For Millennials. By Millennials.
Megan Fox made headlines almost ten years ago when she accused Transformers director Michael Bay of treating her horribly because she was a female. When she called him out in 2009, she got a bitter response. Now, she says that she won’t share her #MeToo story because she doesn’t think she’ll get a sympathetic response.
Horrible Treatment of Megan Fox By Michael Bay
In her Transformer days, Megan Fox was openly vocal about how badly Michael Bay treated her on set. He reduced her role to a sex object in the Transformers movies with little to no character development. She would ask severe and essential questions to the director about what her role is and where her focus should be, and his response would be,
“Be hot,” “Just be sexy”
Female objectification has long been an issue in Hollywood, where women are seen as mere sex objects with no other purpose for the film other than to be the “hot girl” the hero gets as a reward for saving the world.
The actress recalls her first experience working on the sets of Bad Boys II when the actress was just 15. The scene she had to be to put on a bikini and heels and dance below a waterfall, and that was it.
Backlash Megan Received
Shortly afterward, the Transformers movie was a hit; Fox talked about how Bay was a dictator and a nightmare on set. She compared him to the likes of Napoleon and Hitler. This move got her fired from the Transformers franchise, and she later found a replacement in an equally attractive yet blonde Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Bay denied these claims and accused her of being problematic and a diva on set. Moreover, he even had three crew members of Transformers write a sexist and hurtful letter that discredited Megan Fox. The letter labeled Fox as “dumb,” “graceless,” and “unfriendly bitch”. They even suggested her being a porn star in the future because they perceived her as lacking acting talent. The letter did not receive as much hatred and controversy as it would in today’s climate. But that shows how positively the #MeToo era has changed the position of women. A male director treated a female actress horribly, made her do scenes that reduced her to a sex object, and then fired her for calling him out. If that’s not misogynistic behavior, then we don’t know what is.
Why Megan Fox Doesn’t Want To Share Her #MeToo Story
It wouldn’t shock anyone to know that Megan Fox is not too keen on sharing her #MeToo stories as of now. She had to endure the pain of being subject to questionable treatment by male directors at such an early age which cemented her image as a sex symbol, and she had no control over it. Even when she did open up, she just received backlash for being “ungrateful” for this excellent opportunity to be used as an object. It wasn’t fair to her, but it caused her to be reluctant to share her actual traumatic stories of worst cases.
Apart from men misinterpreting her story and twisting it into something it wasn’t and indulging in victim shaming, women can also misinterpret it.
“I just didn’t think based on how I’d been received by people, and by feminists, that I would be a sympathetic victim. I thought if ever there were a time where the world would agree that it’s appropriate to victim-shame someone, it would be when I come forward with my story.”
This is why she’s not keen on elaborating on her #MeToo story, because of how the public punished her unapologetically.
We Wronged Megan Fox
She finds it sweet that people are apologetic over their actions. However, she was hurt by how everyone treated her in 2009 when she opened up about her horrible experience. That goes to show that we collectively as a society need to be better than this. Our first instinct has always been to scrutinize and doubt the victims, as we saw with Dr. Christine Bailey Ford. But we’re always willing to give the male assaulters and wrongdoers an easy way out in society. We should be more accepting of any #MeToo story and listen to it without bias. The actress should not be afraid to share her stories. No woman should, in any circumstance. We need to be better.
