Commentary: Girls Battling for Top Bimbo Spot

Hold on to your top spots while you can, Facebook and Myspace! There’s a new website that’s growing popularity in the UK and if you don’t watch out, soon it will be the new craze in the U.S.

Introducing the new website, “Miss Bimbo,” the virtual fashion game created by London’s 23-year-old web designer, Nicolas Jacquart. Users of the website, who according to CNN.com are predominantly females between the ages of 7 and 17, compete to see who can be the best bimbo. (Just to provide a quick definition for clarification, a bimbo is pretty much a dumb hot chick.) Users of the website compete with one another to become the best bimbo by getting the hottest bodies, cutest guys, and sexiest clothes. Are you processing all of this?  Young females are competing to become the best BIMBO! Beyond teaching these young girls to accept and identify with such a demeaning title, these girls are being taught, once again, that beauty is the main standard that they must live up to.

According to the online newspaper “The Guardian,” the website is pretty popular in London with approximately 200,000 users, and with its French version (Ma Bimbo) which has about 1.2 million users. Many parents and dieticians have spoken out as to why this website is detrimental to young women’s self esteem and perceptions of beauty. They also fault the creator, Jacquart, for making such a harmful website. However, Jacquart was quoted in “The Guardian” as saying that the website, “…is not a bad influence for young children. They learn to take care of their bimbos. The missions and goals are morally sound and teach children about the real world.” Jacquart then goes on to provide examples explaining how the activities on the web game promote positive messages saying, "If they eat too much chocolate in the game it is bad for their bimbos' bodies and their happiness levels compared to if they eat fruit and vegetables, which reinforces positive healthy eating messages.” Wait a minute Jacquart, let’s get this straight. The real world is made up of chocolate eating bimbos who need to maintain a healthier lifestyle so that they can be the top notch attractive dummy? Young girls must learn how to channel their inner bimbo in order to get motivated to take care of their bodies? These are positive messages? Well, do you at least have diverse bimbos?  Are there smart bimbos? Bilingual bimbos?  Multicultural bimbos? Professional bimbos? Sporty bimbos?

Despite its obvious theoretical grounding, Jacquart’s arguments are not too convincing to me so I decided to visit this popular website. After going to Google and typing in “Miss Bimbo,” guess what? One of the first links on the page was to the website. So yes, it is accessible for females, all across the world, who have access to the internet. The website, which is decorated in different shades of pink and features a female with a voluptuous shape, first gives users an update of how many users are online and how many are registered for the site. If you scroll down a little further, you’ll see the persuasive attempts to get people to register. The website gives a bulleted list of the many things users can do if they agree to become a stone cold bimbo, join the website and “become the most famous, beautiful, sought after bimbo across the globe.” Quoting from the website again, one of the most shocking bullets reads, “Even resort to meds or plastic surgery. Stop at nothing to become the reigning bimbo.” Sorry Jacquart, I’m definitely not convinced now.

There are already so many different messages in mass media that teach all women to judge themselves according to ridiculously high standards. Women are learning to not love themselves for who they are, but for what they look like compared to how media say they should look like. Now, young females are being taught how to compete to become the most attractive bimbo! All young female users do not necessarily identify MissBimbo.com as being JUST a game so there is the potential for several negative effects. Where are the games that teach females how to grow intellectually? Where are the games that teach women to have self confidence? Where are the games that teach women how to maintain a healthy lifestyle for reasons other than to become a hot babe? Where are the games that teach females to not accept degrading titles and names such as bimbo? I’m sure web designers like Jacquart may argue that themes like these ‘don’t sell’ because they don’t sound fun or entertaining. But if you can make a fun game out of being a bimbo, I’m sure you can think of some creative way to send positive messages through games to females and males.

Hopefully MissBimbo.com will NOT become a big craze in the U.S. and will become less popular in places where it already exists. But just in case you do see someone trying to register for this website in their attempts to become part of the competitive world of bimbos, rescue them! Pull them away from the computer and shove a book in their face on something positive like the historical contributions of women. If they still feel the need for a little competition, challenge them to a 50-yard-dash race or even a cabbage eating contest. It might leave you a little exhausted or maybe even a little gassy, but at least you won’t hate yourself by the end of the competition.