Let Megan Fox be cringe
First appearing in the video for Machine Gun Kelly’s “Bloody Valentine,” Megan Fox’s status as the “rock star’s” girlfriend was made official in June of last year when MGK tweeted this beautiful declaration of love,
Fox’s public image has always been peppered with eccentricities–from comparing Michael Bay to Hitler to lying about a relationship with a stripper in Los Angeles early in her career. These minor controversies simultaneously kept her private personhood at a distance whilst painting an image of a sly weirdo masquerading for a Hollywood bombshell. Her oft-misunderstood humor garnered disdain for much of her public life. The Hitler comment, in particular, was widely chastised by both her peers and the public, eventually resulting in her firing from following Transformers films, however subsequent statements from Fox in the #MeToo era indicate that her outspokenness came as a result of mistreatment by powerful men in the industry.
Fox has always been a bit odder than people have given her credit for, and definitely a lot smarter. When Jennifer’s Body premiered in 2009 with Fox in the titular role, critic and audience responses were tepid, due largely to mismarketing which targetted a young male audience rather than the intended female one. Today, Jennifer’s Body is thought of as an acclaimed piece of feminist horror. Fox’s personal reputation has undergone a similar metamorphosis in the last decade. In the late 2000s, she was labeled by many as a talentless, half-wit bombshell, cast in blockbusters merely because she’s hot and fired from her biggest franchise for being too “difficult” to work with. In retrospect, Fox’s treatment in the industry was undoubtedly influenced by misogyny–her acting performances were never less-than-convincing for her roles, her label as “difficult” only came after she raised concerns about behaviors on set, and, as fans have discovered, she has always had interesting and insightful things to say in genuine conversations. Fox has since gained a dedicated following, admiring her work, intellect, humor, and talent.
After news broke that Fox was dating rapper-turned-“rockstar,” Machine Gun Kelly, many followers were disappointed. Some of that came from the inappropriate ownership a lot of fans have for their favorite celebrities–as we’ve already discussed in a separate post about parasocial relationships–but there were some sincere principles involved as well considering MGK has, on multiple occasions, painted himself as a predator. While sexualizing teenagers, Kelly literally defended the courting of underage girls as a practice powerful men in music have done for decades, essentially saying that statutory rape is okay as long as you’re talented and “badass” enough (and thank God, Kelly is neither). Considering the condemnation Fox has had for what she deemed a “ruthlessly misogynistic industry,” her new partner is an… interesting choice.
We shouldn’t pretend that’s why most people are talking about her new relationship, however. Though a good chunk of Fox’s fans are rightfully grossed out by Kelly’s past, much of the public cares more about how “cringe” the couple is. And they are.
Screenwriter Diablo Cody has said in retrospectives that she wrote the title role of Jennifer’s Body with Fox in mind, stating that Fox’s lack of social media and few offered insights into her private life gave the actress a necessary “mystique.” It’s not a word I would currently use to describe Fox’s public persona.
She still doesn’t use Twitter, but since linking with Kelly, all of Fox’s latest public appearances could be qualified as “horny on main.” With interviews and appearances, just by watching Fox and Kelly exist in public, viewers receive an intimate look into their sex lives. Fox appears to revel in fantasies of subtle domination, telling reporters at the VMAs that Kelly instructed her to wear a “naked”-looking ensemble which she obliged by proclaiming “whatever daddy says.” The pair is publicly expressive to the point of second-hand embarrassment because watching two rich, professionally successful people in their mid-30’s constantly opt to show the world how horny they are is cringe as hell.
There’s also the recent interview with GQ that’s gained Internet infamy in the week since being published. In it, Fox and Kelly spin their relationship as “the darkest fairytale”–a phrase the two will now have tattooed on their bodies for the rest of their lives (or until they come to their senses and get the tats covered up with something less embarrassing). Their first “kiss” is then described without an ounce of self-awareness. Kelly says, “Even our first kiss, she wouldn’t kiss me. We just put our lips right in front of each other and breathed each other’s breath and then she just left.” I am under the impression he thought this interaction was erotic and cool rather than weird and uncomfortable. And of course, there’s the moment being memed across the Internet, when Fox tells of their first encounter:
“I just remember this tall, blond, ghostly creature and I looked up and I was like, ‘You smell like weed.’ He looked down at me and he was like, ‘I am weed.’ Then, I swear to God, he disappeared like a ninja in a smoke bomb.’”
It is very, very cringe and Twitter has been eager to express their disillusionment with Fox’s image.
Given the loss of Fox’s “mystique,” it’s easy to see why she’s facing this backlash. Though it’s mostly facetious and kind of earned, it’s time we loosen Fox’s leash a little.
