A useful term for describing men who lack a certain competence and masculine authority is mimbo. It stands for "male bimbo."The mimbo is the guy who is unable to navigate his big shiny car through the roads of a familiar small town without using his navigation system (and is then unable to work the navigation system, and then drives around in circles thinking he is heading in the right direction). The mimbo is the guy who gets flustered in airport security and accidentally sets off all sorts of alarms while putting his loafers back on. The mimbo is the guy who makes a reservation for a romantic dinner, but books it at Percy instead of Per Se (the former being a "Boston Style Jerk Restaurant" in Queens, the latter being Manhattan's finest French dining venue).
Mimbos are the opposite of pimps; pimps being those who manage to know just what to do in most any situation, and who manage to do it with coolness and style, and maybe even while sporting some sort of gold ring and smoking a cigar. A good cinematic example of a pimp is Jack Nicholson. A good cinematic example of a mimbo is Steve Martin, though I love him dearly. That is the problem with mimbos—they often manage to seduce girls with their charms or good looks. The mimbo is a thoroughly modern incarnation, a product of handheld devices and hypermedia that simply overwhelm the delicate capacities of certain male brains. The utter incompetence of the mimbo would have never been supported in the 1950s. Mimbos are not necessarily wankers, but the two are definitely not mutually exclusive.
1 comment:
Just a thought- and I know this will get me in trouble, but- we can thank modern feminism for the mimbo...in an effort to even the professional playing field, we women have castrated men socially. Don't get me stahted!
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