Guys, Jane Fonda Is Actually The Frankie In Grace And Frankie

Jane Fonda was arrested last Friday for partaking in a climate crisis protest in Washington DC. The 81-year-old actor was one of 16 people charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, according to CBS News.

Posting a video of her arrest on Instagram, Fonda is seen holding up a sign that reads ‘No New Fossil Fuels’ before she is approached by a policeman who zip-tied her wrists and led her away. She was protesting alongside Oil Change International, a group that advocates for clean energy, outside the US Capitol Building.

It is one of many protests Fonda plans to engage in as part of her ‘Fire Drill Fridays’ effort. According to her website, she will protest every Friday until January to demand action addressing the climate crisis, even moving to Washington DC ‘to be closer to the epicentre of the fight for our climate.’

Also arranging a series of live streams before said protests, Fonda will be joined by a panel of experts each week to explain the climate crisis to her massive online following. The incident has brought attention to Fonda’s long history of political activism that spans back to the 1960s.

For near 60 years, Fonda has engaged in various social justice movements. Supporting movements ranging from the Civil Rights Movement, opposition to the Vietnam War and the Alcatraz Island occupation by American Indians – she has consistently brought attention to government failures in her long career.

In fact, her activism has been so dangerous to the American government that she was once monitored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and was subject to a suspicious arrest in 1970. After travelling back from an anti-war tour, she was arrested for drug trafficking after pills were found in her luggage. While she maintains they were vitamins, and told the arresting officers so, she says the officer replied he was ‘acting on orders from the White House’.

And she continues to this day, as evidenced by last weekend’s arrest, but also by her commitment to feminism. In a 2017 interview with Brie Larson for People magazine, she spoke about her commitment to end violence against women, opening up about her own experiences.

‘One of the great things the women's movement has done is to make us realise [rape and abuse] is not our fault,’ she said. ‘We were violated and it's not right. 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…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”.'

In view of this, she has started and supported various organisations to support and protect women. In fact, the list of Fonda’s activism is as endless as her acting CV. It seems she has spent her entire life committed to changing the world.

It goes to show, while she might play the archetypal opposite of her on-screen BFF Lily Tomlin in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie – she is actually very much a Frankie in real life.

Take a look through iconic pictures of Jane Fonda throughout the years...