Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is an actress, activist, and also feminist. She was very successful in those works. She describes herself as a liberal, and more recently, a feminist and a born-again Christian. Jane Fonda was born on December 21st 1937 in New York City. Her full name is Jane Seymour Fonda. Her father is a legendary screen star, Henry Fonda, and New York socialite, Frances Seymour Brokaw. She was destined to be a superstar since she was a little girl.

As an actress, she started her career when she was 17 years old. After her performance in 'The Country Girl'she had decided that she would be an actress. Her interest in acting grew after meeting Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joining the Actors Studio. Her debut in acting still continues until this day. She starred in a lot of Hollywood famous movies, such as Monster in Law, Klute, Barbarella, etc. And her success was marked by two Academy Awards (for her performances in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978)) and five Oscar nominations (for Best Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), The Morning After (1986) and On Golden Pond (1981).

Besides being an actress, Jane Fonda also known as an anti-war activist. Especially during the America-Vietnam war. She was active participating in demonstrations, rallies, radio broadcasts and plays. Fonda spoke out against the war at a rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She offered to help raise funds for VVAW. She also asked US aircrews to turn around without dropping their bombs. "Jane Fonda personally sought out returning American soldiers from Vietnam to solicit them to publicly speak out against American atrocities against Vietnamese women and children during her broadcasts." Her participation in this war made her known as “Hanoi Jane”. Her activities did not stop at the American-Vietnamesse war. She also participated in political activism during the connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And she also remains opposed to the Iraq War and to President George W. Bush in general.

Fonda has been concerned about feminist problems, especially to stop violence against women. She was active in campaigning to save girls from genital mutilation. "Fonda feels that many gender stereotypes are damaging to individuals of all genders. She served as a mentor to the first ever all-transsexual cast of The Vagina Monologues in 2004."

Jane Fonda is an extraordinary woman. She is a very brave woman and she would stand for her beliefs, no matter how difficult it is and who she would be against or even if it could threaten her life, as long as her belief is right and could protect the victims who are vulnerable from danger. Jane Fonda gave me inspiration in some different ways to face this life. She taught me (indirectly) that in our society, we should not be afraid to fight for our opinions/beliefs if we’re in the right and as long as it wouldn’t harm our society, especially the people who depend upon us for their lives. And something important too is, don’t be afraid of losing something, because when you lose some, you would get some of equal worth…