In the last month, the world has finally woken up to the sexist mistreatment of Megan Fox and how it not only hindered her work opportunities, but her self-worth too. Now, the actor has opened up about the impact of said treatment, saying that she thought she was a bad actor for years because of criticism from the male-dominated film industry that forced her into an air-headed, sex object pigeon hole.
Talking to Refinery29 ahead of the release of her new film, Rogue, Fox said she realised her opinion of herself as an actor was misguided after re-watching a film that was eviscerated by critics. ‘This is not that bad,’ she said she remembered thinking. ‘This isn’t Scorsese or a Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece, but it’s not bad. I’m not bad in it.’
While Fox didn’t specify what film she was referring to, it could be one of many that was unfairly panned by male critics who perceived her as a patriarchal film industry designed; a dumb, simple beauty used as no more than a prop for sexual titillation. In fact, if you watch her performances in movies like Jennifer’s Body, as teens on TikTok are now obsessing over, you’ll note she’s anything but.
‘I started getting really angry,’ she said about the night she realised she wasn’t as bad as she thought. ‘I was like, Fuck that, why did I live for a decade thinking that I was shit at something when I was actually pretty decent at it? That led to this realization that I’d been in a self-imposed prison for so much of my life.’
Why did I let myself get shit on for something I knew wasn’t true?
‘Why did I let myself get shit on for something I knew wasn’t true?’ Fox continued. ‘Why did I succumb to that? When you tell someone that they’re not good at something or that they’re deficient, they can absorb that and it can become their reality, and create a life that reflects that negative shit that you spoke about them.’
While it was a sad realisation for Fox, she noted that with her new confidence she’s receiving more scripts that she’s excited about and is now ‘comfortable with the space she’s in.’
But for the rest of us reading her words, they should hold a heavy weight. Because, what others female actors are out there feeling just as Fox did? More than that, other women in general?
We let our opinions of ourselves be guided by those we respect to critique our performances, but how many of those critics are men that, most likely, have images or perceptions of us that are informed by sexism?
Beyond just ourselves, we take the words of men in positions of power – be it film critics, or politicians, or businessmen – and let them guide our opinions on the work of women. Ultimately, what we’re left with is unjust representations of not only the women we look to, from Hollywood celebrities to colleagues and peers, but ourselves too.
It’s impossible to separate the sexist projections put onto women from our opinions of each other and ourselves.
Fox’s realisation is one we should all take in, because it’s impossible to separate the sexist projections put onto women – and the way they are reinforced around us every day in advertisements, entertainment and societal norms – from our opinions of each other and ourselves.
Fox is just one example of a reputation spoiled by men who were too loud, but it’s quite likely that we have all been subject to the same type of judgement, and taken that on as a real critique we seek to change within ourselves or put on other women as an expectation. When it comes to imposter syndrome and self-worth, we should all be asking – who told us we weren’t able to do this and, ironically, were they qualified to do so? Likelihood is, in any case, they weren’t.
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