Megan Fox — something of an actress and something of a model, best known as a fixture on every “sexiest women in the world” list — celebrated her 40th birthday.
The past year has not been easy for her. It included a breakup with ex Machine Gun Kelly while she was in the late stages of pregnancy, a process that took her under the social media radar and led her to delete all the photos from her Instagram account.
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Manages to use her dubious image as a source of power. Megan Fox
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit)
But a star like Fox was never going to let life keep her down. In March, she broke her social media fast and returned to Instagram with a series of daring photos, exactly the way she likes it and knows how to do it: a tight black knit, platform sandals, a tiny thong and a caption announcing, “I’m alive and well.”
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Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly at the Billboard Music Awards, 2021
(Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for dcp)
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Namilia studded corset on the red carpet, 2024
(Photo: Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Uber)
In addition to the new photos, she also has a baby daughter — her fourth child, after three sons — a new film called “Subservience,” soul-searching interviews about feeling like a victim of fame, a poetry book titled “Pretty Boys Are Poisonous” and, as noted, a milestone birthday for a woman who, at 40, manages to look exactly as she did at 20. There is no doubt: She has had work done, she has been enhanced, and she is not at all ashamed of it.
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David Koma dress at the Billboard Music Awards, 2022
(Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Her journey to fame
As someone whose main cinematic fame comes from her appearance in the “Transformers” film series, Fox never staked her career on grand acting abilities. She has other assets to build on, and she does so perfectly.
She was married to Brian Austin Green — forever David from “Beverly Hills, 90210” — and later had a relationship with musician Machine Gun Kelly, with whom she got engaged in a ceremony involving mutual blood-drinking, canceled the wedding plans, returned to his arms, became pregnant, found signs that he was cheating on her, split from him again, gave birth to their daughter and ultimately blocked him from her life in every sense other than co-parenting — and, no less importantly, removed him from the list of people she follows on Instagram.
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With Machine Gun Kelly at a Halloween party, 2023
(Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Casamigos)
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At the launch of her book, 'Pretty Boys Are Poisonous,' 2023
(Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Beyond that, she identifies as bisexual, was crowned the “Pamela Anderson of the 21st century” and has won the Golden Raspberry Award for worst actress three times — two of them for two different films in the same year. And despite all that, Fox manages to use her dubious image as a source of power. She is both spectacularly trashy and a fashion icon.
How does she dress?
With endless variations on the concept of “partial nudity.” In fact, Fox is so committed to the provocative look that one might think her contract with the world includes a clause stating that she may wear whatever she wants, as long as the outfit leaves 90% of her skin exposed.
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Akna dress on the red carpet, 2024
(Photo: Araya Doheny/Getty Images for Janie's Fund)
She wraps herself in as little fabric as possible and always manages to look as though the slightest breeze would leave her completely naked. It never actually happens, but the potential is there. And that “almost” is what makes her, on the one hand, one of the women considered among the sexiest in the world and, on the other, a model of fashion admiration.
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Mugler dress at GQ magazine’s 'Men of the Year 2023' party
(Photo: Presley Ann/Getty Images for GQ)
Fox manages to remain relevant and talked-about because she knows how to embody the guilty pleasure in a world that supposedly values refined elegance but secretly wants a peek into forbidden realms. She took all of those explosive ingredients and brewed from them a stylish persona precisely because she does not care about being controversial, and because she knows how to maximize the wow effect that comes with her fashion choices.
Her Instagram account features exactly seven photos, all posted after “the great deletion.” In them, she is dressed in a little black and a lot of body, collecting likes as though they are about to go out of style. In earlier photos from red carpets, she wears not much more, though hints of dresses, suits and even coats can be found there — because Fox specializes in the art of the naked look even when she is dressed from head to toe.
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Hat and denim shorts at Coachella, 2024
(Photo: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for CELSIUS Energy)
Among her unforgettable looks is a dress — sheer, of course — by Jean Paul Gaultier, with thin red and orange stripes, accessorized with a pair of nipple covers that ignited a lively online debate over whether they were hers or not. Last October, at a festive screening of one of her early films that has since become a cult favorite, “Jennifer’s Body” — currently making a guest appearance on Netflix — Fox chose a nude-colored corset dress by Karine Gasparian that looked as though it was “bleeding,” thanks to thousands of red beads and a matching red beaded choker.
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Blumarine dress at the launch of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in Florida, 2023
(Photo: Alberto Tamargo/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit)
At a GQ magazine event in Los Angeles in 2023, she appeared in a black lace dress with surprising cutouts and a pregnant belly. In another dress, black and sheer with a huge round neckline, she was seen a few months earlier at an event launching the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue — the magazine in which she appeared at the time in an item somewhere between a swimsuit and a beach cover-up, made of coins and chains.
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Jacquemus bra top and Danielle Guizio pants at a beach festival in Florida, 2022
(Photo: Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Audacy)
She accompanied all that exposed goodness with an interview in which she actually told readers she was insecure, not truly satisfied with her body and still learning to love herself a little more each day.
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LaQuan Smith dress at the launch of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in New York, 2023
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit)
What lies ahead
Fox is a beautiful, sexy woman, and there is no question she knows how to “wear nudity” in a way few others can. Still, beyond those important qualities, there is a sense that she may have exhausted the new things she has to offer the world, both in media terms and cinematically. On her 50th birthday, will we still remember who Megan Fox is?
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Sportmax dress at the Tribeca Festival, 2022
(Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
Applause or a hail of tomatoes?
Applause, accompanied by whistles of encouragement and cheers. We know how to appreciate people who go to their own edge and then a little beyond it. Bad taste, zero class? Probably. But daring has its advantages, too.
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LaQuan Smith dress at the Los Angeles Fashion Awards, 2022
(Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
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Neckline, slit and sparkle on the red carpet, 2022
(Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)