How Did Jane Fonda Become A Feminist? Oscar-Winning Actress Says She Was Raped And Sexually Abused As A Child

Jane Fonda, 79, who often makes headlines for her charm and stunning dressing sense, has come out with a shocking revelation — she is a rape survivor. In an interview with Net-a-Porter’s the Edit, the actress and liberal activist disclosed so while giving an example of the toll the patriarchal system has had on women.

"To show you the extent to which a patriarchy takes a toll on females; I’ve been raped, I’ve been sexually abused as a child and I’ve been fired because I wouldn’t sleep with my boss and I always thought it was my fault; that I didn’t do or say the right thing. I know young girls who’ve been raped and didn’t even know it was rape. They think it must have been because I said ‘no’ the wrong way. One of the great things the women’s movement has done is to make us realize that [rape and abuse is] not our fault. We were violated and it’s not right," Fonda said while speaking with Brie Larson in an interview to commemorate the International Women’s Day.

The two-time Oscar-winner confessed that she became a feminist at a very late stage in her life.

"I grew up in the ’50s and it took me a long time to apply feminism to my life. The men in my life were wonderful, but victims of a [patriarchal] belief system. I felt diminished. Eventually I decided I wasn’t going to give up who I was in order to please the man I was with," she said during the interview.

In an article written last year on Lenny Letter, which is a weekly online feminist newsletter created by Lena Dunham and Jennifer Konner, Fonda had quoted from the journal that she wrote when she was very young. It says: "Don't understand the Women's Liberation Movement. There are more important things to have a movement for, it seems to me. To focus on women's issues is diversionary when so much wrong is being done in the world. Each woman should take it upon herself to be liberated and show a man what that means."

Fonda has long been one of America's most popular celebrity political activist, who even spoke actively against the Vietnam war.

"I didn’t become an activist untilI was 31. When I found out what was really happening in Vietnam I didn’t care if I ever worked again; I considered leaving the business to become a full-time activist," She revealed.

However, during the Vietnam War era, Fonda was widely criticized after she appeared in a photograph seated on an North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun vehicle.

At her 79th birthday in December last year, Fonda returned to her activist roots in Los Angeles where she appeared at a rally with her friends Lily Tomlin, Frances Fisher and Catherine Keener, marching to stand in solidarity with the people of Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline.