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Note To Megan Fox: Ageisms Aren't Funny

Did the soon-to-be-30 actress just cross a line?
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By 

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

Did New Girl actress Megan Fox, soon to be turning 30, just step in the sticky wicket of being ageist? As a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Fox was discussing how 30 -- a milestone birthday -- always seemed to be so "old" when she was younger.

Ellen, jumping in the conversation, agreed. The talk show host volunteered that when she was younger, "I would think somebody 50, 60 years old was, you know, just like..."

And then came Fox's zinger. "In a hospice?" the young actress rushed to finish Ellen's sentence for her, perhaps not realizing that DeGeneres is 58.

Awkward.

"I'm just saying!" Fox added, trying to recover. "When you're young, that's what you think."

DeGeneres, pro that she is, defused things with,"I wouldn't go that far, but certainly close to going to a hospice, yes."

OK, so was it funny? Sort of, maybe, barely -- more likely it's a signal to take a bathroom break or see what else is on the telly.

But was it harmful? Not on the scale of ISIS or Donald Trump harmful, but still a wince-able moment in the same way that "adorable" grandmas and talk about those silly texts your mother sent make older people cringe.

It's a microaggression, a seemingly harmless expression often made without malicious intent that nonetheless speaks to our underlying attitude about people as they age. And ultimately, these microaggressions do cause harm. They perpetuate stereotypes that cost older workers jobs when they are perceived to be technologically illiterate; they make older women feel invisible; and they create an "us" and "them" mentality that is the underlying cause of all the "isms" whether it be racism, sexism or ageism. Yes, ageism -- probably the last prejudice in America to go unaddressed.

So, presumably Megan Fox knows that 50- or 60-year-olds aren't exactly lining up for hospice care. Presumably, she was attempting to make a joke. But would she have felt as comfortable exaggerating -- for the sake of comedy -- some stereotype about a minority group? Of course not.

Take it from someone who never trusted anyone over 30.

Also on HuffPost:

Actresses Told They Weren't Pretty Enough
1. Winona Ryder(01 of07)
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Winona Ryder recently spoke to Interview magazine's editor-in-chief Stephen Mooallem about the discouraging comments one casting director made early on in her career:
I was in the middle of auditioning, and I was mid-sentence when the casting director said, "Listen, kid. You should not be an actress. You are not pretty enough. You should go back to where you came from and you should go to school. You don't have it."
 (credit:Getty)
2. Whitney Cummings(02 of07)
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In November of 2012, Cummings told Vulture:
I remember my agent at ICM at the beginning of my career telling me that I wasn’t pretty enough, that I was always going to be a quirky sidekick. And he was an ogre of a man. He should have been carrying a torch. If he was in a bar, he couldn’t have come near me, and then he was deciding my fate.
 (credit:JPI)
3. Sally Field(03 of07)
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Sally Field opened up in an interview with The Academy of Achievement about the negative comments she heard about her appearance prior to the release of "Sybil." "Sybil was coming out, and everyone said, 'Whoa, the work is extraordinary ... but man is Sally Field ugly!,'" she recounted. (credit:Getty)
4. Nia Vardalos(04 of07)
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Another obstacle actresses must overcome is fitting into the often narrow selection of roles available for women. Nia Vardalos was discouraged from pursuing her acting career because she didn't look like a particular "type." In 2012, the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star told More Magazine:
This agent I was once working with said, "You are not fat enough to be a character actress, and you’re not pretty enough to be a leading lady. Plus, there are no Greek roles. So I can no longer represent you."... I was like, don’t hold anything back. Speak your mind. Then she dropped me.
(credit:AP)
5. Lea Michele(05 of07)
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As if telling a woman she’s ugly isn’t demeaning enough, some actresses, like Lea Michele, are given specific, plastic-surgery related instructions. Lea Michele recounted one such specific request in 2011 to the New York Daily News:
When I was 15, my mother and I went to meet a manager who said, "You have to get a nose job in order for me to work with you ... My mother would say to me, "Barbra Streisand never got a nose job. You’re not getting a nose job."
 (credit:Getty)
6. Kat Dennings(06 of07)
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According to a May 2012 New York Times profile of the actress, when she was just starting out, casting agents recommended that Dennings lose weight, get a tan, dye her hair and fix her teeth. Thank goodness she chose to ignore that advice. (credit:AP)
Sarah Jessica Parker(07 of07)
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Sarah Jessica Parker has long been criticized for her looks. Back in 2007, Maxim Magazine even notoriously named her the "Unsexiest Woman Alive." But SJP has been dealing with such critiques since the beginning of her career. She told Allure Magazine in 2008 that early on industry insiders told her to do “anything from as silly as plucking my eyebrows to getting my nose fixed." But, luckily for Carrie Bradshaw enthusiasts everywhere, she said that the comments were "nothing that stayed in my brain for very long.” (credit:AP)

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