200 Baker's Dozens of Cookies for Megan Fox
If I have to read another sycophantic blog post about how Megan Fox is God’s gift to feminists on the grounds that she was a victim of Michael Bay’s misogyny and had the “courage” to call him out on it, I will blow a gasket. Stop. No seriously.
After peddling the “Guy’s Girl” meme, and making light of mental health, demonstrating her transphobia, and insulting an entire gender, completely ignoring how patriarchy is a major factor behind intra-woman hostility, she called out the sexism that directly affected her. She identified the misogyny (not really though) of the man who made girls wash his car wearing a bikini for their audition. It’s easy to call out injustice that directly affects you, especially when you’re awash in other kinds of privilege, like being white, cis-gendered, able-bodied, rich, and beautiful. Color me unimpressed.
Look, if someone dismisses her on the grounds of her being nothing more than a sex symbol, if someone slutshames her, of course I’ll have a problem with that. (And shit, the way some of the links I put in this very blog posts objectified her and it's making me feel dirty.) And truthfully, I appreciate that Megan Fox spoke out about the way Michael Bay treats women. To anyone who dismisses Fox on account of her being a sex symbol, or her being “a bitch”, get off my team. I’m sick of being lumped in with you guys. There is a huge difference between wanting someone to own up to her misogynist, slutshaming, and transphobic comments; and slutshaming itself.
But those feminists who used the slutshaming as their cue to laud Fox to the high heavens spectacularly missed the mark too. You’ve got a huge blind spot to the legitimately offensive things Fox has said because, what? She was a victim of sexism? So were Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter. And so was Taylor Swift, for whom there seems to be a special level of vitriol, supposedly because “everything she had” is synonymous with “virginity.” (Someone put that meaning there, but for some reason, I don’t think it was Swift herself.) Ms. Swift has not, as far as I can recall, compared herself to Alan Alda, nor called herself a tranny, nor broadbrushed all women as being catty and jealous bitches, nor demonstrated her complete ignorance of mental health issues.
I refuse to give Megan Fox feminist cookies because of the offensive comments she has made and the even more offensive ways she has rationalized them, all of which amount to, “LOL people are PC and can't handle my wild mouth.” So you’ll forgive me if all I hear in the defenses of Megan Fox is “blah blah sisterhood blah blah.” Either that or “She’s young!” (Ms. Fox is older than I. Just saying.) Maybe some day, Megan Fox will come forward and say, “You know, I said a lot of things I didn’t mean because I thought that was what Maxim wanted to hear. I realize that the reason women got pissed off wasn’t because they were uptight and catty but because I made an assumption about an entire gender, and because I called myself a tranny, and because I said other stuff that’s not edgy, just plain idiotic. I’ve learned that there’s a difference between being outspoken and being trite at best and offensive at worst.” Until then, she gets no cookies from me.
After peddling the “Guy’s Girl” meme, and making light of mental health, demonstrating her transphobia, and insulting an entire gender, completely ignoring how patriarchy is a major factor behind intra-woman hostility, she called out the sexism that directly affected her. She identified the misogyny (not really though) of the man who made girls wash his car wearing a bikini for their audition. It’s easy to call out injustice that directly affects you, especially when you’re awash in other kinds of privilege, like being white, cis-gendered, able-bodied, rich, and beautiful. Color me unimpressed.
Look, if someone dismisses her on the grounds of her being nothing more than a sex symbol, if someone slutshames her, of course I’ll have a problem with that. (And shit, the way some of the links I put in this very blog posts objectified her and it's making me feel dirty.) And truthfully, I appreciate that Megan Fox spoke out about the way Michael Bay treats women. To anyone who dismisses Fox on account of her being a sex symbol, or her being “a bitch”, get off my team. I’m sick of being lumped in with you guys. There is a huge difference between wanting someone to own up to her misogynist, slutshaming, and transphobic comments; and slutshaming itself.
But those feminists who used the slutshaming as their cue to laud Fox to the high heavens spectacularly missed the mark too. You’ve got a huge blind spot to the legitimately offensive things Fox has said because, what? She was a victim of sexism? So were Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter. And so was Taylor Swift, for whom there seems to be a special level of vitriol, supposedly because “everything she had” is synonymous with “virginity.” (Someone put that meaning there, but for some reason, I don’t think it was Swift herself.) Ms. Swift has not, as far as I can recall, compared herself to Alan Alda, nor called herself a tranny, nor broadbrushed all women as being catty and jealous bitches, nor demonstrated her complete ignorance of mental health issues.
I refuse to give Megan Fox feminist cookies because of the offensive comments she has made and the even more offensive ways she has rationalized them, all of which amount to, “LOL people are PC and can't handle my wild mouth.” So you’ll forgive me if all I hear in the defenses of Megan Fox is “blah blah sisterhood blah blah.” Either that or “She’s young!” (Ms. Fox is older than I. Just saying.) Maybe some day, Megan Fox will come forward and say, “You know, I said a lot of things I didn’t mean because I thought that was what Maxim wanted to hear. I realize that the reason women got pissed off wasn’t because they were uptight and catty but because I made an assumption about an entire gender, and because I called myself a tranny, and because I said other stuff that’s not edgy, just plain idiotic. I’ve learned that there’s a difference between being outspoken and being trite at best and offensive at worst.” Until then, she gets no cookies from me.