Bimbo

{{short description|Slang term}} {{Italic title}} {{other uses|Bimbo (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}

[[File:Paris Hilton Cannes 2016.jpg|thumb|Paris Hilton claims to maintain a "bimbo" image<ref>[https://hypebae.com/2022/10/paris-hilton-dumb-persona-character-defense-mechanism-meghan-markle-archetypes-podcast Paris Hilton Elaborates on How the "Bimbo" Persona She Created Saved Her]</ref>]] '''''Bimbo''''' is slang for a conventionally attractive, sexualized, and dim-witted woman.<ref>{{citation | author=Tom Dalzell | entry=bimbo | title=The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English | publisher=Routledge | year=2009 | page=75 | isbn=978-0-415-37182-7| author-link=Tom Dalzell }}</ref> The term was originally used in the United States as early as 1919 for an unintelligent or brutish man.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oxford dictionary of word origins|others=Cresswell, Julia, 1950-, Oxford University Press.|isbn=978-0199547937|edition= Second|location=New York|oclc=663824301|date = 9 September 2010}}</ref> As of the early 21st century, the "stereotypical bimbo" appearance became akin to that of a physically attractive woman. It is commonly employed to characterize women who are blonde, have curvaceous physiques, wear large amounts of makeup, and dress in revealing attire while being associated with "the dumb blonde" stereotype.<ref name=eh149>''Encyclopedia of Hair'', [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofha0000sher/page/274  pp. 149-151]</ref>

==History== The word bimbo derives from the Italian ''bimbo'',<ref name=Etymonline>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=bimbo&searchmode=none|title=Etymonline|access-date=1 November 2011}}</ref> a masculine-gender term that means "little or baby boy" or "young (male) child" (the feminine form of the Italian word is ''bimba''). Use of this term began in the United States as early as 1919, and was a slang word used to describe an unintelligent<ref name="Oxford English Dictionary, 1919">Oxford English Dictionary, 1919</ref> or brutish<ref name="Slang of 1920s">{{cite web|url=http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm|title=Slang of 1920s|access-date=23 June 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618074534/http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm|archive-date=18 June 2010|df=dmy-all}}</ref> man.

It was not until the 1920s that the term ''bimbo'' began to be associated with women in popular culture. In 1920, Frank Crumit,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/FrankCrumit|title=My Little Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle|first=Frank|last=Crumit|date=20 October 2016|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Billy Jones, and Aileen Stanley all recorded versions of "My Little Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle", with words by Grant Clarke and music by Walter Donaldson. The song uses the term "bimbo" to describe an island girl of questionable virtue. In the 1928 silent film ''The Godless Girl'', an inmate in a girls' reformatory addresses a new arrival as "Bimbo." In ''Desert Nights'' (1929) it is used to describe a wealthy female crook, and in ''The Broadway Melody'' (1929), an angry Bessie Love calls a chorus girl a bimbo. The first use of its female meaning cited in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is dated 1929, from the scholarly journal ''American Speech'', where the definition was given simply as "a woman".

In the 1940s, ''bimbo'' was still being used to refer to both men and women, as in, for example the comic novel ''Full Moon'' by P. G. Wodehouse who wrote of "bimbos who went about the place making passes at innocent girls after discarding their wives like old tubes of toothpaste".<ref>Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, Words We Use: The Meaning of Words And Where They Come From, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, Oct 31, 2006</ref>

The term died out again for much of the 20th century until it became popular again in the 1980s and 1990s, with political sex scandals.<ref>Justin Cord, The Unexpected Evolution of Language: Discover the Surprising Etymology of Everyday Words Hayes Adams Media, Sep 18, 2012</ref> As bimbo began to be used increasingly for females, exclusively male variations of the word began to surface, like mimbo and himbo, which refers to an unintelligent, but attractive, man.<ref name=Etymonline/>

