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The Name’s Benz… Sally Benz.

frau sally benz

A friend of mine sent me a link saying this is what she wants for her bachelorette party – Stiletto Spy School.

My reaction:
What weirdness is this?? Martini mixing? *intrigued* MacGuyver survival skills? *hmm* Stunt driving?! *whoa* Samurai sword fighting?! *omg*

I quickly checked out the about page to see what was going on with this hodgepodge of skills training. I mean, what does flirtation have to do with knife fighting? It seems these ladies want us to become the next generation of awesome spy girls!

What?! Being a spy girl is, like, my life-long dream! I loved Charlie’s Angels, the Bond girls are beyond awesome and I still wish I could be as cool as Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. I watch movies like Bourne Identity and pretend the guy is me.

I was still skeptical, so I looked through the calendar of events here in NYC to see if this was legit. I mean, such awesomeness cannot be real! Yet, it is! They even have a special mother/aunt/daughter event coming up. Adorable! I could do without the name, though I guess I’m glad they don’t call it Sexy Spy School, but whatevs.

Where do I sign up and who’s coming with me?! Any aspiring spy girls out there?

Posted in Fun

18 thoughts on The Name’s Benz… Sally Benz.

  1. What fun! I’d totally be in if I lived in a reality that included a body that could do such things, but I’ll have to continue to live vicariously through the experiences of other “stiletto sisters.” Go for it and have fun and tell us all about it!

  2. I am intrigued by your theories and wish to subscribe to your newsletter…wait a minute…

    I wish I had the spare cash and a place to sleep in NYC so I could go. Have them set up a Feministe readers package! 😀

  3. This sounds like a fantastic splurge! I’d definitely love to try this one day (especially the pool part – I’m terrible at pool and would love to be just mediocre).

  4. I want to go to there.

    Seriously, that’s a lot of money for me, but it would be worth it to save up and do it with a friend. Or, hell, with my mom. I’d love to see her with a samurai sword. And I don’t really mind “stiletto” – when I saw it, the first place my mind went was a skinny little blade used for stabbing people under cover of darkness.

  5. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for showing me this. This is awesome and I want to do it!

    That I live in Houston and it’s not exactly cheap makes no nevermind. I’ll totally plan my next trip to NYC to coincide with one of these. Woo! This rocks.

  6. I was pretty turned off by most of this thinking it was either campy or silly, but then… EXTREME STUNT DRIVING!? This sounds way too cool to be real.

    Maybe I shouldn’t since I’ve totaled two cars already : (.

  7. But why doesn’t the Mother-Daughter package include Seduction? My mom and I both want to learn how to lure men to their doom!

  9. @Theresa, dunno. I think it’s so effing awesome, but the seduction and salon segments kind of kill my buzz. And why are stilettos the new code for “women” these days? Stilettos are now the adult version of pink: we wouldn’t know how to shop for stuff if they didn’t put stilettos on the cover, apparently. Without them, I’d never read another romance novel again…oh, wait! I don’t now. But I am *still* getting sick of the drumbeat indoctrination of the message that 5 inch, super-slender heels define us as laydeez. I would very much like to be a badass in flat heeled shoes with mussy hair and no direct dependence on men, seduction victims or otherwise. Is is too much to ask that a lady spy school not risk failing the Bechdel test?

  10. Oh, believe me, Samantha, I’m a hairy-armpit 70s type of feminist, and proud of it– and I have some fantasies that aren’t strictly PC, and I have to remind myself not to litmus test my own fantasy life. 😉 This just looks like fun.

  11. It does look like fuckloads of fun, Theresa. Bet it’s not cheap, but I bet it’s worth it.

  12. Stilettos are the narrow stabby knives that shoes ended up getting named after, not the other way around. I guess it’s probably still gendered by its subtext, since it’s a weapon commonly associated with women in fiction (though not historically) but in a less sexualized way. (Lately, when I think of it, I think of Assassin’s Creed II)

  13. but . . . stilettos are secret weapons!
    Pull off shoe and jam heel into the eye of your opponent! Eat that, enemy!

  14. Y’alls defense of using the word stiletto has convinced me that this is, indeed, an awesome name.

    And while I’m bummed about the price tag, gosh darn it, I will save that money and get my spy training!

  15. Oh, my gosh…this sounds like the most fun EVER! Definitely pricey enough to be out of the realm of possibility for a lot of people–myself included–but still fun!

  16. Oh right, the Chemist. That makes the name more fun, fer sure. I’m a cheap sucker for a good double meaning. I didn’t actually see the price tag, but I kinda can imagine.

  17. I can’t FIND the price tag.
    But I want to. I want to learn knife fighting and stunt driving. This would also be an awesome family-esque senior trip to take my sister on.

  18. ScaryJoanne,

    If you click “Las Vegas” or “New York” under “View Upcoming Missions”, the prices are on those pages. The Las Vegas weekends are $3650 and the New York day missions are $250-$395.

    Being a broke Canadian college student has its downsides. :<

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