If Megan Fox Says She Has 'Never Ever Loved' Her Body, There Is Something Seriously Wrong With Beauty Standards

It's time to recognize that rigid beauty standards harm everyone.

By Alexandra Blogier — Written on May 16, 2023

Photo: Greg Swales / Sports Illustrated, DFree / Shutterstock & Sparklestroke via CanvaPro

Megan Fox is a featured cover model for the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, and while the actress is someone who unapologetically owns her narrative and her presence in the world, she’s also someone who struggles with society’s heightened beauty standards.

Fox took the opportunity to speak about how she interprets her physical appearance, explaining, “I have body dysmorphia. I don’t even see myself the way other people see me.”

Megan Fox said she has ‘never ever loved’ her body, a statement that captures just how damaging and wrong society’s beauty standards are.

“There’s never been a point in my life where I’ve loved my body, never ever,” Fox explained. “When I was little, that was an obsession I had, of like, ‘But I should look this way,’ and why I had an awareness of my body that young, I’m not sure.”

Fox, 37, was raised in Tennessee by a family who practiced the Pentecostal faith. She offered her religious upbringing as a form of context to how she sees herself, stating that her body dysmorphia “definitely wasn’t environmental because I grew up in a very religious environment, where bodies weren’t even acknowledged.”

One could make the argument that the lack of acknowledgment Fox experienced regarding the basic human fact of having a body could have contributed to how she perceives herself, in addition to the understanding that people, and women especially, receive harsh messaging about the right way to look starting at a very young age.

By opening up about her body dysmorphia, Megan Fox has also opened herself up to a very public critique of her appearance and her mental health.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders defines body dysmorphia as a “preoccupation with one or more perceived defects or flaws in physical appearance that are not observable or appear slight to others… The preoccupation causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other areas of functioning.”

By the nature of her profession, Fox’s physical appearance is subject to extreme visibility and heightened criticism. That her body is often held up as a standard for how women should look, according to men, complicates the dialogue — yet it doesn’t discount Fox’s lived experience, which she proclaimed in a public and vulnerable setting, an act that will likely garner her even more vitriol.

Fox is no stranger to hateful discourse. As she rose to fame with her role in 2007’s Transformers movie, Fox was unapologetically vocal about director Michael Bay’s behavior on set, an act that led to the publication of an open letter from the crew members on set, essentially smearing Fox’s name and credibility.

In a 2021 interview with InStyle Magazine, Fox opened up about that painful part of her career, saying, "I was brought out and stoned and murdered at one point. And then suddenly everybody's like, 'Wait a second. We shouldn't have done that. Let's bring her back.'" The public treatment of Fox as a villain for daring to exist, for daring to speak up against a misogynist and problematic industry, is something for society to rethink now.

In 2018, Fox spoke with the New York Times about her public image and her role in the #MeToo movement, explaining, “I was rejected because of qualities that are now being praised in other women coming forward. And because of my experience, I feel it’s likely that I will always be just out of the collective understanding. I don’t know if there will ever be a time where I’m considered normal or relatable or likable.”

She justified her reasons for staying quiet during the height of the #MeToo movement, stating, “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.”

There’s much to dissect and undo in society’s definition of who represents a “perfect victim,” and who’s designated as deserving support and sympathy for their struggles. The reality is, no one but Fox herself can fully understand how she feels in her own body, but it's not hard to imagine the level of insecurities that accompanies living under the microscope of a patriarchal society. The fact is, we all live there. We're all touched on some level by unfair standards of how we're supposed to look.