Like millions of people here on planet Earth, Jane Fonda is the Crowned Goddess of my life (thank you for the phrase, Gabo). There are a lot of reasons why we love her: she's an incredible actress. She's an amazing activist. She's been standing up for what is right for decades, from delivering her 1972 Oscar acceptance speech in sign language when the Academy refused to have a translator to adopting the daughter of two Black Panthers to standing up for the planet we all live in now. She's also, as we are all now learning, a prolific writer, and has even been blogging on her website for over a decade.
What does Jane Fonda write about, you ask? Child, she writes about all kinds of things. She writes about the squirrel in her backyard that she's currently in love with. She writes about burning down white supremacy. She writes about the climate crisis. I mean, the real question is what does Jane Fonda not write about? Because I'm pretty sure if there is a topic you want to know her thoughts about, she's got it ready for you.
Let's dive in to some of Jane's more enthralling blog posts and celebrate a woman who is genuinely too good for this world, who has dealt with so much drama from so many, and who keeps loving us anyway.
"Pins and needles"
In her most recent blog post, Jane shares that she's just dropped her ballot for the 2020 presidential election into the mail and, like a lot of us, she's anxious about the results of the big event on November 3.
She writes:
"My belief is that if Biden wins and is brave and bold (we have to make sure he will be), he can bring enough good jobs and pay proper attention to working people in the middle of the country who have been ignored and left behind by previous elected officials (of both parties). That may be a step forward in quieting the anger that's been erupting in places where militias exist, ease the despair that fuels the opioid pandemic and begin to address the underlying causes of police violence."
"Build it and they will come"
In this blog post, Jane Fonda references the oft-quoted line from Field of Dreams while discussing the cute little picnic table she built for the squirrel that lives in her backyard. That's right, friends: Jane Fonda also sees the same dang memes that the rest of us see. Doesn't that make your eyeballs feel a little more special, knowing that you might be looking at something Jane Fonda once took five seconds from her busy amazing brilliant life to also look at?
"It's 12:30pm and I've already filled the little pot 3 times. Maybe there are a lot of squirrels and I just choose to think it's one squirrel…my squirrel. A girl squirrel. But if that's the case she's on track to become a very plump squirrel. My social media followers tell me squirrels hide and/or bury the nuts. She must do it very fast. I went to the gym to workout, filling the pot right before that. When I came back an hour later the pot was empty. My neighbor, the artist Joan Scheibel, took this picture while I was working out."
"Another weekend"
This post was particularly thrilling for me because this is how I discovered that Jane and I were both reading the same book at the same time. Like Jane, I too was in a rush to buy and consume Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Deadly Man. Unlike me, Jane actually got to interview Mary Trump, which is just … the most.
Also unlike me, Jane somehow found it in her rainbow bedazzled heart to feel empathy for the subject of the book, because Jane Fonda is better than I am:
"One of the things I like about her book is that we learn what made her uncle the way he is and with that comes empathy. I know that a lot of you will go 'whaaaat the f….' Why should I feel empathy. Here's my perspective:. While he has done hateful, evil things, many of them, if we hate him, we lose. Hate is a heavy and toxic emotion to carry … It's quite terrifying that such pathologies are now running our country."
"What my weeks are like of late"
If you have wondered how Jane Fonda is spending quarantine, well, she's telling you! This is another post where I happily discovered that Jane and I would probably totally vibe in real life, because we both love Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You. I do also wonder if Jane has been Michaela's show, Chewing Gum!
Jane says, "All of my favorite TV series I was watching pre-[virus]- -'Homeland,' 'Dead To Me,' 'Ramy,' 'Better Things,' –are done either forever or for the season, so, like you, I've been discovering things I probably would not have seen. The most recent is the very special, 'I May Destroy You.' It's totally unique, to me at least, and very eye-opening. Kudos to the remarkable writer and striking star, Michaela Coel."
"White supremay and the climate crisis"
Something that I have admired about Jane since I first discovered her like 20 years ago is that she is able to be all the things at the same time: she's a beautiful woman, she's intelligent, she's fun and funny, she's compelling, and she's wicked smart. And she's well-informed on just about every topic that you could choose, including white supremacy and the climate crisis. I mean, the woman is writing about her backyard squirrel and about the havoc that the ethos of white supremacy has wreaked on the planet! My queen!
