OK, "bimbo" is a little dated. Still, should Belling be using that term to deride female TV journalists? What's his term du jour for their incompetent male counterparts?When I hear "bimbo," I think of "bimbo eruptions," a term coined by Governor Bill Clinton's chief of staff Betsey Ross Wright:
As deputy chair of the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, Wright established the rapid response system that was responsible for defending Clinton's record in Arkansas and promptly answering all personal attacks on the candidate. During the 1992 campaign, Wright coined the term "bimbo eruptions" to describe rumors alleging extramarital affairs by Clinton.How sexual is the term "bimbo"? Can it just mean idiot or does Belling seem to be insinuating that the reporter is slutty?
By the way, "bimbo" originally referred to a male, as the "o" ending suggests. (It means "baby" in the original Italian.) The oldest English usage is for "A fellow, chap; usu. contemptuous." That goes back to 1919, with the female meaning arriving a decade later: "A woman; esp. a whore." That's from the (unlinkable) OED, which has a draft addition from 2004: "derogatory. A young woman considered to be sexually attractive but of limited intelligence. (Now the usual sense.)" The OED quotes a Woody Allen story from 1976, "The Whore of Mensa":
"I'm on the road a lot. You know how it is - lonely. Oh, not what you're thinking. See, Kaiser, I'm basically an intellectual. Sure, a guy can meet all the bimbos he wants. But the really brainy women - they're not so easy to find on short notice."ADDED: I searched for "bimbo" in Carl Bernstein's book about Hillary "A Woman in Charge," and I found this quote from "one of her aides":
She doesn’t look at her life as a series of crises but rather a series of battles. I think of her viewing herself in more heroic terms, an epic character like in The Iliad, fighting battle after battle. Yes, she succumbs to victimization sometimes, in that when the truth becomes too painful, when she is faced with with the repercussions of her own mistakes or flaws, she falls into victimhood. But that’s a last resort and when she does allow the wallowing it’s only in the warm glow of martyrdom—as a laudable victim—a martyr in the tradition of Joan of Arc, a martyr in the religious sense. She would much rather play the woman warrior—whether it’s against the bimbos, the press, the other party, the other candidate, the right-wing. She’s happiest when she’s fighting, when she has identified the enemy and goes into attack mode…. That’s what she thrives on more than anything—the battle.
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Reporters are idiots. The female ones are bimbos.
Males used as eye candy are ken dolls or something.
Some of my romantic comedy DVD survey members have a female hard-hitting reporter, always good looking.
This is part of the suspension of disbelief that goes into appreciating the story line.
I think that is probably an accurate description of Clinton, but is it the personality type that will work well as the president in these times?
It's not the type of person I want to see in office.
The comments are far better and more informative than the hit piece.
I am always struck by the women at FOXNEWS as compared to the women on the liberal/progressive networks: CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, etc. The ladies on FOX are generally well educated and have spent time in the trenches establishing their bonafides with a law background. The other networks tend toward edgy with a chip on their shoulder pushing the cause. I don't see 'bimbos' or "sweater girls" on the network news anymore or Ron Burgundy types among the men. I do see the difference between intelligent women who you want to listen to and learn from versus the other side of the divide who do little more than play Johnny Carson's Bombastic Bushkin barking their mantra from that day's menu of predictable, ideological outrage.
I find it hilarious that after a story that is completely erroneous is posted, the news made by Dan Bice is a word Mark Belling used to describe the reporter, not the fact that the reporter clearly had no clue what she was even reporting on.
When a story is damaging about a Republican, its about the wrongdoing. When the story is about a Democrat or member of the media, its all about the Republican response.
"bimbo
[bim-boh]
noun, plural bimbos, bimboes. Slang.
1.
a foolish, stupid, or inept person."
So what again is the problem?
I am sure Mark Belling has never misstated a single fact.
This is the pot and the kettle calling each other black, from the original reporter to Belling to Bice and now to Althouse.
They are all a joke, yet all fail to see it,
In it's proper context, that frequently being Australia, "bimbo" is a perfectly cromulent word.
Cunt is a proper word in Australia.
What's his term du jour for their incompetent male counterparts?
Flakes, a**holes, empty suits, garage mahal.
There are plenty of terms for men lacking two simultaneously-firing neurons in their brain.
(1) Its.
(2) The mimbo.
(3) The fucking Iliad?!
The word bimbo should be used for both males and females. It's originally a reference to males, it's a disparaging term, and any seeming reference to females only makes it more effective in disparaging men, so just use bimbo for men.
You're just saying "baby" in Italian.
Maybe it's wrong to sexualize "baby."
