Jane Fonda, referencing The Vagina Monologues (which I have watched in the past on Cable TV and enjoyed  very much), went and said the word “c*nt” on the live Today Show yesterday.

That word is used in a portion of The Vagina Monologues dramatic production, so it isn’t as if she was using the word out of context.

The news show has no tape delay so - gasp! - the word went out over national air waves without edit.

Everybody from one coast to the other is up in arms over the fact that she uttered the C-word.  Meredith Viera later apologized on behalf of Fonda and the show.

Fonda herself has not offered a public apology.

Omigod, let’s hang her from the nearest yard arm for being so crass! Or maybe we should instead put her comment into proper perspective (as it was intended) and contemplate how explicit TV in general has become, both verbally and visually.

How many times each day do we hear the words “bitch”, “slut”, “goddamn”, “bastard”, “asshole”, and even sometimes the F-word from such stations as TBS, FX and others on standardized basic cable channels when it may or may not be appropriate in terms of the shows we are watching?

How often so we see graphic depictions of simulated sex on these channels?  Or an inordinate amount of violence that could be considered unacceptable for public consumption?

Now we have Jane Fonda simply responding during a live interview to a question and she utters the C-word in a matter-of-fact way to explain why she didn’t take the role she was offered titled with that word.

What’s the problem? She answered, I feel, appropriately. That is the title of the section of Monologues that she was asked to participate in.

All I can say is, what hypocrites we are. We let other actors on the tube spout profanity or participate in graphic sex or violence, but it’s obviously not okay when an actress being interviewed expresses a word to describe a legitimate part of a theatrical production.

How messed up is that?