The term often implies to a female who is focused on fashion and looks, but is deemed to be short on brains. "I was very alarmed and appalled because the message is disturbing," said Machoian, who chafes at what she calls "a derogatory term" for women. Lisa Machoian, a Boston-based psychotherapist and former Harvard lecturer who specializes in teenage girls, said she is troubled by the game. The site allows users to register for free, but they can purchase credits for clothes and accessories as well as things such as plastic surgery for breast augmentation, all in the hopes of snagging a billionaire boyfriend. "It's an ironic game about the reality of the world," the 23-year-old from Nantes said in an interview from London. "We feel that this does a disservice to the players who send their bimbos to university, tea parties or chess tournaments."Īlthough Miss Bimbo has prompted barbs from feminists and child psychologists, Jacquart said he does not believe it is harmful.
"We would also like to sincerely apologize to our players for the media comparison of Miss Bimbo and Paris Hilton," says a notice on the site.
The game offers a tongue-in-cheek view of the challenges facing girls growing up. It’s unfortunate that the website has tanked today, because I feel that the resurgence of bimbo culture online could’ve pushed the game towards success.ĭickson, EJ 2020, The Bimbo is Back.A notice on the website said the option of purchasing diet pills for the virtual characters was removed as a result of "surprising media attention" but that "it is the correct action to take". Ultimately, while I don’t think Miss Bimbo is a bad game per se, I can absolutely see how it was perceived as such due to the epistemic and inherently misogynistic idea of the mid-2000s that women embracing their femininity were bimbos. Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton – the three most prominent celebrities labelled as ‘bimbos’ during the 2000s. The negative imagery associated with ‘bimbo-esque’ celebrities would have been something that Miss Bimbo couldn’t distance itself from, despite creators claiming the game was satire aimed at these figures. The game’s creators and founders claim the game was harmless fun, and that there were no negative effects on players.īorrowing from Michel Foucault’s idea of an episteme wherein one time period has a central way of thinking, it can be argued that Miss Bimbo was a victim of its time with the public perceiving famous ‘bimbos’ such as Paris Hilton as “a composite of contemporary American sins” (Hymowitz 2006). Though Miss Bimbo founder Chris Evans told CBS News that “’bimbo’ has become an almost endearing term for your, your sort of dizzy, blonde-haired caricature” (Evans via MacVicar 2008), the central narrative in mid-2000s media was that these types of characters were shallow, dumb, and promiscuous. In the eyes of the public, a morally questionable game tends to be classified as a piece of bad media. Not to mention parodying a fashion game likely enticed young girls through its Barbie and MyScene-adjacent aesthetics, with Kiss also reporting that “ Miss Bimbo claims 260,000 users – mostly girls aged between nine and 16” (Kiss 2008). The game and its creators were criticised for promoting diet pills, plastic surgery, and sugar daddies, among other things. The Guardian reported that organisation Parentkind expressed concerns that Miss Bimbo was “a ‘hazard and a menace’ to young players who might not recognise the irony of a virtual beauty contest” (Kiss 2008). The game garnered a large amount of controversy, mainly due to its perceived negative impact on young users. The game, as described by Reddit user u/popcornomicon, revolved around players being assigned an average-looking doll, and they would then need to accumulate Bimbo Dollars and Bimbo Attitude to level up and become the number-one bimbo. Rolling Stone’s interview with BimboTok creators frames this as a feminist and political movement, wherein “part of the goal … is to present a stereotypically feminine message accompanied by a caption that undercuts the visual message” (Dickson 2020).Įnter Miss Bimbo, the English counterpart to French fashion & social networking game Ma Bimbo. TikTok has driven a resurgence in the 2000s ‘bimbo’ aesthetic, with creators such as Chrissy Chlapecka and Kate Muir propelling the growth of BimboTok.
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