"The reality, which is not simply a state of consciousness but is based in science, is that we, the species of animal known as homo sapiens, are interdependent with all living things including other animal and plant forms. This is true on the deepest molecular level. We are interconnected and interdependent. Our wellbeing, our existence even, is bound up with all other living things. White supremacy denies this reality which is one reason why white supremacists hate science…because science proves this is true.
But white supremacy is not just a world view held by individuals. It is the guiding, even if subconscious, paradigm behind most of our institutions. This is why racism is structural, a pathology that infects our economic, political and cultural institutions. Criminal justice is just one part of the problem. Because of structural racism, people of color have little chance of accumulating wealth, owning a home, accessing fresh food, affording health care or living without fear of violence."
"My speech on some unique challenges faced by Black Americans"
If you thought Jane was finished speaking on difficult topics, you were wrong, wrong, wrong, my friend. And thank goodness! I'm here for all of it.
Jane decided to share a speech she made back in 2018 before introducing Patrisse Cullors at the United State of Women conference in LA.
"Slavery was a method of wealth creation. That's why racism and class hierarchy can't be separated. Furthermore, enslaved people were the only property that propagated itself, producing more property, more enrichment. That's why racism and sexism can't be separated. Racism allows the 1% to deceive the White working class into believing that though they may be suffering, at least others are worse off. Racism is what keeps poor and working-class Whites from aligning with Blacks to identify and topple their common enemy."
"What can I do about the climate crisis at home with unexpected free time?"
Jane penned this post on March 15, 2020, right around the time most Americans realized that hold up: this virus thing was for real. Seeing that many of us had a lot of extra time on our hands, Jane encouraged each of us to turn some of that time toward focusing on our shared reality: The climate crisis is real.
In this post, Jane encourages her readers to make sure they aren't inadvertently supporting the fossil fuel industry.
"There are a number of ways that you may be connected with the financial system: a bank account, a credit card, your insurance company, or your retirement account or investment portfolio. Let's walk through each of these areas and talk about how you can make sure your money is fossil free."
"Thoughts as I approach my 82nd birthday"
Jane Fonda turned 82 on December 21, 2019. As you might expect, the birthday inspired a lot of ideas and musings that she wanted to share. She begins by looking back on her blogging career:
"I've been blogging now for almost 12 years, if I'm not mistaken. I started doing it when I was 70 and performing '33 Variations' on Broadway. Everyday I would blog about what happened that day. It had been 60 years since my last Broadway play, and I wanted to see if, all these years later, I could have a joyous experience being in front of a live audience every night in a good play as my father had. It turned out to be quite joyous and I'm glad I chronicled it daily. That was all I was doing then, and it was easy.
I never would have expected my life to get so much fuller and, in some ways, more meaningful as I moved into my 8th decade. It's harder now to find the time to blog regularly. Please forgive me."
"A couple of things"
In this post from April 2019, Jane starts off by doing something just about every person who has ever blogged has done: apologizing for not blogging lately. As someone who has been writing about my feelings on the internet for so many years it's getting difficult to count them, I relate to this post so heavily that it makes me happy and weepy and happy again.
Unlike me, the reason Jane hasn't blogged lately is because she's been doing actual work in the world, connecting with people and doing her thing. I, on the other hand, often haven't blogged because I have been busy rewatching every season of The Crown. Jane, I'm sorry.
"Blogging. I feel really badly that I haven't blogged. Why haven't I? Well, so many are suffering all over the world including here in this country; climate is wreaking havoc. My heart breaks for the folks in SD, Neb, Kansas, CO, Minn, WY . . . and so soon after the last flood crisis. I know farmers there, friends there. But even if I didn't. They are all part of us, the human family."
"One fair wage in Michigan"
To round things out, I'm going to link to the post that Jane wrote in September 2017 about the One Fair Wage campaign. Jane shares that she and her co-star and fellow goddess queen Lily Tomlin traveled to Michigan to speak to activists about their work on the campaign, and how others can support what they're doing. She also shares a link to the campaign itself, so others can learn more about raising the minimum wage in Michigan.
