Jane Fonda: A Journey
My friends. I have been on a Jane Fonda Journey. It has taken me through the vastest reaches of the internet and the deepest depths of my personal nostalgia, and ended with a cross-country crying-with-laughter shared moment with my mom.
Allow me to explain. I was recently reading an eerily prescient article about Jack Lalane and the "home workout" progression through the years. When Emily Yoffe got to the '80s, she examined the Jane Fonda revolution, and suddenly before me was a video clip that seemed to bring memories rushing back toward me.
When I was a little girl, (according to my memory) my mom did the Jane Fonda workout religiously in our little living room in Mesa. I thought it seemed fun and very often ended up doing the workout with her. It seemed to me like dancing, in your living room, every day to the same song. Which, for some reason, seemed fun. As a result, I ended up unconsciously memorizing the entire workout, down to the intonation in Fonda's voice as she pressed her audience on to get into the home stretch, as they went on to "buttock tucks."
This video brought all that rushing back to me.
I recognized with startling familiarity the opening sequence, and every single outfit. "Are you ready to do the workout?" Fonda asks her followers. "Yes," I thought involuntarily. Then she and all of her exercise cohorts excitedly bound to the front of the room, so totally psyched to work out!
However, the initial familiarity wore off, and I noticed that the sequence of events that I thought I knew so well was not happening here. For example, whatever is happening at 3:55 in on that video is something I cannot imagine me doing as a 6-year-old alongside my mom in our living room. But I had had a taste of nostalgia, and it set me off running. I Googled "Jane Fonda," "Jane Fonda Workout," "Jane Fonda '80s video", even "Jane Fonda Buttock Tucks." Let me tell you, that is a road you don't want to go down.
But lo! After what seemed like a lot of searching and way too many '80s outfits to visually pilfer, I found this, which seemed like an 8 on the nostalgia scale:
Wow. Now, all I'm asking you to do right now is watch through the beginning neck and shoulder stretches. What. Are. They. Thinking. In full blown-out hair and caked on, glossed-up makeup, these ladies (and gentlemen!) are Serious About Fitness. There's one lady who wears a shirt that simply declares, "WORKOUTS." One of girls looks over to another one like she's about to put the moves on her. And need I even mention the leopard print girl?? Why, God, why? (She and her wide array of visors pop up in all of Fonda's videos, by the way.) But it still wasn't quite totally right.
Then, through the magic of Youtube and its Related Videos option, I found.......... this.
It would behoove you to watch the whole damn thing.
YES, this was the nostalgia I was groping for, groping in the dark, not knowing it would stab me right in the chest with its high belts, pop music and eye shadow! I remembered every single word. Even the words to the song that this chick sings WHILE SHE IS WORKING OUT!
Where do I start? I'm just gonna throw it all out there. Jane Fonda encourages us to sing along. What, sing along to this girl lip synching? 'Kay. Also, pink with pink stripes girl! Also, all of the outfits matching leotards to socks. I am pretty sure this is where 50% of my fashion sense comes from (now I know why I assume my socks have to match my outfits). I also am pretty sure that I'm the 2011 equivalent of the redhead wearing hot pink and black in the back. She looks pretty pleased with herself. Also, did you see Visor Girl? Exactly what is she always shading herself from? And she really uses her shoulders. Also, DUDE WITH THE NAVEL HAIR.
Also, why is everyone whooping and hollering the whole time? Also, these people get darn sweaty here. Perhaps they should think about, oh I don't know, tying their hair back like normal people? Also, I only wish I had ten people in my living room to run around in circles with and high-five as we work out. Not sure how my mom ran around in circles with approximately 4 feet to work with. ALSO. Is one of these chicks wearing a sleeveless mock turtleneck? And that's when I sent it to my mom. And 2.5 minutes later, she called me in hysterics, also in the throes of nostalgia, probably a very different brand than my own. But we laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. And I realized that most of the moves I do in Pilates classes now are the exact same as I was doing with Mom in 1986 in Mesa. No wonder I'm so flexible.
