It’s beginning to look a lot like bimbos
Tags: Trends, In The Know, Bimbo, Tiktok App, Pop Culture

Wondering why Juicy Couture sweatpants are back? Thank ✨ Bimbo TikTok ✨, the shiny, bejeweled corner of the internet devoted to the cult of the bimbo. Think platinum blonde pigtails, long lashes, gold hoops and push-up bras.

Ironically, bimbo was first used in the American context in 1919 to describe “an unintelligent or brutish man.” Ring a bell? Eventually, though, it morphed into the dumb blonde stereotype, personified by Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot, redefined by Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde, and more recently embraced in real life by the likes of Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.

At first glance, the New Age bimbo seems to take her cues from the same misogynistic culture that objectifies women and promotes hyperfeminine beauty standards.

But proud bimbo Chrissy Chlapecka claims otherwise. Bimbo isn’t just an aesthetic, says she, but a state of mind. A household name on BimboTok, Chrissy is a “radical leftist who is pro-sex work, pro-BLM, pro-LGBTQ, pro-choice and will always be there for her girls, gays and theys.”

Her inclusive community of bimbos, himbos and thembos fights the male gaze and stands up against bimbo-bashing. The message: Smart and sexy aren’t mutually exclusive. Everyone is welcome to be a bimbo. If you like to look good while doing good, you’re invited.

The plain fact is, bimbo-bashing culture is more pervasive than we think. In dating company Match’s new ad created by Ryan Reynolds’ content studio Maximum Effort, Satan is looking for the perfect match and finds one personified in the year 2020. Apparently the most insulting way to characterize a hellish year is a 20-year old blonde woman from Florida who is “politically passionate about being close-minded.”

Feminists throughout history have protested bimbo-bashing. Take Gloria Steinem, who once went undercover as a Playboy Bunny waitress to discover and expose Playboy Club’s exploitative culture. But the current movement feels new. If the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s made us aware that women share the same sexual desires as men, today’s bimbo-led movement is about owning your sexuality no matter who you are.

In 2020 there was no greater celebration of sex positivity than Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP, a standout hit that racked up 93 million streams within a week. That’s the largest in Billboard’s history! WAP was two women’s unapologetic ode to pleasure-seeking that right-wing gasbag Ben Shapiro called vulgar (“This is what feminists fought for?”) and Snoop Dogg found too explicit, proving that you don’t have to be blonde to be bashed. At least Cardi B’s husband Offset gets it: “We should uplift our women and not say what they can or can’t do.”

No wonder new-age bimbos find a role model in Cardi B, who first shot to fame with her 2017 hit Bodak Yellow. The song’s as much about female empowerment as it was about reconciling her past as a stripper with her breakout star status.

These expensive, these is red bottoms, these is bloody shoes

Hit the store, I can get ’em both, I don’t wanna choose

Just like the red-bottomed Louboutins Cardi can buy indiscriminately, you don’t have to choose between this or that. In the pandemic economy your Substack newsletter can be your main writer gig and your OnlyFans account your sex work side hustle.

Gen Z gave the dumb blonde a makeover so that what was once an insult is now a badge of pride. Even Millie Bobby Brown — famous for playing the boyish, one-outfit-owning Eleven in Stranger Things — has fully adopted the bimbette look and these days regularly styles herself as a life-sized Barbie on Instagram.

Our cultural celebration of the bimbo has reached new heights with Dolly Parton — come into her own as one of the most creative, confident, empowered female figures in pop culture today. Hello, million-dollar vaccine research funding. Indeed, there’s plenty more to Backwoods Barbie than rhinestones and boob jokes, as Dolly has demonstrated over a 50-year legacy that wins her respect from fans across generations.

Bimbo TikTok feels like a plebeian response to intellectual elites and their snobbish attitudes towards anyone who doesn’t share their same level of intellect. Even the President-elect’s wife can’t catch a break. In a now famous Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Dr. Jill Biden was told to drop Dr. from her name despite having earned a doctorate degree. Aside from the fact The Journal wasted real dollars on that rubbish take, here’s someone who is decidedly not a dumb blonde still getting bashed for not being smart enough.

Is bimbo-bashing the real issue here, or is it our obsession with scholarly achievements being the only real measure of intelligence?

There is power in being a bimbo, which TikTok’s self-proclaimed bimbo historian @fauxrich calls “not a protest against intelligence, it’s kind of a protest against academia and how elitist and classist it is.”

The New Age self-aware bimbo of 2020 is nobody’s fool, because she challenges our culture’s idea of what it means to be smart. In a recent podcast, Chrissy points out that she may not be the most book-smart person in the room but she is the most emotionally intelligent, and that should count for something.

For too long men in positions of power have dictated narrow standards and definitions of intellect and sexuality. So now it’s up to all of us to question and rework systems at play that oppress or exclude those who don’t fit the mold.

In Dr. Biden’s words: “Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.”

It’s high time to reclaim the bimbo as a badass, not a dumbass. Unlearn and unintellectualize. Be foolhardy. Talk in cliches. Ask questions with a childlike curiosity. Step into your feminine power. Take down the patriarchy in six-inch heels. And if anybody tries to put you down for showing off your smarts or your sexiness, join Chrissy and co. In bimboland, you don’t have to choose.