Jane Fonda's Faux Pas on the Today Show Blown Out of Proportion

It isn't her behavior during the Vietnam War that has actress Jane Fonda in hot water this time, but her discussion of her role in The Vagina Monologues on the Today Show on Thursday morning. People.com reports that the actress let the c-word slip on national television an interview with host Meredith Viera. The site also posts a clip of the faux pas, next to a caption proclaiming that the 70-year old Fonda should "have her mouth washed out with soap."

The reporting of Jane Fonda's latest slip and of "The View" host Meredith Viera's ensuing public apology, is yet another recent example of media sensationalism. To clear up any confusion, Fonda used the offending word only in stating the title of the monologue that she performs in the play. To Fonda's detractors, including Viera, I ask: what else should she have called it? If for instance, an actor were in a foreign film with a vulgar title, and then appeared on the talk show circuit to promote it, would we expect them to never say the name of the movie?

NBC producers are seemingly more at fault here than Fonda herself. Did they not do the research necessary to learn the title of Fonda's monologue before inviting her on the show? Moreover, in offering daytime TV promotion space to a high-profile production such as The Vagina Monologues, producers of the show should be more than fully aware of the inherent controversy that they are inviting. To then shy away from that controversy when it becomes too much for them to handle, does nothing but to prove that those in charge of the show do not understand or care about the message of The Vagina Monologues, and as such, should not be allowed to represent the view of women in the twenty-first century on national television.