Thanks Youtube.
love,
*jenna*
Allow me to explain. I was recently reading an eerily prescient article about Jack Lalane and the "home workout" progression through the years. When Emily Yoffe got to the '80s, she examined the Jane Fonda revolution, and suddenly before me was a video clip that seemed to bring memories rushing back toward me.
When I was a little girl, (according to my memory) my mom did the Jane Fonda workout religiously in our little living room in Mesa. I thought it seemed fun and very often ended up doing the workout with her. It seemed to me like dancing, in your living room, every day to the same song. Which, for some reason, seemed fun. As a result, I ended up unconsciously memorizing the entire workout, down to the intonation in Fonda's voice as she pressed her audience on to get into the home stretch, as they went on to "buttock tucks."
This video brought all that rushing back to me.
I recognized with startling familiarity the opening sequence, and every single outfit. "Are you ready to do the workout?" Fonda asks her followers. "Yes," I thought involuntarily. Then she and all of her exercise cohorts excitedly bound to the front of the room, so totally psyched to work out!
However, the initial familiarity wore off, and I noticed that the sequence of events that I thought I knew so well was not happening here. For example, whatever is happening at 3:55 in on that video is something I cannot imagine me doing as a 6-year-old alongside my mom in our living room. But I had had a taste of nostalgia, and it set me off running. I Googled "Jane Fonda," "Jane Fonda Workout," "Jane Fonda '80s video", even "Jane Fonda Buttock Tucks." Let me tell you, that is a road you don't want to go down.
But lo! After what seemed like a lot of searching and way too many '80s outfits to visually pilfer, I found this, which seemed like an 8 on the nostalgia scale:
Wow. Now, all I'm asking you to do right now is watch through the beginning neck and shoulder stretches. What. Are. They. Thinking. In full blown-out hair and caked on, glossed-up makeup, these ladies (and gentlemen!) are Serious About Fitness. There's one lady who wears a shirt that simply declares, "WORKOUTS." One of girls looks over to another one like she's about to put the moves on her. And need I even mention the leopard print girl?? Why, God, why? (She and her wide array of visors pop up in all of Fonda's videos, by the way.) But it still wasn't quite totally right.
Then, through the magic of Youtube and its Related Videos option, I found.......... this.
It would behoove you to watch the whole damn thing.
YES, this was the nostalgia I was groping for, groping in the dark, not knowing it would stab me right in the chest with its high belts, pop music and eye shadow! I remembered every single word. Even the words to the song that this chick sings WHILE SHE IS WORKING OUT!
Where do I start? I'm just gonna throw it all out there. Jane Fonda encourages us to sing along. What, sing along to this girl lip synching? 'Kay. Also, pink with pink stripes girl! Also, all of the outfits matching leotards to socks. I am pretty sure this is where 50% of my fashion sense comes from (now I know why I assume my socks have to match my outfits). I also am pretty sure that I'm the 2011 equivalent of the redhead wearing hot pink and black in the back. She looks pretty pleased with herself. Also, did you see Visor Girl? Exactly what is she always shading herself from? And she really uses her shoulders. Also, DUDE WITH THE NAVEL HAIR.
Also, why is everyone whooping and hollering the whole time? Also, these people get darn sweaty here. Perhaps they should think about, oh I don't know, tying their hair back like normal people? Also, I only wish I had ten people in my living room to run around in circles with and high-five as we work out. Not sure how my mom ran around in circles with approximately 4 feet to work with. ALSO. Is one of these chicks wearing a sleeveless mock turtleneck? And that's when I sent it to my mom. And 2.5 minutes later, she called me in hysterics, also in the throes of nostalgia, probably a very different brand than my own. But we laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. And I realized that most of the moves I do in Pilates classes now are the exact same as I was doing with Mom in 1986 in Mesa. No wonder I'm so flexible.
Thanks Youtube.
love,
*jenna*
posted by jenna at 9:40 PM
1 Comments:
Still laughing.
As I said, Jane was over 40 when she made that. As far as I'm concerned, Ms. Fonda still rocks!
BTW - silly, the visor serves to keep one's hair out of one's eyes.
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