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Five things we learned about Brittney Griner from her “Elle” profile

Elle magazine profiled basketball superstar Brittney Griner and while we all knew that she was badass, and super hot, here are five things we learned from the piece.

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1. She shares a stylist with Ellen.

Griner’s style involves lots of menswear. Heck, Nike hired her to be the made her the first woman to promote its menswear line. She knows how to rock a suit. She looks killer in a bowtie, and apparently she has enlisted some knowledgeable help making sure each look is just right. Kellen Richards, who is Ellen DeGeneres‘ stylist also works with Griner to be sure that the baller always looks her best. Richards notes, “With Ellen, we choose women’s clothes and add menswear touches…”With Brittney, it’s all men’s. And it’s edgier.”

2. You won’t see Griner in a dress.

According to the article, the last time Griner wore a dress it “was at her mother’s request, for her high school graduation. Never again.” Griner’s confident enough in her look, and how she makes it work, that she skipped the WNBA rookie session devoted to “makeup application and how to dress.” She told her interviewer, “I don’t need that shit. No, she doesn’t. She did, however, channel her inner Suze Orman when she attended the league’s financial lecture.

3. She’s bigger than Baylor.

While at Baylor, a school that “classifies ‘homosexual acts’ as sexual misconduct and as ‘misuses of God’s gifts’,” she “never hid” the fact that she was gay. The school told her to tone down some of her tweets early in her career. But by the time her senior year arrived Griner decided to stop keeping one foot in the closet. She told her interviewer, “I was just like, ‘Screw ’em, I’m gonna say what I want.’ Like, what were they going to do? Tell me I can’t go to school here no more?” The piece notes, “By that time, after all, Griner was a Baylor Bear icon, well on her way to becoming the most decorated female college-basketball player in history, with NCAA records in blocks and dunks and 3,283 points over four years.” Indeed, what was the school going to do to one of its biggest stars?

4. She loves comics.

Ann Meyers Drysdale, the VP of the Phoenix Mercury, describes Griner “as such a kid.” She’s known to ride her skateboard around town and rode it to the WNBA headquarters ahead of last year’s draft. Her kid-like quality extends to comic books. Before appearing on Conan, she got a tour of DC Comics in L.A. and was told she could help herself to anything in the “toy room.” She chose two large action figures of Harley Quinn. Her only worry was how her girlfriend might react to Harley having a spot of honor on Griner’s table.

5. She’s pushing the limits of society’s notions about gender.

Griner’s appearance has made her a target of bullying both in person and all over the internet. The author of the article spends the last section discussing Griner’s masculine appearance and the possible implications for gender testing in the next Olympics. I found the section by turns interesting and also uncomfortable to read. I would love to know your thoughts on it in the comments. But when the interviewer “[a]sked which of her qualities she considers especially feminine or especially masculine,” she answered “What’s more masculine? I don’t know,” she continues. “I’m just being myself, honestly. I know society puts it, Oh, this is masculine and this is feminine. I don’t put myself in categories.” That’s right, society, you are on notice that Griner doesn’t give a shit about your preconceived notions of what it means to be a woman.

What did you think of the profile?

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