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Approximate transcript below the jump.
This week we would like to give a big old Feminist Fuck Yeah to none other than Jane Fonda. Thanks to the Women's Media Center I had the exciting experience of talking with Ms. Fonda on the phone last week.
I gotta be honest, I was pretty nervous about the call. For starters, I've had more than one encounter with a famous feminist that left me feeling disappointed. Too many of my heroes on paper have turned out to be less than heroic in person.
Number two, she's Jane Fonda. The scissor kicker and leotard wearer, the star of Klute, Barbarella, and Nine to Five, the protestor of Vietnam, the friend of V Day and Eve Ensler, the Stephen Colbert kisser, the woman who said cunt on the Today Show. All that history made little old me a little nervous.
But I have to tell you, as soon as we started chatting, my nervousness melted away. Jane is a bonafide activist, a gentle, questioning soul, someone who doesn't need to know everything and, therefore, seems ten times more wise. We talked about blogging (yes, Jane Fonda reads feministing from time to time), activism, writing, politics, and much more. Jane is still searching, still questioning, and in the final stages of a new book that is sure to change the way we think about aging and activism.
So this week, I give a fierce Feminist Fuck Yeah to Jane. Thanks for doing the rarest and most important of things--walking your talk.
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I'm glad to hear that Jane Fonda is as cool as she seems.
Every time I read about something she's doing, I'm always very impressed. Great stuff.
This is no abberation, Jane IS awesome and real.
She is not only the the protestor of Vietnam but a Iraq war protestor as well and supports the vets of today too.
Jane Fonda was my hero growing up and, although she didn't really identify as a feminist until later, she had a real influence on my own feminism. Any chance of an interview transcript at some point, or is some sort of article based on your 'chat' available elsewhere?
Jane Fonda rules! Anyone who can make warmongering schmucks soil themselves with the mere mention of her name is 100% cool in my book. Here's a link to a very good article about the neo-Nazi hate campaign against her:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n22/perl01_.html
She's done some good stuff but regarding her stance in Vietnam: she came out on the side of a group of people who were doing the exact same crap as the side she was coming out against, just with different backing.
I don't think her missteps in protesting our (the U.S.'s) part in Vietnam were deliberate, I think she was (like many people always are) under the impression that because one side was clearly "the bad guys" then the other side must have been "the good guys" and she was also a victim of Communist propaganda (which is kind of funny because she was obviously aware of our own propaganda machine but was blind to that of our opposition).
Her work protesting Iraq has been substantially more well-informed and as a member of the VFP (Veterans For Peace) I appreciate her current activism.
If someone has any grounding in world history they would be well aware that our mishandling of Vietnam, not our involvement, was the true failure on our part morally and strategically. The victory of the NLF helped secure the growth of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot and so on.
Anyhow, she's has done a lot of good stuff since 1972 but it's a little frustrating to see someone comment on that as some of her good work.
What a load of bullshit!
The Khmer Rouge came to power because Nixon bombed and invaded Cambodia and overthrew Prince Sihanouk, replacing him with Lon Nol. Between the invasion, bombing and the Nol regime, not only were hundreds of thousands of people killed, but there was a complete breakdown of order in Cambodia, which allowed Pol Pot and his crowd to take over. It was the North Vietnamese who overthrew the Khmer Rouge and kept them from regaining power.
It's kind of funny how people get all bent out of shape over Jane Fonda posing for a picture with Vietnamese soldiers, but people responsible for mass murder are given a pass.
What's really annoying is the fact that much of the hate aimed at Jane Fonda is pure misogyny. Her husband took part in the same anti-war activities, as did fellow movie star Donald Sutherland, yet neither is attacked with one-one millionth the venom spewed at Fonda.
Large numbers of Khmer were actively working with the NVA and the VC until after the last of the U.S. troops left Saigon. Had we not propped up the corrupt and brutal government of South Vietnam the Khmer rouge and Pol pot would not have been able to build strength in Vietnam, nor secure funding to extend back into Cambodia.
In 1964 Pol Pot Started establishing training camps in Vietnam, creating the cadres that would eventually lead to Pol Pot having a death toll of civilians similar to Hitler's.
If we had done right by the people of Vietnam then Pol Pot would have never had the backing to lead his incursion back into Cambodia in the 70's.
If you would pick up a book or something you might have a clue. But then if you had the reading comprehension that would allow you to read a book you would see not one iota of "hate" directed at Ms. Fonda, and a note of appreciation for her more recent activities.
As bad as Tricky Dick's illegal bombing was (Operation Arc Light) Pol Pot killed over 7 million Cambodians with the Khmer. and this wasn't just Nixon's fault, Johnson probably had more to do with this than Nixon because he took the short sight and was too anti-communist to listen to his CIA advisers who came back from "fact finding missions" and said flat out that supporting the South was a problem.
There weren't 7 million people in all of Cambodia and last time I checked, there are still several million left.
Thank you for trolling. Wanker.