They say life begins at 40, but for the women in this article we might want to bump it up a few decades. Pissed off with feeling left behind, these ten grandmothers are taking it to the streets with acts of epic badassdom. Why don't you call your grandma and tell her you love her, then ask her to toughen up and make you proud.
Ekaterina Bilvik
The military situation in the Ukraine right now is a tough one, with Russian troops working to splinter the populace into secession. One Ukranian who isn't having any of it is Ekaterina Bilvik, a 68-year-old grandmother who signed up for the military and recently made it through basic training with flying colors. Bilvik was inspired by memories of Nazi and Soviet occupation to take up arms against Putin's forces, and her determination and combat skills impressed her fellow trainees, who gave her the nickname "The Punisher."
Wang Xiaoya
Respect for the elderly is a key tenet of Chinese culture, so it's not surprising that their grandmas are exceptional. One of the most badass that we've ever heard of is the mighty Wang Xiaoya, who has jaw muscles that would put a strongman to shame. The 73-year-old woman shows off her strength by hooking a special bite harness to trucks full of people and dragging them around. In 2007, she beat her previous record by hauling two trucks weighing in at a staggering total of five tons.
Kay Kise
Grandmas work their whole life to get by, so they don't take it well when snot-nosed punks try to steal from them. Indianapolis woman Kay Kise was parking in her neighborhood when a trio of gun-toting crooks held her up and demanded her car keys. She stared the little brat in the face and refused, slapping his pistol away. The criminals attacked, but she refused to give up the keys, and neighbors shouting eventually scared them away. I don't think I'd be able to keep my cool or my keys with a pistol in my face, but I'm not a grandmother.
Becky Powell
One of the most important things the older generation can pass down to us is a sense of justice. Evil flourishes when good people do nothing, so when Pasco, Washington grandmother Becky Powell saw police chasing a suspect toward her, she swung into action. Powell leapt out of her moving car, hunkered down in a football stance and dared the perp to get past her. He tried, and she took him down to the sidewalk and held him there until the cops could catch up. While she had him down, she took the opportunity to tease the poor chump on being taken down by a grandmother of 5.
La Catrina
The masked lucha libre wrestlers of Mexico are shrouded in secret, with their real identities kept closely guarded. One of the most badass distaff grapplers in town is La Catrina, a terror in the ring who also happens to be a grandmother of seven. Catrina wanted to learn wrestling to defend herself against her abusive husband, and made her professional debut in 1983. Over three decades later, she's still mixing it up in the ring, and her scummy hubby is long gone.
Aishat Maksudova
Surviving in the frigid cold of Russia makes you tough, but this is ridiculous. In rural Dagestan, 58-year-old grandmother Aishat Maksudova was out herding sheep when she heard a calf cry out in pain. Running to the source of the sound, she discovered a vicious wolf attacking the animal. Maksudova charged the beast and it jumped on her. Her first instinct? Ball up a fist and try to punch it in the throat. When that didn't work, the badass granny picked up an axe and started hammering the wolf in the skull until it died.
Willie Murphy
Bro, do you even lift? A day in the gym with Willie Murphy will have you questioning your commitment to fitness. The 77-year-old woman is a petite figure, weighing in at just 105 pounds, but she can deadlift over twice that much and won the 2014 Lifter of the Year Award from the World Natural Powerlifting Federation. Murphy started her fitness crusade doing track and field at 50, and wanted to powerlift to give herself "a little edge in life." Obviously it worked, because she's frighteningly ripped.
Emma Gatewood
You don't have to put your life in imminent danger to be a truly badass grandma. Emma Gatewood earns the title by taking Mother Nature down a few notches. "Grandma Gatewood" was an Ohio farmer's wife who set multiple outdoors records. She was the first woman to hike all 2,168 miles of the Appalachian Trail solo, doing it in a pair of Keds at the age of 67 and eating nothing but dried beef, nuts and whatever she could forage along the way. She did it again at the age of 75, just for the hell of it.
Paddy Trumbull
Here's another tale of a tough as nails grandma triumphing over an apex predator. When Paddy Trumbull went swimming off of North Queensland in 2010, she didn't expect a reef shark to clamp onto her leg. While a normal person would just go into shock in this circumstance, Trumbull wasn't having any of the fish's nonsense. She cocked her fist and started punching the beast in its face over and over until she scrambled its brains enough to let her go. A resort manager got her in a boat and made a makeshift bandage to stop the blood loss long enough to get her airlifted to a nearby hospital.
Mary Finch
Let's close this out with a badass GREAT-grandmother, just to show you that toughness keeps going long after menopause. When Birmingham, Alabama woman Mary Finch heard strange noises in her home, she got up from bed to be confronted by a teenager brandishing a gun at her and demanding money. Unwilling to let some snotnosed crook rip her off, Finch grabbed a hammer off of an end table and went to town on the wanna-be robber, saying ''If you're going to shoot, you better shoot, because I'm going to get you." He made a move, so she smashed his hand with the hammer and fled the scene. Finch's only regret? That she didn't nail him in the head.