Sarah Marshall | Bimbo Studies
Thursday, October 19 | 7:30pm
Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom (SMSU 355), 1825 SW Broadway
Who is the bimbo? Until recently, she was someone people generally defined themselves against: "I am not a bimbo," Jessica Hahn declared in 1987, the same year the media branded "the year of the bimbo" after she, Fawn Hall, and Donna Rice brought down three powerful men. Or were they just standing nearby when three powerful men collapsed all on their own? Is the bimbo confected out of layers of feminine performance—the hair, the nails, the curve-hugging clothes, especially in an era where professional women were supposed to dress like linebackers—or is bimbohood deeper than that? In recent years, bimbos, himbos, and thembos have started to reclaim the term; can we dream of a future where the bimbo, hunted nearly to extinction, can finally roam free? What will she do? What can we learn from her? And why have we been so afraid of her for all this time?
Sarah Marshall, a PSU alumna, is the host of the popular modern history podcast You’re Wrong About, which has been highlighted in the New Yorker, the Guardian and Time Magazine. Her writing has appeared in the Believer, Buzzfeed and the true crime collection Unspeakable Acts.
Please RSVP if you plan to attend the event.
Questions? Email eng@pdx.edu.