Line in one of my favorite plays: "Don't call your wife baby."
Who cares what Mark Belling says or thinks?
"This is the pot and the kettle calling each other black, from the original reporter to Belling to Bice and now to Althouse. They are all a joke, yet all fail to see it."
1. Pot calling the kettle black is a cliché. Try to avoid that.
2. Clichés that gratuitously impugn the color black are especially to be avoided.
3. Referring to others as "a joke" calls attention to a writer's humorlessness. Know your own limitations and write around them.
I am sure Mark Belling has never misstated a single fact.
This is the pot and the kettle calling each other black, from the original reporter to Belling to Bice and now to Althouse.
They are all a joke, yet all fail to see it,
Thing is, that report by WTMJ wasnt just "misstating a fact".
Its one thing to get a detail wrong about a story. Its another to completely mis-represent a story you're paid to cover, which is what this reporter did. WTMJ isnt just some podunk station in the middle of nowhere...its the main media outlet in the state of Wisconsin, both on TV and radio.
Its hilarious how bad journalism has fallen in recent years, what passes now for "news", and how reporters and members of the media handle it when they're wrong or when they're questioned on how they do their jobs.
Marie Harf and Jen Psaki
Himbo?
Calling a person a bimbo, however, as you note, is kinda cliche. Clever writing it is not.
My opinion is that News Readers that go out to interview without learning the subject matter they're asking about aren't going to come across well on the screen and they won't last long in their profession. So this is a self-fixing problem.
Bimbo takes its implications from bimbo eruption.
If you call a guy a bimbo, you're calling him feminine as well as stupid unless you do something to keep the implication from coming up.
He's a physics bimbo for instance might keep it at bay.
I think Himbo comes from Seinfeld but I doubt it's original to that show.
Belling's audience has a collective IQ of under 100, combined. Possibly dumber than Charlie Syke's listeners, if that's even possible.
"Marie Harf and Jen Psaki"
I disagree. Those young women are just hapless.
Most importantly, the use of 'bimbo' for a female includes the unstated male desire to receive a blow-job from said person.
This part will get in the OED soon enough.
So: Marie Harf and Jen Psaki, not bimbos.
Although I bet they'd wear a Che shirt when you had anal sex with them.
I am Laslo.
"Belling's audience has a collective IQ of under 100, combined. Possibly dumber than Charlie Syke's listeners, if that's even possible."
100 is supposedly the average IQ, so you are essentially saying that you regard about half of the population as dumb. Do you think it's politically wise to bandy that opinion about?
(Learn to distinguish facts and opinions -- as your kids are learning to do in the Common Core.)
"Most importantly, the use of 'bimbo' for a female includes the unstated male desire to receive a blow-job from said person."
To clarify: a male desiring a blow-job from a woman does not necessarily mean that the woman is a 'bimbo.'
She can be smart and articulate and still make one desirous of the blow job.
Megyn Kelly might come to mind. For certain men.
I am Laslo.
Our host has won the thread.
So, TV news is entertainment. It's TV, isn't it?
Is it really non-PC to point out that a female with little talent other than the ability to project sexiness has better job prospects than a male who is similarly endowed?
(Yes, I suppose it is. And perhaps there are also males who have slept their way to the top, and male spies who have used sex to obtain secrets, etc., etc. BUT there's just going to be a large, natural disproportionality between the sexes here.)
Do you think it's politically wise to bandy that opinion about?
That Belling's listeners are morons? No.
Watching an attractive young woman emoting as if she understands the political narrative she is reading off a teleprompter is annoying. It seems like attending senate filibusters to watch for style points.
OK, "bimbo" is a little dated. Still, should Belling be using that term to deride female TV journalists? What's his term du jour for their incompetent male counterparts?
Dumbass, idiot, moron, simpleton, jerk, asshole... You get the point. There is a very long list of terms to describe incompetent men, journalists or not.
"She can be smart and articulate and still make one desirous of the blow job."
Of course, she may not be "articulate" during the blow-job, but that derives from G_d having made women to speak from the same hole they give blow-jobs from. A sign of Divine Planning, I say.
I am Laslo.
"What's his term du jour for their incompetent male counterparts?"
"Dan Bice?"
Bimbo's was a great nightclub in San Francisco that featured a naked girl in a fishbowl behind the bar that was done by a series of mirrors. She was actually swimming in a pool in the basement. It is now a private club that does only limited shows but I have spent hours at the bar watching the girl in the fishbowl in my younger days.