In 2017, "The Bimbo Movement" was founded by self-proclaimed bimbo and adult star Alicia Amira,<ref name="This Morning, ITV">{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h63sQ6Ankgg&list=LL4HpQUj0nPY5cpSkOdelPAg&index=45|title=Alicia Amira on Her Fight to Empower the Bimbo Community | This Morning|date=28 March 2019|via=YouTube}}</ref> "the woman most responsible for popularizing the idea of reclaiming hyper-femininity"<ref name="Mel Magazine">{{Cite web|url=https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-queen-of-the-bimbos-isnt-nearly-as-dumb-as-you-probably-think|title=The Queen of the Bimbos Isn’t Nearly as Dumb as You Probably Think She Is|first=Magdalene|last=Taylor|date=30 December 2018}}</ref> in order to destigmatise women who are bimbos and to reclaim the term "bimbo". The term later re-entered usage by way of some members of Generation Z seeking to further reclaim the pejorative, such as the "BimboTok" community on the social media platform TikTok, where users engaged in stereotypical hyper-femininity to satirise consumerism, capitalism, and misogyny.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|last1=Dickson|first1=E. J.|date=2020-11-23|title=In 2020, the Bimbo Is Back|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/bimbo-reclaim-tiktok-gen-z-1092253/|access-date=2020-11-27|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}}</ref> ''Vice'' contextualized the bimbo movement as a reaction against girlboss feminism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/bimbofication-is-taking-over-what-does-that-mean-for-you/|title=Bimbofication Is Taking Over. What Does That Mean for You?|first=Arielle|last=Richards|date=2 February 2022}}</ref>

The term is sometimes associated with men or women who dye their hair blond, indicating that physical attractiveness is more important to them than other, non-physical traits<ref name="eh149" /> and as an extension to "the dumb blonde" stereotype.<ref name="eh149" />

===Politics=== In American politics, the word was used in the 1990s during Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct allegations, leading to the invention of the term "bimbo eruptions" to refer to political sex scandals.<ref>Grant Barrett, Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang , Oxford University Press, Apr 21, 2006</ref> The expression was also used in a 2014 report<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/colin-powell-bill-clinton-bimbos-email-2016-9|title=Colin Powell wrote in an email that Bill Clinton was 'd---ing bimbos'|access-date=29 November 2016 |date= 14 September 2016|publisher=Business Insider}}</ref> in which Colin Powell explained his reluctance to vote for Hillary Clinton in light of her husband's continued affairs with "bimbos".

After the first 2015 Republican Presidential Debate, Donald Trump re-tweeted a message calling debate moderator and Fox News host Megyn Kelly a "bimbo" via Twitter.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/07/donald-trump-late-night-angry-tweets-megyn-kelly-and-it-is-epic/|title=Donald Trump late-night angry-tweets Megyn Kelly, and it is epic|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> This took place after Kelly asked Trump a question that referenced his television show ''The Apprentice'' from season 6 in 2005. Shortly afterwards, Stephen Richter of ''The Globalist'' published an opinion piece in which he accused Trump of being a bimbo, noting the original definition of bimbo as "an unintelligent or brutish male".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theglobalist.com/donald-trump-outs-himself-as-bimbo/|title=Donald Trump Outs Himself as "Bimbo"|date=4 April 2016}}</ref>

In March 2024, the California First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's decision to deny a woman's request to change her name to Candi Bimbo Doll, marking a notable legal development in American jurisprudence related to 'bimbofication'.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/candi-bimbo-doll-name-change-19032146.php|title=S.F. woman can change her name to Candi Bimbo Doll, court rules|date=14 March 2024|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |last1=Egelko |first1=Bob }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A168463N.PDF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240320103320/https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A168463N.PDF|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 March 2024|title=Appellate Courts Case Information|date=14 March 2024}}</ref>

== Bimbofication ==

Bimbofication refers to the act of transforming into a bimbo. In addition to its usage among women reclaiming the mantle of bimbohood, the term appears in the context of sexual roleplay or fetish, often with anatomically improbable breasts augmented by prosthetics or saline injections.<ref name=OwenLGBTQ>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/03/kristi-noem-devastated-over-reports-of-crossdresser-husbands-bimbofication/|title=Kristi Noem "devastated" over reports of "crossdresser" husband's "bimbofication" fetish|first=Greg|last=Owen}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/kristi-noem-husband-bimbofication-fetish-photos-1235539805/|title=Kristi Noem Responds to Husband's 'Bimbofication' Fetish Photos|first=Nikki McCann|last=Ramirez|date=31 March 2026}}</ref> Occasionally, bimbofication (in either sense) may be achieved through surgical means.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bimbo-visits-botched-help-bimbofication-063928671.html|title='Bimbo' visits 'Botched' for help with 'bimbofication'|date=25 August 2017|website=Yahoo Entertainment}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{wiktionary}}

Category:Female stock characters Category:Pejorative terms for women Category:Slang terms for women Category:Stereotypes of women Category:Slurs related to low intelligence