Gen Z are deluded if they think they can reclaim ‘bimbo’ as a compliment

“Is Being Called A Bimbo Now A Compliment?” a piece in Vogue online asked on Sunday. It took me less than a nanosecond to go with “no.. Not in any shape or form. Not from any vantage point. Not even if the question is ‘glib’ and your interpretation of the term ‘ironic’. There is no universe in which “an attractive but unintelligent or frivolous young woman” can be seen as A Good Thing.

Vogue begs to differ. According to the Style Bible “a new pop culture hero has emerged” and the once derogatory label “is being reclaimed by a new generation as an act of self-love and new wave feminism”. It goes without saying that this is all thanks to social media – invariably the most fertile environment for cretinous ideas and noxious role models – and a landscape in which “bimbocore” now looms large.

Young women are tagging their photos and videos #bimbofication and #bimbotok – one popular TikTok caption being “no one can out bimbo me, I’m literally brain dead” – fashion sites are “awash with bubblegum-pink minis and Barbie merch”, and tutorials will teach those outdated enough to believe that substance and intellect might serve you well in life to recast themselves as “carefree bimbos”.  

So when Vogue drafts in the likes of Dr Harriet Fletcher, a researcher specialising in gender and celebrity culture at Lancaster University, to assure us that “the bimbo aesthetic is being reclaimed and weaponised – and there is power in reclaiming words that have historically been used to dehumanise and belittle people” and when bimbofication is touted to a generation of young women as a cultural shift away “from the misogyny of a decade that fed us movies like Legally Blonde and The House Bunny” and “poked fun at Paris Hilton, Britney Spears” et al, this is only doing women a massive disservice – and playing into the enemy’s hands.

To be clear, the enemy is men. Which is tiresome in itself. Six whole years ago model Emily Ratajkowski posted a picture of herself and Kim Kardashian topless and raising their middle fingers, captioned: “We are more than just our bodies, #liberated.” Well #whatutterbilge. Unsurprisingly, this backfired. Far from being empowering, it delighted all the objectifying men the world over. And when, that same year, my husband was bombarded by pictures of angry lingerie-clad women after questioning whether wearing a bra on the red carpet à la Susan Sarandon was appropriate, there was only one clear winner: the man grinning from ear to ear as he scrolled.  

Irony doesn’t work if it benefits the opposition. Which is why I find women using the c-word as offensive as men. It’s why I don’t believe the n-word is OK in anyone’s mouth. All ‘reclaiming’ does is keep a loathsome word or term in usage and give it currency.  

Does a woman have the right to be whatever she wants? Absolutely. Just last month 28-year-old Dolly from Bath was interviewed by a tabloid after splashing out £10,000 on surgery to make herself look like a bimbo. Having grown up idolising Barbies and Marilyn Monroe, the entrepreneur said she hoped “my choice to become who I want to be can be celebrated as just that – my choice… in a society where our ancestors fought for us to have the right to vote and paved the way for women to be able to be whoever they choose”.

Fill your boots, Dolly, along with your lips and your double F-cup breasts. We should all accept your choices, of course, but “celebrate” them? That seems too big an ask.

As the mother of a 10-year-old girl, for a decade I’ve been fighting against the implicit cultural narrative that looks are more important than accomplishments. And when Love Island is one of the most popular shows on TV and revelations that Kim Kardashian lost 16lbs (in three weeks) and spent 10 hours dyeing her hair for the MET Gala are greeted with awe – put the work in and you shall reap the rewards! – it is a daily struggle. So the last thing anyone raising daughters needs is for such a narrative to become explicit.

That ship has sailed, however. Vogue is right to point out that the “bimbo movement” is already in full swing. Just ask 19-year-old Canadian Fiona Fairbairn, host of the The Bimbo Manifesto podcast. Her “Rules for Bimbofication” racked up more than 688,000 views on TikTok and include: “Stop fact checking”, “Only focus on u and ur looks all the time,” “Stop looking at the news” and “Don’t participate in discourse.”. And to conclude, “Don’t ask what misogyny does to you,” Fiona adds wryly, “ask what it can do for you.” The answer, I’m afraid, is a po-faced “very little.”