【male eroticism】

There's a lot to celebrate about the voices amplified by #MeToo. There's also a lot to learn from the voices who still feel uninvited to speak or male eroticismunheard when they do.

In a new interview with the New York Times, former Transformers star Megan Fox addressed why she hasn't joined the numerous other women coming forward about their experiences of sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood. And her answer is a wake up call to anyone who thinks we've progressed beyond victim-blaming after #MeToo.

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Because despite having, "quite a few stories" of her own, Fox said:

"Even with the #MeToo movement, and everyone coming out with stories — and one could assume that I probably have quite a few stories, and I do — I didn’t speak out for many reasons. I just didn’t think based on how I’d been received by people, and by feminists, that I would be a sympathetic victim. And I thought if ever there were a time where the world would agree that it’s appropriate to victim-shame someone, it would be when I come forward with my story."

That's a gut-punch assessment for two reasons.

For one, Fox is right: Only the "right" kind of victims tend to be heard, even in these unprecedented times. Anyone society has dehumanized into a sex object just doesn't fit the bill. While obviously dealing with other more severe disenfranchisement issues, it's one of the reasons why sex workers have been disregarded when they've tried to participate.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Because despite a conscious understanding of why victim blaming and slut shaming is wrong, those biases still rear their heads when it comes to seeing women with marketed sexuality as potential victims of sexual assault.

For another, Fox was actually telling the world what we'd probably now consider #MeToo stories long before there was a hashtag.

In a November 2017 Mary Sue article, writer Princess Weekes outlined the long list of ways Fox was mistreated by the press, public, and industry who needed to see her as nothing more than a bimbo sex symbol. Sure, Fox wasn't a saint, saying plenty of things about her bisexuality and using ableist language that isn't acceptable today. But she was an outspoken woman trying to own her sexuality.

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We never applauded her for being brave enough to speak out against the sexist behavior she endured in the industry

Yet the world refused to see her as a multi-dimensional human being. And we never applauded her for being brave enough to call out the sexist behavior she endured in the industry.

Among the litany of things Fox has described in the past, her first introduction to Transformersdirector Michael Bay sticks out.

She was a 15-year-old extra for a club scene in Bad Boys II clad in nothing but a bikini and six-inch heels, according to a 2009 Jimmy Kimmelinterview. Bay approved of including her in the scene, but when told that her age would not allow them to show her drinking, his solution was, "to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet. And that’s … at 15. I was in tenth grade. So that’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works."

In a 2009Observer interview, Fox told the author how she got the gig as the hyper-sexualized Mikaela in Transformers:

"She told me she went to director Michael Bay’s house to audition and he made her wash his Ferrari while he filmed her. She said she didn’t know what had happened to the footage. When I put it to Bay himself, he looked suitably abashed. ‘Er, I don’t know where it is either.’"

No red flags there!

Newsflash: Megan Fox can be sexy *and* treated like a human being at the same time. Credit: GAMMA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

To be clear, Fox has not made any specific accusations, and we can't assume whether or not she considers any of the above in the mold of other behavior brought to light by #MeToo. She may very well feel as though she was not a victim in any of these situations -- but she did tell the Timesshe had "quite a few" stories she felt would have fallen on deaf ears.

We failed to listen or even show we cared to.

Back in 2009, she became the stereotype of an idiotic sex object who, by extension, did not deserve our sympathies or questions about whether the treatment she received was OK.

Today, the public knows more about the complicated, often dangerous nexus of misogyny that young women and men looking to make it in Hollywood face. And maybe now we can take responsibility for unwittingly participating in some of the sexism directed at Fox back then.

The idea is to continue to look back and shine a light on the blindspots to abuse. And to fight to ensure that everyone feels safe enough to come forward.

"I don’t want to say this about myself, but let’s say that I was ahead of my time and so people weren’t able to understand," Fox said in the Timesinterview. "Instead, I was rejected because of qualities that are now being praised in other women coming forward."

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