Deconstructing the Himbo

ALLISON RAUCH, REPORTER: Heart big, head empty himbos. They’ve been the subject of many a meme or tweet in recent years. Something about them — the hot, dumb, kind men of the world — is strangely captivating. But where did the himbo come from, and more importantly, what does he have to offer us today?

To begin: a definition. Reputable online source Urban Dictionary cites the term as “He’s a little slow, but he’s trying his best. Big, beefy, almost always has a nice a** and drinks respect women juice. Most of the time the only thing playing in his brain is elevator music.” Merriam Webster — yes, actually — defines it as “an attractive but vacuous man.”

The term was coined in 1988 by Rita Kempley, a movie critic for the Washington Post. A dude-ification of the word “bimbo,” himbo served as a name for the archetype of the brawny, somewhat slow action hero. Think Arnold Schwartzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. But himbo has made a resurgence in recent years thanks to social media. Podcasters Evan Shinn and Emilio Quezada discuss this in an episode of their show Dewy Dudes.

RAUCH: With this new, internet-age take in mind, I wanted to see what college kids thought. My interviewees each defined himbo in their own words, and then discussed what they thought about the term. Like Shinn and Quezada, all of my interviewees touched on the “dumb” aspect of himbo culture.

JACOB MILENDORF, SCHOOL OF COMM SOPHOMORE + DUDES ROCK ASPIRER: There’s definitely a culture nowadays, I think around the himbo. Don’t know what it is. I mean, all of those things seem somewhat positive minus the unintelligent part. But I think the lack of intelligence shows — shows a certain like, defenselessness.

RAUCH: That’s Jacob Milendorf, a sophomore in the School of Comm. Prior to our interview, he was only loosely aware of the term himbo, but he was more than willing to ruminate on the matter.

MILENDORF: I think one element of the himbo is not being smart, kind of poses an openness, right? Like, if you engage in conversation with them, in some sort of debate, you’ll be able to defeat them pretty swiftly and effortlessly. And I think that’s, I think people like that. I think people seek something in that.

RAUCH: Milendorf’s point about openness is interesting, and ties back to the tweet Shinn and Quezada read: the archetype of the himbo is a reaction to the archetype of the know-it-all male manipulator. Think Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network or really almost anyone in The Social Network.

RAUCH: Perhaps it’s not a true lack of intelligence, then, that characterizes the himbo, but rather a vulnerability, an approachability.

NOZIZWE MSIPA: SCHOOL OF COMM SOPHOMORE + HIMBO APPRECIATOR: I think there’s been kind of a rise in appreciation of himbos. Like what people want, like safe, safe men. And you know, kind, dumb ones are pretty safe in general.

RAUCH: That’s Nozizwe Msipa, School of Comm sophomore and himbo appreciator. Her point here seems to coincide with Milendorf’s: that dumbness can be safe.

MSIPA: I think what makes himbos very safe, like you feel safe, safe for them. You know, they’re just silly little gooses who want to live — silly gooses who want to live and do silly stuff.

…I find like the internet age has we’re really accepting like just being dumb and vibing just like normalized it’s not knowing nothing and dying to know like that which I don’t mind. So I think himbo is okay, for now.

RAUCH: So it seems, as some on the Internet claim too, that the himbo is not actually “dumb.” In an article from Jezebel, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd writes that “In practice, the himbo is not even necessarily unintelligent; a himbo just does not feel the desire to flex his intellect over his desire to, say, fix a car.” “Dumbness,” then, serves more as a catchall term for this disengagement from the cerebral, egomaniac world of the male manipulator.

And with this disengagement, it seems, comes a sense of liberation. Medill sophomore Jimmy He, known to his friends as Jimbo the Himbo, commented on this in our interview.

JIMMY HE, MEDILL SOPHOMORE + JIMBO THE HIMBO: I feel like, I think that Chad’s usually, when I think of them, I usually think of wanting to impress and leave an impression on other people. But I feel like himbos have really nothing to prove, like, that’s why a lot of them aren’t self defining.

MILENDORF: I think if there’s an individual who doesn’t need to prove anything, that’s, that’s hot. You know, if they can just live free.

RAUCH: This freeness has a name — “dudes rock,” or “dudes rock” energy. Shinn and Quezada also define this in their podcast.

RAUCH: Most of my interviewees were unfamiliar with the term “dudes rock.” But provided with a definition, they all easily identified dudes rock behavior.

MILENDORF: Dudes rock —  dudes rock is just you know, saying whatever you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody or make anybody feel uncomfortable. And I would love to do more of that. And I think I’ve been trying to — so I think in the coming months, I’m gonna dudes rock it up.

MSIPA: ..It’s also kind of the bare minimum also, like dudes rock because like, I’m celebrating men who are  just like living loving laughing right? And not like abusing you know.

RAUCH: Msipa makes an interesting point here: “dudes rock” behavior is kind of the bare minimum for men, at least in regard to not being toxic. In other words, men don’t deserve a medal for respecting women — this should be a given. But the other aspect of dudes rock, about dudes being free to be dudes, is fascinating, at least to me. It provides a way to be a man that is not controlled by patriarchal standards of masculinity.

HE: I feel like they’re willing to accept, you know, that being a guy isn’t just all about masculinity and they’re able to embrace more feminine, you know, parts while still being, you know, athletic, working out, jacked and still being attractive.

MILENDORF: This dude’s rock thing seems like a nice kind of in between where you can have male confidence without — without being a piece of crap.

RAUCH: So then, as a purveyor of “dudes rock” energy, perhaps the himbo holds the key to a masculinity that’s free from the strict expectations of the patriarchy. Or maybe that’s a little presumptuous. Either way, himbo or not, dudes rock energy seems to be the way of the future. And while it’s important to keep men accountable…

MSPIA: But also we can’t use himbo to glorify anyone…you can’t be like oh, but he’s just a himbo, he doesn’t really know, like no, you know. We still have to hold people to the same standards; they have to stay accountable.

RAUCH: Perhaps the himbo is a way to let dudes be dudes, in their truest and most nontoxic sense. For WNUR News, I’m Allison Rauch.