Mindy Budgor, a privileged California girl who was bored with her healthcare job, decided to go on an African safari. Upon arriving in Kenya ahe found herself entranced with the “strong, African men,” and desired to be like them. When she asked how many women were warriors, the men said there were none, because women were too weak and not brave enough. Being a modern American woman, Mindy took exception to this, and declared that she would become a warrior. According to Mindy, she instantly became a heroine to all the poor Maasai women, who were suffering under the oppression of not being allowed to become warriors.
Somehow, she convinced the men to let her try to become a warrior, and they finally gave in and said they’d come up with some initiation ceremonies for her (I wonder what pranks they came up with).
As far as I can tell, her trials included making a bed for the men, killing a baby goat and carrying a spear. Evidently, she was allowed to take her nail polish into the bush.
I’d chalk this up to delusion on Ms. Budgor’s part, but apparently she had a plan all along: selling underwear. From Warrior Princess, her book on the experience (p. 54):
“The company is Under Armour – an athletic apparel company – and I’m going to be part of an initiative to increase sales of women’s apparel.”
“And explain why the Maasai are involved,” my dad prodded.
“Because we’re working on a female empowerment initiative with the tribe that we believe will have broad-range appeal to women.”
So it’s all a big fraud after all. Such a terrible disappointment… Here I was thinking the Maasai had finally left the old ways behind and taken up the rainbow flag.
It would be good for a laugh, but, in a demonstration of how elites prop each other up, the BBC went as far as to promote the girl in this scam. Shameful.
In other news, Omar Hammami, AKA Abu the American, a half-American man who grew up in Alabama and went to Somalia on jihad (he said that his childhood in Alabama, largely spent outdoors hunting, trained him well for war), was reportedly killed in a battle with Al-Shabaab a couple days ago. I wonder, since Mindy Budgor calls herself a “warrior,” why she doesn’t go seek out the glory of the battlefield like Hammami. It isn’t as though there’s any shortage of opportunities for warfare in Africa, after all.
