
I won’t lie and say that the Transformers movies aren’t my comfort movies because there is something about a panicking, sweaty Shia LeBeouf that makes me happy. However, I do keep Fox in mind when they replaced her in Age of Extinction with another female lead. The clear over-sexualization of multiple women, not just Fox, speaks to the larger institution she was a victim of, and rather the specific circumstances that got her “canceled.”
Now, Fox can be seen out and about with Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Barker, and Kourtney Kardashian living her best life. Their outfits at the VMAs turned heads with their unique looks and tattooed beaus. I, for one, am happy for Fox for living her best life these days. The vial MGK wears around his neck with supposedly Fox’s blood in it is a frequent topic of discussion in my household. While I typically take the “that’s too far” stance, I think that we, as a society, have spent so much time blacklisting Fox and waiting for her to do something we can ridicule her for. I think she deserves to be a little weird with her hot boyfriend after all that she has been through, and at such a young age.
I don’t think any of us would emerge on the other side of blatant, heavy-headed over-sexualization at 20, unscathed. I’m over holding Megan Fox to a standard I wouldn’t hold myself to, and am happy she is out living her best life. Meanwhile, I’ll be rewatching Jennifer’s Body to ease into the spooky fall vibes.
Fox seems to be embracing her inner goth-girl chic with boyfriend MGK and putting out movies like Night Teeth and Till Death. Since her exclusion from the Hollywood community and underserved backlash at age 21, Megan Fox is back on everyone’s radars. I hope she is here to stay.
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