#encyclopediaofbadassery

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The hardest part about adding the one Grace Jones is choosing which pic to include - because GJ’s iconic ferocity so permeates her every image. Plenty of strong women have done chic androgyny since, but Grace did it so early, so unapologetically, and so well, she remains the standard by which all others must be measured. 

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Encyclopedia of Badassery- Entry #8903: Acquaint yo’selfs with the Rarámuri people of the Copper Canyons region in NW Mexico - their name translates to ‘The Lightning-Footed People,’ and here’s why: when it comes to running shockingly long distances in shockingly short times, they’re pretty much unbeatable. Anthropologists in the 1800s reported that Rarámuri runners could ‘easily go 170 miles without stopping.’ In 1993, 55yr-old Victoriano Churro won the Leadville 100 ultramarathon in 20:03:33, wearing a pair of sandals he’d made from an old truck tire; the next year, a younger runner from his village did it again, but *his* time was 17:30:42 - shattering the previous course record by 25 MINUTES. Rarámuri runners crushed the Olympic marathon in 1928 and ‘68 - and complained that the race was too short. In 1971, a sports physiologist found that runners’ blood pressure *decreased* during a 5mi run, and that even when banging out consecutive 8min miles, Rarámuri men, women and children have a heart rate of around 130bpm. Subsisting on a high-starch, very low-protein diet, chainsmoking gnarly black tobacco cheroots, and drinking heroic amounts of cactus moonshine and beer (beer is actually the Rarámuri’s primary currency) ‘they defy every known rule of physical conditioning,’ yet speed along for literally hundreds of miles, and show almost no sign of fatigue or cumulative stress when they finish. Along with chronic health issues, crime, child abuse, and domestic violence are also unheard of among the Rarámuri - and they have responded to invasion, colonization, and most attempts to study their culture by retreating further and further into the remote canyon lands they’ve inhabited for centuries. Final fact: the Rarámuri largely disappeared from organized races in the mid-1990s - accounts differ as to why, but it seems that there is a cultural/philosophical disconnect between running as the people do at home vs. running like outsiders do - the Rarámuri had made their point, it seems, and that was that. #encyclopediaofbadassery https://www.instagram.com/p/B06SbJHlmT2/?igshid=149nkwv13h61z

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Encyclopedia of Badassery - Entry #902: Gaze upon the ‘Tear Gun,’ conceived of and built by Taiwanese-born Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Yi-Fei Chen in 2016. The gun collects the user’s tears in a silicone pocket under one eye, then funnels them into a small chamber at the back if the pistol filled with dry ice, where they’re frozen into solid bullets ‘ready to fire into the face of authority.’ Chen says that after years of suppressing emotion and anger to avoid the appearance of rudeness or disrespect - especially to teachers - she realized that ‘politeness became her weakness,’ and that epiphany inspired her creation. The Tear Gun is fully functional; at her graduation, Chen had the opportunity to point and fire it at her department head - and she totally popped him. (He was fine.) #encyclopediaofbadassery https://www.instagram.com/p/B0GV0cYFQzb/?igshid=1nn7j1hhvudqv

[hannahfons]

Words of Wisdom/Encyclopedia of Badassery COMBO - Pride Edition: Today, a tidbit from a Vice interview with the fascinating, possibly-Enlightened American artist and author Chris Rush. (The full article by Luke Goebel appeared on vice.com this past April - def worth a read.) #encyclopediaofbadassery #wordsofwisdom https://www.instagram.com/amazonesque/p/Bynp0x-lyjp/?igshid=leckcpj73teo

