Bimbo

2025-09-17T03:40:19Z

2607:FEA8:2364:4100:503D:7B7D:F341:1204: That is the best way to describe it!

{{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]] has often been characterized as a "bimbo".{{cn|date=August 2025}}]]
'''''Bimbo''''' is slang for a conventionally [[physical attractiveness|attractive]], [[sexualized]] 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 excessive 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 language|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-[[Grammatical gender|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 (1930s singer)|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 (songwriter)|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 [[wikt:crook#Noun|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 (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]], a [[backformation]] of bimbo, 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">[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h63sQ6Ankgg&list=LL4HpQUj0nPY5cpSkOdelPAg&index=45 ‘’This Morning, ITV’]</ref> "the woman most responsible for popularizing the idea of reclaiming hyper-femininity"<ref name="Mel Magazine">[https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-queen-of-the-bimbos-isnt-nearly-as-dumb-as-you-probably-think ''Mel Magazine’]</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 [[Reappropriation|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>

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 sexual misconduct allegations|Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct allegations]], leading to the invention of the term "[[wiktionary:bimbo eruption|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 (American TV series)|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_Courts_of_Appeal#First_District|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>

==See also==
*[[Himbo]]
*[[It girl]]
*[[Sex and intelligence]]
*[[Stereotypes of blondes]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}

[[Category:Female stock characters]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for women]]
[[Category:Slang terms for women]]
[[Category:Stereotypes of women]]

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Bimbo