Like many young sapphics out there, I can credit my queer awakening to Megan Fox—specifically that scene of her in “Jennifer’s Body” where she burns her tongue on a lighter. That scene is indelibly etched into my mind, and that of many others. It also helped that she was openly bisexual during a time when celebrities being openly queer was still considered scandalous.
Fox knows this too. In a recent interview with the New York Post, she said that she’s proud that she’s helped queer kids figure out their identity and come out. “I can’t tell you how many girls, from 30 down into their teens—or, f*ck that, my age, too—come up to me and are like, ‘I realized I was gay because of you,’ or ‘I felt comfortable coming out because of you,’ because of ‘Jennifer’s Body’ and the interviews I did about being bisexual before it was cool.”
Aside from her public queerness—she got candid about being bi way back, in a 2009 Esquire interview—Fox was ahead of her time in so many other ways, too. She was always speaking her mind despite how much negativity she’d receive for doing so. She famously criticized “Transformers” director Michael Bay for being a “nightmare” on set. Funny how this is what people remember, not him casting her in a sexy role when she was 15.
Talking about leaving the “Transformers” franchise, she said, “I quit one of the biggest franchises Hollywood has ever had. And I had to live with people being like, ‘You were fired because you were a pain in the ass.’ I didn’t open my mouth to defend myself, I just lived with it. I didn’t know how long it would take, but I knew it would circle back around. Even if it was after I was dead, I knew eventually people would have a better understanding of what was really happening at the time. I’m happy I lived to see it, I guess.”
She’s not the only one who’s happy. The Megan Fox renaissance is here, and everyone who criticized her unfairly is reckoning with how much that criticism had to do with sexism and misogyny. And everyone who supported her throughout it is basking in validation.
She also had some things to say about the toxicity of women fighting other women. “A lot of women fall into this archaic, critical, mom-shaming, slut-shaming thing,” she pointed out. “I don’t exist in a world where it’s like, ‘Oh, we all transcended the patriarchy.’ A lot of narratives are being spat out that are toxic to women, by other women. And that is a tragedy.” An educated queen, we love to see it.
While I may have some words about her man Machine Gun Kelly (I’m sorry Megan but “I’m weed” was what got you???), it’s really nice to see my queer awakening make her comeback. Get those flowers, queen.
Photo screengrabbed from the “Jennifer’s Body” trailer
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