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Encyclopedia of Badassery- Pride Edition: Meet Pavitra Nimbhorakar, a leader of the Kinnar Akhada, an order of transgender Hindu ascetics formed in 2015. She’s in charge of KA’s 2,500+ members during the triennial Ardh Kumbh Mela, India’s biggest spiritual festival...and the largest gathering of human beings on the planet. According to Pavitra, kinnars (trans people) ‘are demigods in the Hindu religious texts, and have been granted the power to bless by Lord Ram.’ And bless they did: on *every one* of the 49 days of the Kumbh this past winter, *20,000 to 30,000* pilgrims sought out Kinnar Akhada members for advice and spiritual guidance. Thousands came from all over India just to meet Pavitra herself - calling her Mataji (mother) or Maharajji (guru), and seeking just to hug her or touch her hands, thus gaining the blessing of a living saint. It’s not all love and light for India’s transfolk - a 2018 human rights report estimated that *92%* of trans femmes in India are forced to beg or engage in survival sex work, thanks to being shut out of other livelihoods - but the Indian Supreme Court *did* officially recognize a third gender in 2014, and as Pavitra herself put it in a recent @natgeo interview, ‘I certainly must have done something good in my past life to have seen this day.’ (Pic credit: Ismail Ferdous) #encyclopediaofbadassery https://www.instagram.com/amazonesque/p/BykrbEOFJGJ/?igshid=tu5zlq72kkf2

[hannahfons]

Encyclopedia of Badassery- Pride Edition: Swoon in the presence of Julie ‘La Maupin’ D’Aubigny of France, circa 1693. The feisty bisexual daughter of Louis XIV’s Grand Squire, Jules grew up riding horses and hanging with stable-guys; as a teen she ran off with her fencing instructor/lover, and the two would perform live dueling demos at fairs and taverns. At one show, a heckler yelled that Julie was too skilled to be female - at which point she stripped off her shirt and continued fighting topless. It gets better; Jules also had a celebrated career as a star of the Paris Opera - not only did she have a gorgeous contralto, but her near-photographic memory enabled her to learn entire operas in a single reading. She was notorious for going to balls - often dressed as a man - and seducing the wives of Parisian elites. No fewer than *10* salty menfolk challenged Jules to duel for insulting their honor - and she killed every one of ‘em. But wait, there’s moar; Jules once posed as a postulant in order to sneak into a convent and jailbreak the nun she was sleeping with - she then *stole the body* of a recently-deceased sister, put it in her girlfriend’s bed as a decoy, and set fire to the room to cover their escape. So. Rich, queer, swashbuckling lady with a voice like honey, a mind like a steel trap, and absolutely zero fcks to spare? I’d call that textbook Badassery. #encyclopediaofbadassery https://www.instagram.com/amazonesque/p/ByaTWFFFP3P/?igshid=pxd4n2arreus

[hannahfons]

Encyclopedia of Badassery - Pride Edition: Gaze upon Oxumaré, Afro-Brazilian Orixá of the rainbow and serpent, symbol of rebirth, movement, dynamism and wealth, and the androgynous, gender-switching interlocutor between humans and the unknowable divine. Their name differs between places/traditions (they’re Òsùmàrè in Nigeria, for example, and Ochumaré in some Latinx countries), but it’s generally agreed that they change sexes at will, and/or live half the year as female and half as male, acting as the bridge between heaven and earth, the holy and the mundane. Oxumarè’s colors are either green and yellow, or the whole rainbow, and their day of worship and work is Sunday. Sources differ regarding their preferred offerings; some say honey, milk and perfume...others claim that Oxumarè accepts only pure, clear water. 🐍🌈✨ #encyclopediaofbadassery https://www.instagram.com/amazonesque/p/ByX3ze2lMjX/?igshid=5d4wk8c3awl8

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Encyclopedia of Badassery- Entry #578: Meet Sekhmet, the Red Lady, ancient Egyptian goddess of the sun, war, destruction, plague, and - perhaps surprisingly - healing. She is one of the oldest of the Egyptian pantheon, likely imported down the Nile from Sudan before pharaohs were even A Thing. Sekhmet’s name (of which she has many) means ‘She Who is Powerful,’ and she’s usually depicted as a fearsome lion-headed woman dressed in crimson and crowned with a cobra and golden solar disc. She was closely associated with Hathor, goddess of love and motherhood, and so was sometimes referred to both as The Lady of Terror *and* The Lady of Life. She’s the bringer of pestilence to those who offend her, but she’s also the patron of physicians, surgeons, and healers. She’s The Gracious One, The Lady of Tombs, and The Destroyer of Rebellions - the one pharaoh called upon when he simply *had* to kill every motherf*cker from Saqqara to Abu Simbel - and she is truly among the baddest of asses.🔥🦁🔥#encyclopediaofbadassery https://www.instagram.com/p/ByDNkqhDyj6/?igshid=1ot0ziwiyq4sy