Jane Fonda: 'I was raped'

Hollywood icon Jane Fonda has revealed that she was raped.

The 1960s screen siren, who most famously played space agent Barbarella, has bravely opened up about not only being forced to have sex against her will, but also about the abuse she suffered as a child.

“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," Jane, 79, tells actress Brie Larson in an interview with the latest edition of The Edit.

“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.”

The activist says she used to feel “diminished” by the “patriarchal belief system”, and that as a child of the 50s, she grew up with the “disease to please.”

But all that changed when she went to see US playwright and feminist Eve Ensler perform The Vagina Monologues.

“Eventually I decided I wasn’t going to give up who I was in order to please the man I was with,” she said in the interview ahead of International Women’s Day.

The actresses also talked about finding their voices in Hollywood and learning to use the word "no".

“I’ve learned the only power I have in my career is the word no. I couldn’t choose the jobs I got, but I could say no to jobs that weren’t right for me," Brie said.

“Unlike you, Brie, it took me 60 years to learn how to say no," replied Jane. "If anyone offered me anything I would say yes. I took parts I wasn’t right for and I was taken advantage of. I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. Now, I would say, ‘No. This is a piece of s***. I don’t like the way you’re treating me,’ and leave. If only I had known then what I do now.”

For confidential help, call Lifeline at 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au/

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