Jane Fonda and Being Naked with an Aging Body
At 85, the actor and activist is focusing on her body’s flaws, not the pleasure it can still bring her
Jane Fonda was talking about sex lately. As in, she’s not having any.
Fonda appeared on the season premiere of Wiser Than Me, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ new podcast of interviews with old women, and among the many things the 85-year-old actor and activist talked about was men and sex. Yes, she misses it (sex, that is; men, not so much). But getting naked in front of a new lover? That’s a hard no.
“I appreciate my body. I don’t criticize it and hate on it anymore, but I live alone. … I don’t have to show it to anybody. I’m vain enough so that it would be hard for me to get naked in front of [someone]. Not if I lived with somebody for 50 years — which I wish that had been my fate — but, you know, I wouldn’t be able to get undressed in front of a new lover. No. I’ve got too many nicks and, you know, scars and holes and all kinds of things. I mean, I’ve got two fake hips, and a fake knee and a fake shoulder, and even a fake thumb.”
I’ve been a fan of Fonda’s for a long time, but I’ll admit — her words made me sad. I’ll be 67 this year and with luck, I’ll be 85 years old one day, or something close to it, and I sure hope I’ll be…
