Jane Fonda: One Bad Ass Icon
I’m a firm believer that life hands you exactly what you need when you need it, you just need to be paying attention. Coincidences are not just coincidences but more like divine interventions. I had one of those moments yesterday while packing and unpacking my suitcase for the umpteenth time this month when I stumbled upon an Oprah Winfrey episode I’d recorded where she interviews Jane Fonda.
Suddenly I found myself glued to the screen. Jane Fonda has captivated me since I was a little girl. Maybe it’s because my mother copied her style my entire childhood, mostly her amazing haircut from Klute which nobody could get her stop doing, even years after the fact! I can probably tell you every movie Jane has been in and who she’s been married to. I clearly remember going to the theater with my mom to see On Golden Pond and how we cried in the car all the way home. I mean, 9 to 5—need I say more?
I’m rarely star struck, I get more chef struck actually, but I’ve been in the same room with Jane twice in my life and was rendered completely speechless both times. Her voice is so warmly familiar to me, like listening to an old friend that I’ve never met before. I adore it.
Obviously Jane is a legendary beauty with a Hollywood pedigree but she’s always been so much more than that! A powerful Oscar winning actress, a fearless woman’s rights advocate, a political force and the world’s best known fitness guru respectively. She was a space age ’60s sex kitten in Barbarella. She suffered an onslaught of fierce anti american criticism in the ’70s and was coined Hanoi Jane for her public protest of the Vietnam War. She was reborn in the ’80s when she changed the landscape of women’s health forever with her Jane Fonda Workout tapes. In the late ’90s she wrote about her life frankly and openly in a brave critically acclaimed autobiography sharing what she’d learned from her most painful experiences and how she found healing through intense self exploration.
About 4 years ago I watched a performance of the Vagina Monologues held at the Louisiana Super Dome to benefit the women of the gulf coast affected by Hurricane Katrina. I listened along with a stadium of almost 20,000 women as she read a monologue about the experience of being both emotionally and physically present for the birth of her first grandchild, something she admits she definitley was not with her own children. She shared what felt like to be really be awake. It was a powerful moment, and one I will never forget.
At 72 the woman looks IN-credible, but what moved me the most was her fearless honesty. She read aloud some her most emotionally revealing excerpts from her book My Life So Far to the audience with unflinching candor. I felt cracked wide open listening to her. People so rarely share these pieces of themselves with each other in our society, whether out of fear of judgement or just sheer ego.
She shared her thoughts on how she sees life being three acts, this being her third and happiest by far. It’s obvious just by looking at her that it’s true! She discussed openly everything from her plastic surgery, to her three failed marriages, her less than perfect parenting skills, to finding true intimacy and her mother’s suicide when she was only 12 years old. The message I got most from the interview was, not to be afraid to excavate the dark recesses of your heart; there is only forgiveness there. Forgiveness for yourself and those in your life who have hurt you. Until you really allow yourself to go back and really feel your way through your life story you can’t truly understand who you are or be completely healed.
Jane’s answer to how she stays feeling young? Stop worrying about being interesting and be interested. Learn something new everyday, there’s so much to learn and so little time! No truer words were ever spoken. I’ve always believed that curiousity is THE ultimate key to youth and she is a shining example.
I love that Jane and her boyfriend dance every night in their living room, that she is still making excercise videos and is passionately involved with women’s rights and that she works tirelessly with the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention.
Jane’s life is a testament to what it means to be a woman. Choosing to stand up for what you believe in even when it’s not popular, being willing to expose your life’s foibles in order to shine a light on your own personal truth. Jane’s life has taken her down a road less traveled, one fueled by her strong desire for personal enlightenment. One thing is for sure, I plan on following wherever she goes because she makes the journey look like fun!
