sister_luck (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sister_luck) wrote2009-04-21 07:03 pm
sister_luck) wrote2009-04-21 07:03 pm
Entry tags:
What's in a word?
Words can be hurtful and most of us are aware that some are downright offensive and thus shouldn't be used. Context is all, so sometimes we think we can get away with something in private that we would never use in the workplace. Sometimes though, words have two meanings.
And I'm not talking about words that have been reclaimed or anything as complicated as that. No, sometimes, a word can be completely misunderstood, because, though an insult in both languages, it's disparaging in very different ways. Let's do an experiment first.
What's a bimbo for you? Try to come up with a definition or a context in which the word might be used. What kind of person do you see?
I bet for about 98% of my readers it's a conventionally pretty woman, probably blonde, sexually attractive in a mainstream sense - big boobs, long hair - and not too intelligent.
That's more or less how this post in a German blog about sex used the word - and no, I don't want to get into whether it's fair to call the person described a bimbo (or anyone else for that matter), whether the video clip perpetuates this particular stereotype or who is the worse feminist, the female blogger, Padma Lakshmi or the person commenting on the clip in the link to Salon.
These are all interesting questions, but I want to talk about the fact that Sigrid Neudecker is accused of being a racist in the very first comment - and you can see from the capslock that this is not done in a polite way.
So, what happened?
Well, in German, the word Bimbo conjures up a very different mental picture than that of a Pamela Anderson lookalike: It's a derogatory term for a black person, not quite as bad as the n-word, but with similar connotations of slavery, sometimes used by people who are exasperated at being asked again and again to help someone else: "Ich bin doch nicht dein Bimbo." Loosely translated this means something like "I'm not your slave".
The two meanings of the word have always been very separate for me - I think before this mini-controversy I hadn't realized that they were actually the same word. I don't use either, definitely not the German version, though possibly the English one. I don't think that the author of the blog realized how her comments might be perceived.
And I'm not talking about words that have been reclaimed or anything as complicated as that. No, sometimes, a word can be completely misunderstood, because, though an insult in both languages, it's disparaging in very different ways. Let's do an experiment first.
What's a bimbo for you? Try to come up with a definition or a context in which the word might be used. What kind of person do you see?
I bet for about 98% of my readers it's a conventionally pretty woman, probably blonde, sexually attractive in a mainstream sense - big boobs, long hair - and not too intelligent.
That's more or less how this post in a German blog about sex used the word - and no, I don't want to get into whether it's fair to call the person described a bimbo (or anyone else for that matter), whether the video clip perpetuates this particular stereotype or who is the worse feminist, the female blogger, Padma Lakshmi or the person commenting on the clip in the link to Salon.
These are all interesting questions, but I want to talk about the fact that Sigrid Neudecker is accused of being a racist in the very first comment - and you can see from the capslock that this is not done in a polite way.
So, what happened?
Well, in German, the word Bimbo conjures up a very different mental picture than that of a Pamela Anderson lookalike: It's a derogatory term for a black person, not quite as bad as the n-word, but with similar connotations of slavery, sometimes used by people who are exasperated at being asked again and again to help someone else: "Ich bin doch nicht dein Bimbo." Loosely translated this means something like "I'm not your slave".
The two meanings of the word have always been very separate for me - I think before this mini-controversy I hadn't realized that they were actually the same word. I don't use either, definitely not the German version, though possibly the English one. I don't think that the author of the blog realized how her comments might be perceived.
no subject
You have educated me about bimbo though! Thank you! :)
no subject
Yes, it's a minefield! I think in German nowadays both meanings co-exist though in different circles - there are people who are more familiar with the English term and then the average person on the street will definitely go with the 'slave of African origin' meaning.
no subject
A few years ago there was a French film (not a good one) starring Gérardieu Depardieu whose title was Bimboland, in which the female lead who was a young anthropologist turned herself into a Bimbo to infiltrate a certain milieu and "study Bimbos" from the Riviera!
I don't know if it has ever been released in Germany but I guess they probably changed the title then!
no subject
I saw that title in the French wikipedia - I'd certainly never heard of it.
Now I'm wondering which German word we'd use to describe the female bimbo phenomenon - Tussi seems too general, Luder might work. Katie Price aka Jordan used to be called a Boxenluder in Germany, where Box refers to Formula One's pitlane... Another word that could lead to misunderstandings... (Which brings me to the American teabagging phenomenon...)
Ah, language(s) and slang....
no subject
I only bring that up because that was the name of a family at our church (the family however died out). I was surprised when I looked up what it meant in German.
no subject
Oh yes, that's a good one, though not necessarily a bimbo in the English sense. It corresponds with both meanings of slut (http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2008/08/slutty.html), and just as in English the untidy one is falling into disuse, though the adjective schlampig is only very rarely used to describe sexuality - it's mostly untidy or shoddy.