I thought about putting this in great debates but while a curious subject for me it might not be that “great” for others.
At any rate I received an email the other day ( unfortunately I deleted it with out thinking) from a list of veterans against Jane Fonda being made one of the women of the century. Their argument was that “hanoi jane” had actually helped the vietnamese sp? during the war and helped to ridicule and make american captives live more miserable than they would have been. I apologize for not having cites for this.
I noticed on TV as I was writing this (really) that she has apologized to all veterans of the vietnam war. Saying quote: " It was the worst thing I could have done."
So should she be one of the “Women of the Century?” Or just another rich ditzy hollywood actress?
She should definitely not be one of the women of the century. I won’t go so far as to say she should be indicted for treason as some have suggested, but I do believe she is right to be contrite over her actions during the war in Vietnam.
Not because of Vietnam, but I can think of a lot more women who had a lot more to do for the common good this century than some ditz of a pseudo-politico actress. Although I did like her in “9 to 5”.
Don’t you people have something better to do than complain about Jane Fonda? Is the fact that she did something stupid 28 years ago still the greatest event of your life? Who cares about her? Incidentally, I just did a web search to find out who the other women were in this 100 Women of the Century thing were, assuming that this list actually existed. (I wouldn’t put it past the writers of these E-mail messages to make up such a list and claim that Fonda is on it just because they like to invent reasons to complain about her.) I found that there was indeed a book by this title and a Barbara Walters special that was partly based on it. I can’t find anywhere a list of all the women mentioned in this book, but it’s clear that it wasn’t supposed to be a list of the greatest women of the century, but the most famous or the most influential or the most newsworthy or something. The list contained Eva Peron and Leni Reifenstahl, for instance. They weren’t so great either. Complaining about putting Fonda on the list is like complaining about Time making Hitler its Man of the Year one time and having him come close to being their Man of the Century. They pick those people according to how much news they make, not how great they think they are.
There was a time when I would have cheerfully shot her and considered it a service to the community. Now, I no longer care. She can have whatever the award might be and continue trying to live down her ‘mistake’.
I don’t know if I am one of the “you people” to which you refer but if you read my post carefully you will see that I haven’t complained one iota about Jane Fonda pro or con. I asked a question about an apparent media worthy subject in hopes of shedding some opinionated light on it.
Oh and I do have plenty of things to do but posting on the straight dope happens to be one that I enjoy.
So the original question remains:
Should she be one of the “Women of the Century?” Or just another rich ditzy hollywood actress?
No traitor deserves to be named as a “Woman of the Century” if the award had any merit to begin with. But as a previous poster said she is too insignificant for any such hype to really matter. And just think, no matter what she ever does, for the rest of her life, she can never ever live down her treachery. The so-called apology can never work. Leave her to stew in her own juices.
