Megan Fox Wants More Women in Positions of Power in Hollywood: ‘It’s Been a Patriarchy For So Long’
Megan Fox is an actor who has appeared in movies such as Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), and Jennifer’s Body (2009).
Fox has also been openly critical of the the way Hollywood treats women. She is now talking about the positives in having women be in positions of power.
Megan Fox opens up about being a mom in Hollywood
Fox started working in Hollywood as a teenager, though now she is in her mid-30s. She is a mom to three sons, and understands what showbiz is like for women who want to both work and raise their kids.
During a recent visit to The Kelly Clarkson Show, Fox talked about how Hollywood is not kind to women whose bodies are changing due to pregnancy.
“As an actor, it’s just very unforgiving because you can’t be on camera once you’re past a certain stage of pregnancy,” she said. “It is like having a handicap.”
Additionally, Fox pointed out the working hours are not adaptable to mothers’ needs.
“Once you have the baby, it’s like, ‘Well, you’re going to have to leave to nurse every two hours, and that costs us money, and now we’re dealing with insurance,'” Megan explained. “It becomes this big thing. Hollywood is not adapted to women and us actually having lives and being moms.”
Megan Fox likes having women in positions of power in Hollywood
Fox said she does not know exactly how showbiz could become more friendly to working moms. However, she believes having more women in positions of power could be a way of getting there.
“As more women rise up the ranks, and are in control and in power in Hollywood, then obviously those things will change,” Fox shared. “It’s been a patriarchy for so long that the power’s been in the hands of people who don’t understand and haven’t been made to understand. It makes sense that it’s played out this way.”
Megan Fox has talked about sexism in Hollywood
Fox rose to fame by appearing in roles that require sex appeal. However, she has spoken out about her distaste for being objectified on movie sets.
For example, when she was 15 years old, she appeared in the film Bad Boys II wearing a bikini and high heels. The director of the movie, Michael Bay, later worked with Fox in the Transformers movie, and Fox has shared her dislike for Bay.
“I’ll say, ‘Who am I talking to? Where am I supposed to be looking at?’ And he responds, ‘Just be sexy.’ I get mad when people talk to me like that,” Fox told Wonderland Magazine in 2009.
Despite speaking out against sexism she had endured for years, Fox was not openly embraced when the #MeToo movement rolled around.
“I feel like I was sort of out and in front of the #MeToo movement before the #MeToo movement happened, I was speaking out and saying, ‘Hey, these things are happening to me and they’re not OK,'” Fox told Entertainment Tonight in 2019. “And everyone was like, ‘Oh well, f**k you. We don’t care, you deserve it.’ Because everybody talked about how you looked or how you dressed or the jokes you made.”
In any case, Fox’s words still managed to touch many people. In recent years, there have been articles and social media posts supporting Fox and acknowledging how the #MeToo movement could have done better to uplift actors like her.