Before hooking up with Kelly, Fox’s most recent known relationship was with her now-ex-husband, Brian Austin Green. The two met on the set of ABC’s Hope and Faith when Fox was 18 and Green was 30. Their relationship was on-again-off-again throughout, and though neither has publicly said anything disparaging the other, when the issue of an age gap arose in conversations surrounding Fox and Kelly, Fox choose to dispel the idea that a gap existing rather than defend the idea of a workable age gap to begin with, telling InStyle,
“You want to talk about patriarchy? The fact that he's four years younger than me, and people want to act like I'm dating a younger man. He's 31, and I'm 35. Granted, he's lived like he's 19 his whole life, but he isn't 19. No one would blink twice if George Clooney was dating someone four years younger. Four years? Go fuck yourself. We would have been in high school together. That's so ridiculous that women are treated that way.”
She doesn’t mention Green or her marriage, but there’s an elephant in the room; Fox is being confronted with the (false) idea that an age gap exists between her and Kelly, yet for a decade, she was married to a man 11-years her senior without much public criticism being lobbied toward her now-ex-husband.
Fox has had a rough time navigating a professional career in entertainment without having strangers paint a narrative she had no part in. In a recent piece for The Washington Post, Fox laments being perceived as a “shallow succubus” for much of her public life. With her sex appeal exploited as a literal child on film, the public image of Megan Fox was rooted in a Hollywood-approved bombshell persona that naturally became reductive, offensive, and incorrect. In a fight to preserve her personal nuance, Fox’s modus operandi for a short time was to claim modesty as her over-sexed image overshadowed her own identity. A 2009 New York Times interview highlights her conflict:
“In the last month, Fox and her team…have grown increasingly nervous about her media image. They were hoping that hosting ‘S.N.L.’ and some recent appearances on talk shows on which she seemed demure might help to change the dialogue about Fox from the out-of-control sex bomb to the Fox they know, who is a homebody with a longtime boyfriend (the actor Brian Austin Green, who is 36) and a fondness for spending Saturday nights at Red Lobster, where she likes the cheese biscuits.”
A few months later, Fox was confessing to Harper’s Bazaar UK that she had only slept with two men her entire life, a number E! said was “not as big as Old Sexy Crazy Megan would have you believe.”
Fox was probably being honest–even in the NYT piece, she’s portrayed as more hesitant to correct her image than her team is, rightfully annoyed that she needs to discuss these private details to avoid slut-shaming–but the attempted image-overhaul didn’t come from personal conviction alone. It was a reaction to a narrative Fox and her team could not control in which Fox’s incidental sex appeal left her fodder for public scrutiny she never deserved. In order to be taken seriously as an actress, or just treated humanely as a person, Fox had to insist she wasn’t the over-sexed bombshell the press and public wanted her labeled as. Her domesticity, including her marriage to a perceived family-man, was an anchor for this re-branding.
From the outside, there appears to be a new narrative of liberation in Megan Fox’s story. As her career benefits from a re-appraisal, with fans of the actress expressing their love for both her work and her persona, Fox now appears freer than ever: newly single, increasingly respected, and working in front of an audience that’s far less eager to limit her personal expressions. Throughout her career, she displayed a keen awareness of how she was being perceived, understanding the boxes she was placed into and, at times, playing up her persona with a knowing irony. She said in her 2009 NYT interview,
“When I sit down to talk to men’s magazines, there’s a certain character that I play… She’s not fully fleshed out–she doesn’t have her own name–but she shows up to do men’s-magazine interviews. There’s something so ridiculous about always being in your underwear in those magazines, and you know the interview is going to run opposite those pictures. So, there’s a character that talks to all of them.”
The irony that laced the performance of Megan Fox the bombshell is still present in how she portrays her relationship with Kelly. Their PDA, while at times nauseating, seems purposeful–like they’re actually trying to recreate the tumultuous romance of other messy celebs, like Courtney and Kurt or Tommy and Pamela. On Valentine’s Day of this year, Kelly Instagrammed a picture of what is apparently a vial of Fox’s blood, captioning, “I wear your blood around my neck.” It’s an obvious reference to the even more absurd 2000’s-era PDA of Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton.
With Kelly, Fox is exploring an aspect of her celebrity persona that would have had her crucified and slut-shamed a decade ago. It’s not that Fox has changed all that much (though in ten years, I’m sure she has), audiences are just more willing to deal with a famous woman’s nuances. No longer does Fox or anyone need to reveal their bed-count to be taken seriously.
I still don’t like Machine Gun Kelly and I wish the star of Jennifer’s Body wasn’t dating a creep reminiscent of the film’s ultimate bad guys, but I hope Fox gets the leeway to be this kind of cringe. As embarrassing as parts of that GQ interview are, there are gem-like moments that paint a picture of Fox’s blossoming narrative more so than romanticize her current relationship. She says mid-way through,
“I think I had either put myself in, or allowed other people to put me in, this weird box that didn’t quite fit me, where I hadn’t lived my own life as myself for a really long time – the parts of me that were always eccentric or strange and didn’t belong within my own family unit or within Hollywood.”
If the woman had to spend a decade married to Brian Austin Green and telling everyone she actually isn’t a slut to attempt being respected, let her have her little horny randevú with this tall, age-appropriate “rockstar.”