Agostino Giuntoli, the original Bimbo, emigrated from Tuscany in 1922. (In Italian, Bimbo is short for bambino, or little boy.) The club is still run by Mr. Giuntoli’s family. Michael Cerchiai, 51, his grandson, remembers when Smokey Robinson played at his 7th-birthday party. He also recalls being mesmerized by Dolphina.
I was too.
Actually a nubile young blonde Weather Girl is supposed to be a Bimbo. That's what makes a weather forecast interesting.
How's about "airhead"?
MLS team Philadelphia Union is sponsored by the bakery Bimbo and has that logo on its uniform. Same with a team in the Mexican first division.
SGT Ted said...
How's about "airhead"?
When describing females, "Airhead" is the Missionary Position version of 'bimbo'.
I am Laslo.
It's also the name of a giant bakery conglomerate.
@tradguy, Julia Fello was not reading from a teleprompter. She was posting on the station's web site. The fault is 100% hers.
The article includes this bit: "In 2013, Belling apologized for using the term "bitch" when referring to Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic."
I don't understand why he needed to apologize. All Democrats are bitches, or sons thereof.
We all know the voters who voted for them are the Stupid Voters, but what do you call those in Congress who passed thousands pages of Obamacare unread to find out what's in it?
"garage mahal said...
Belling's audience has a collective IQ of under 100, combined. Possibly dumber than Charlie Syke's listeners, if that's even possible."
When you are making fun of a group's intelligence it's probably best if you don't write something as stupid as "Belling's audience has a collective IQ of under 100, combined."
I'm not sure what IQ leads to writing "collective IQ combined". But I'm guessing it's a ticket to ride the shortbus.
She would much rather play the woman warrior—whether it’s against the bimbos, the press, the other party, the other candidate, the right-wing. She’s happiest when she’s fighting, when she has identified the enemy and goes into attack mode…. That’s what she thrives on more than anything—the battle.
She's happiest being a drama queen, picking fights and tilting at windmills. She is unfit to hold office.
The press didn't mind using the word bimbo to describe me when I was a controversial legislator in Iowa in the early '80's. They never have considered that a conservative woman can be intelligent.
Aside from the bread, bimbo used to describe a loose woman of questionable intelligence.
I always thought that in its narrowest definition a bimbo was a woman who complained about the predations of a Democratic politician. A feminist, on the other hand, was a woman who complained about Republicans......There's no reason to believe that a good looking woman is dumb. There is also no reason to believe that a good looking woman has to increase her knowledge of politics and the science of climatology to get your attention.
So bimbo for men and bimba for women.
May be hussy for women if you want sexual connotation but not too strong. Harlot if you want to call her a whore but still sound old fashioned
Bice thinks bimbo means slut.
He's trying to Sandra-Fluke Mark Belling, but instead demonstrates he doesn't own a dictionary and is too lazy to Google.
I wonder if he's projecting his own opinion of this reporter as a slut onto Mr. Belling's bimbo comment.
"Bimbo' is to always be capitalized when involving big breasts.
I am Laslo.
Is Contessa Brewer back in Milwaukee? :)
Contessa Brewer is probably the stupidest woman to work in the Milwaukee market. One wonders how she managed to get the job at MSNBC from which she was subsequently fired. Shelly Walcott was a close second.
But I'm guessing it's a ticket to ride the shortbus.
Eww sick burn George. Devastating. You did manage to crap out a post without a hilarious typo. Molotov!
And Belling managed to go a day without warning us a about the Jewish Cabal in Milwaukee.
For "bimbo" substitute "clueless twit". There, I've fixed the problem, and increased the accuracy.
"Himbo" actually was a term for the Bimbo's male counterpart, at least we got Shepherd Smith and Brian Williams got promoted and realized the fight was lost...
"Himbo" actually was a term for the Bimbo's male counterpart, at least in the 80's and 90's. Then Shepherd Smith and Brian Williams got promoted and realized the fight was lost...
Please excuse the first post. I'm not seeing a delete button. I have no idea what that brain eructation was.
I'll bet Belling knows what a corporation is.
----And Belling managed to go a day without warning us a about the Jewish Cabal in Milwaukee.
Another day another bleating lie from mentally challenged garage.
Wouldn't Brian Williams be a bimbo? That was my first thought
TV news has always put camera friendly people on the air. If that means putting a pretty face with an empty head to hold the viewers' attention, that's what they do. There are plenty of airhead men on television (e.g, Matt Lauer) - the camera friendly rule applies to both sexes.
Also, women are for more critical toward women than men are. If I watch a news show with my wife, or daughter, or sister in law, or mother in law I'll often hear "what was she thinking wearing that" or "who did her hair/makeup" when I'm trying to listen.
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