- "Bimbo" is also the name of a cartoon dog created by Fleischer Studios, the boyfriend of Betty Boop.
A bimbo is a term that emerged in the English language in the late 20th century as a popular term for a stupid and pliable woman. As it derives from Italian language words of male gender, it first emerged into English referring to stupid men; though it now is understood to connote a woman unless one says "male bimbo" (sometimes contracted to "mimbo", or "himbo"), some prefer the explicitly female variant bimbette, which has also entered the American Heritage Dictionary. Others distinguish between the words to use "bimbette" to mean a woman either younger or stupider than a "bimbo". The word "bimbo" is sometimes interpreted as the backronym "body impressive, brain optional".
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 elements of 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 is the dumb blonde.
The sacrifice of a woman's intelligence in the furtherance of her own or another's lust is an element of some erotica, especially that of the mind control fetish genre. Stories tell of an intelligent woman becoming a bimbo or bimbette by various realistic or unrealistic means, a process known by the coinages "bimbification" or "bimboization". The former website bimboslutz.com was dedicated to stories of this type.
Of course there is far more amusement in an intelligent woman's willing behavior as if she were stupid, whether in the course of sexual roleplay or in mainstream comedy, than in the behavior of a woman who is really intellectually limited. Humor deriving from women's stupidity has been quite logically accused of sexism. However, it has been a longstanding staple and appears unlikely to go away.
Usage in fictional media
The term "bimbette" is used in Beauty and the Beast (1991 movie) to describe three women that have the hots for local hunter and bodybuilder Gaston. They appear to be identical triplets (green, red and blue sexy French dresses, blonde hair, etc.) and have the same voice actress (Kath Soucie) providing all three girls' voices.