[lbo-talk] Bimbette

info at pulpculture.org info at pulpculture.org
Sat Mar 11 09:19:21 PST 2006


This is interesting, the history of the word, 'bimbo.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimbo

It's interesting b/c 'built like a brick shithouse,' which I heard as a kid and was puzzled by (how could this be a compliment?!) is, likewise, a term first applied to men.

I looked it up b/c I'm doing a more serious review of Ariel Levy's _Female Chauvinist Pigs_, just for my own interest. I'd first read it in a long sitting at a nearby Books-a-million, jotting notes, so I hadn't paid as close attention to the nuances of Levy's language as I might otherwise. Repeatedly, she calls women bimbos if they happen to be strippers and the like or just uses it as a figure of contempt haunting the text. And, interestingly enough, she visually describes women she interviews or observes, noting if they are beautiful, slim, gorgeous, or chunky. She seems rather obsessed by hair color, something I find odd.

While I checked Liza's book out from the library, we were so busy at the time, I could do nothing more than skim. Does Liza feel the need to describe women vividly?

It's interesting, b/c she describes a few men, and she doesn't tell us whether they have a good body, middle-aged paunch, or chestnut hair.

Not that I'm saying Levy's a hypocrite or anything.

Also, one thing I'd missed a few months ago? Levy didn't like her PC colleges and harbors a resentment that, after pitching for Wesleyan to offer a Western classics course, she was icily told, "no."

She brings this up, whining that a feminist prof offered a course on porn but the school wouldn't offer one on classics. I think she's been harboring this insult for years!

"Scream-of-consciousness prose, peppered with sociological observations, political ruminations, and in-yore-face colloquial assaults."

-- Dennis Perrin, redstateson.blogspot.com

Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org



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