Bimbo
Bimbo is a term that emerged in popular English language usage in the late 20th Century to describe an often attractive, yet stupid, pliable woman. This term began as early as 1919.[1] For instance, in the silent film, Desert Nights, it describes a cheap female crook as a bimbo. This word derives from the Italian bimbo, a word of masculine gender that means (male) baby or very young (male) child (its feminine equivalent is bimba). Its first usage in English was for stupid men; it now is understood to mean a woman unless modified as male bimbo, himbo, or mimbo. Some still prefer the explicitly female variant bimbette, which has also entered The American Heritage Dictionary. Others use bimbette for a younger bimbo. The word bimbo is sometimes interpreted as the backronym "Body Impressive, Brain Optional".
A bimbo is not necessarily highly sexually attractive. Being a bimbo is a state of mind, and reflects a person who exaggerates the effort and value put into her physical attractiveness. She is often perceived to be shallowly focusing on her physical appearance and neglecting or even willfully stifling the development of other parts of her personality.
The archetype of a bimbo with sex appeal is much used as a stock character in comedies with sexual humor, an example being Christina Applegate's character, Kelly Bundy, in Married... with Children. Alicia Silverstone's character, Cher Horowitz, in Clueless is more accurately described as a valley girl, a similar archetype with more laughably unusual priorities and behaviors than are strictly derived from the bimbo themes of comical stupidity and sex appeal.
An older comedy archetype of perhaps more direct resemblance to the bimbo is the dumb blonde—for example, the giggling, naïve characters portrayed by such sultry actresses as Marilyn Monroe or, as she appeared on Laugh-In, Goldie Hawn. Humor deriving from blonde women's (or male jocks') stupidity has been accused of sexism.
Himbo
The word "himbo" has been coined to describe a man who, were he a woman, would be a bimbo.[2]
References
- ^ Etymonline.com
- ^ Williams, Rachel. (July 7, 2006). PA News Bling, Himbos in dictionary, but unlikely to use one. (writing, "A himbo is an attractive but vacuous man, the male version of a bimbo" as indicated in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.)