!?
Why am I using WIX?!
Because their design interface works best for me. BUT! there is a boycott on WIX for being pro-Israel. I do not support them financially, and I encourage you to find more information here.
BRICKS
FOR A QUEER FUTURE
Excerpt from my someday-to-come book
GENDER ANARACHY
THE ESOTERIC BIMBO MANIFESTO
Esoteric (adj.)
“Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest”
Bimbo (n.)
“an attractive but not necessarily intelligent or frivolous young woman”
TAG YOURSELF...
Figure 1.1: 'DALL•E mini' AI-generated response to the prompt 'Esoteric bimbo,' screenshot on my iPhone, 2022
putting theory onto apparel
unintelligible by design ;)
​
I believe in what I can touch. Therefore, I have linked The Esoteric Bimbo Manifesto into the real world through a subset of my ongoing apparel project, Queerifications & Ruins, Which is inspired by the 2006-2013 remix album by Terre Thaemlitz.
Because apparel production can be quite unsustainable, I have decided to take a lean approach to material impact. The DALL•E mini graphic is printed as a patch, which I attach to 2nd-hand, discarded, or otherwise 'undesirable' garments. I also attach a smaller patch with a QR code to this webpage (please enjoy this double-mirror moment as the two reference each other).
Would you like to join the esoteric bimbo club?
​
Send me a message – let's talk about fashion.
CLICK ME
intro
​
In June, 2022, a bizarre internet trend grabbed hold for approximately two days: DALL•E mini. The task is simple: type in a phrase, and an AI graphic generator will visually describe what you type in a 3x3 grid of images. My friend typed in “Ru Paul with sea urchin shoulders,” and, lo and behold, nine little warped renderings of Ru with sea urchins for shoulders populated the screen. We found that the more complex the description, the more interesting the results. The simpler phrases turned out, as one can imagine, simpler images.
However, I plugged in a two-word entry whose results blew me away. I’d already been fixated on the concept of the ‘esoteric bimbo’ since my friend Jaelle used the descriptor last summer. When I entered it into the DALL•E mini generator, the bot rendered the absolute most psychedelic, spiritualist, sexy 9 images I could possibly imagine. Interestingly, ‘esoteric’ does not implicitly reference new age or occult culture (although it can describe them). This result felt almost like a divine intervention; a call to action for all of us esoteric bimbos out there to lean into our weirdest potential. The images feel culty, ritualistic, and very much allude to the divine feminine - some remind me of the Venus of Willhemdorf.* Each has a unique personality, and I can’t help but want to ask you to “tag urself” when I see them arranged in their grid. Personally, I’m middle row, left collumn.
toward esoteric bimbofication
​
who is she??
I have a provocation: perhaps the Bimbo is wildly misunderstood by society.
First, let’s strip away the attachments to hegemonic femininity from bimbohood. Anyone can be bimbo. I’m inclined to argue that bimbo is its own gender.*
Typically, the bimbo is seen as clueless; as unintelligent, uncurious, and hyper-superficially motivated. But what if you, who judge her, are the clueless ones? What if her superficiallity is codified armor against people like you? Under the sticky layer of dumb bitch juice, she is a world of jokes on which you are not in.
“Eso” literally means internal. Esoteric knowledge is held by niche groups of interest. People with esoteric knowledges are not necessarily more clever, but they do hold information that is rare to the rest of the world. To seek out esoteric knowlege can come from an impulse of elitism, but it can also come from a dissatisfaction with a normative canon of knowledge, or a boredom of the mainstream. I believe that esoteric knowledges can also be generated by experiences of marginalization; out here, on the fringes of the hegemonic world, we learn truthes that are unimaginable to those at the center of power. Holding such knowleges can, indeed, put you on another plane of thought. It can be a layer of removal, which may make you less understandable to the rest of the world.
The esoteric bimbo is an enigma. She doesn’t try to hide her brilliance; but what you perceive as sexiness is actually the inevitable outward embodiment of her deep thoughts. You don’t understand what she’s saying; it sounds devoid of meaning. But if you learn a little vocabulary, what sounds like “mmmyyaaaaassss” will soon transform in your ear into an unusual and intricate commentary, a new theoretical framework.
Don’t write bimbos off as dumb. Don’t write esoterics off as smart.
Not all bimbos are esoteric, and not all esoterics are bimbos; but Esoteric Bimbo is a state of being which can be learned and practiced by us all when we dare to challenge the conventions of hegemonic knowledge.
* Even though anyone can be an estoteric bimbo, I choose to use she/her pronouns in honor of all of the powerful femmes who weild bimbofication for a feminist agenda.