"Good Morning, Megan Fox" response

My first reaction when I sat down to read Esquire's "Good Morning, Megan Fox" story, written by Greg Williams, was "Wow, I can't possibly take this publication seriously with all the links to 'sexy Megan Fox video' and 'Megan Fox Thong Naked Pic' cluttering the page." So admittedly, I went in with a little bit of a bias.

The lead – "Megan Fox won't kick her horse" – did little to assuage my skepticism. It reads like your standard-issue vague opening designed to force you to read on, but it was too vague, and I just didn't care. Upon reading the rest of the article, I wasn't exactly blown away. Yes, it was generally well-written for its intended audience – men who want to look at Megan Fox naked, no doubt – and did a good enough job of humanizing her and demystifying her sex symbol status in a reasonably persuasive manner, but that intangible thing that would have pushed it into being a great article, in my opinion, was missing.

For one, no one is interviewed except for Ms. Fox herself. We get an image of the actress that is completely created and perpetuated by her. I'm not calling it inaccurate, but it's far from fully fleshed out. The sole quote from the horse tour guide Michael hardly has anything to do with the story, aside from providing a little more background color for the setting of the interview. A sentence from an old flame, a family member, or a costar could have improved the article tenfold. As it stands, it reads as hugely egotistical, even while it takes great pains to demonstrate that it isn't.

Second, even though the writer lets Ms. Fox tell her side of being thought of as a sex symbol, between the quotes, he's still incredibly flippant and plays up her sexuality endlessly. Between lines like "She's not licking her fork seductively, or smearing barbecue sauce all over her face, or dripping mashed potatoes down her chest" as though he half-expected her to do those things and the interruptive links to "Esquire's exclusive sexy Megan Fox video!" the agenda is evident. Maybe that's fair, maybe that's what the audience wants, but I didn't care much for it.

As it stands, I found this article to be a fairly well-written but pandering profile of an inexplicably iconic figure of a vapid culture. Some women are sexy and interesting, but Esquire didn't choose to go that route with this article.