Crunches & Couture

Danai Gurira: From Zombie Killer To Superhero’s Bodyguard

Danai Gurira Bustle

Born in Grinnell, Iowa to parents from Zimbabwe, Danai Gurira is an actor, writer, activist and storyteller most famously known for her role as the sword-wielding Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead.

In 2016, signed on to play the role of late rapper Tupac Shakur’s mother, Afeni, a lifelong activist, in All Eyez on Me.

Danai continues to attract roles of women who are the epitome of strength.

More recently, Danai stars as warrior Okoye in the superhero film Black Panther.  Okoye is the leader of Black Panther’s all-female bodyguards.

On her role as Okoye:

“She’s fierce and feminine.”

 

Nigerian Bobsled Team Competed In 2018 Winter Olympics To Break Barriers

Akuoma Omeoga, Seun Adigun and Ngozi Onwumere Seun_Msamazing Instagram

The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang has come and gone.  While the Nigerian bobsled didn’t take home the gold, they took home something worth more.

Seun Adigun, Akuoma Omeoga and Ngozi Onwumere became the first Olympic bobsled team in history to represent an African nation.

Adigun’s, the driver, interest in bobsledding was peaked after watching Simone Biles, Ibtihaj Muhammad and other black athletes break barriers at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.

“I got chills on my skin,” she told HuffPost in December during an event for the team’s partnership with Visa. “I remember how it made me feel seeing them and knowing the molds that were being broken by their perseverance and by their just dominance in whatever sport it was that they were competing in.”

The trio picked up bobsledding skills only 15 months prior to competing.  The team wore homeland outfits, made in Nigeria, for both the opening and closing ceremonies.

Black History: The Markings On Black Panther’s Killmonger Are Called Scarification

Black Panther villain Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) Marvel

In the movie Black Panther, Erik Killmonger’s body is covered in dozens of carefully carved cuts that tally the number of people that he’s murdered.  In real life, the scars that decorate the bodies of Ethiopia’s Bodi, Mursi and Surma tribes are an elaborate part of local culture and signify everything from beauty to adulthood or simply belonging.

Surma girls choose to go through the process voluntarily and must not show pain during the 10-minute ritual.

Surma woman shows off her intricate markings Eric Lafforgue

The patterns are created using thorns and a razor.

Scarification ritual Eric Lafforgue

 

 

Ernestine Shepherd: The 80-year-old Bodybuilder

Ernestine Shepherd

You only get one body.  Ernestine Shepherd treats hers like a temple.

Every single morning Ernestine Shepherd wakes up at 2.30am, embarks upon a 10-mile walk and then heads to the gym at 7.30am where she continues to work out and lead exercise classes until 11.30am.

Ernestine is 80 years old.

The Baltimore native was crowned the world’s oldest competitive female bodybuilder in 2011 by the Guinness book of world records. She has washboard abs, impressive biceps and lives on three to four hours sleep ever night.

Read more about this phenomenal woman here (HT Olivia Blair).

 

Lady Doritos: Turn Down The Sound! Keep Everything Else.

According to PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi “women don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.”

Sis…  Not only do I like to pour the broken little pieces and the flavor into my mouth…I save all of the cheesy goo, that managed to glue itself onto the tips of my fingers, until the end so that I may continue to bask in the royal flavor of greatness.  The only thing I do agree with is not being fond of loud public crunching.  At home?  Go for it.

While I can’t hear the loudness of my crunch, I can of others.  Some people crunch at ignorant levels.  They open their mouths as widely as they can and proceed to annihilate all that enters. I. Am. Not. A. Fan.

So, while Indra may have thrown all women into one pink box, her generalizations of women’s Dorito eating habits are not completely void of all thought.  If companies would make Shared Work Space/Movie/Library/Any Public Setting That Involves Me/Proper Public Etiquette Sound Proof Chips, I’d be all for it.