Jane Fonda has tips for disgraced men who want a return

Image: Stephen Lovekin / Variety / REX / Shutterstock

Do guys like Louis C.K or Charlie Rose deserve a return? Is a sexual predator dishonored? What must happen before such a return is possible?

These issues have been circulating online for some time, although the recent attempt to return the stand of C.K. Now Jane Fonda has some advice to give to all these disgraced men before starting to think.

"The guys are trying to make a comeback and they have not done the work," said Fonda at an event for his upcoming HBO documentary, Jane Fonda in five acts.

"No matter how long [they’ve been gone], "she continued." If they did not do the job, then why should they come back?"

It seems like something so obvious. Fonda points out that time away from the spotlight does not mean much if the weather has not gone well. Guys like C.K., Rose, Aziz Ansari, Matt Lauer discuss the repercussions of their actions; Learning from what has happened and making a commitment to moving forward is an important part of the process.

It is not the Fonda that demands that these men be forever dared. On the contrary, she believes that "we must simply fix them or at least show them the way". But that can not happen, Fonda added, until their problematic behavior and behaviors are recognized and corrected.

"Men are trained not to be empathic, not to be emotional, so it's not easy what they're trying to do," she said. "But they have to try to do it, so it does not matter if it's been two or two years, it just depends on the kind of changes they've experienced."

Here it is. So many points of view that have emerged to defend the right of C.K. to return (or to anyone else) seem to miss this central point: it is about growth, not waiting for things to get out of hand. This is the common sense idea that Fonda focuses on.

His advice for men whose bad behavior has cost them a career? Try something else and use the time spent to learn from the mistakes of the past. Even if it means that you "sweep the floor at Starbucks," she said.

"If you can not learn, you're not in the conference room, and there are a lot of women in the conference room."

[H/t[H/t[h/t[h/tVariety]