Bombshell (slang)

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The first woman to be known as a bombshell was Jean Harlow, who was nicknamed the "blonde bombshell" for her film Platinum Blonde (1931).{{citation |first=Jessica Hope |last=Jordan |year=2009 |title=The Sex Goddess in American Film, 1930–1965: Jean Harlow, Mae West, Lana Turner, and Jayne Mansfield |page=213 |publisher=Cambria Press |isbn=978-1-60497-663-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uaOC59y0xW4C&pg=PA213}}Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow by David Stenn, page 151, 162The Guide to United States Popular Culture, 2001, {{ISBN|0-87972-821-3}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=U3rJxPYT32MC&pg=PA922 p. 922]Grant David McCracken."Marilyn Monroe, the Inventor of Blondeness", Culture And Consumption II: Markets, Meaning, And Brand Management, page 93, Indiana University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-253-34566-0}} Two years later, she starred in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Bombshell (1933). One of the blurbs on posters was "Lovely, luscious, exotic Jean Harlow as the Blonde Bombshell of filmdom."Richard Havers, Richard Evans, Marilyn, 2010, {{ISBN|1-84912-026-9}}, p. 16.

Hollywood soon took up the blonde bombshell, and then, during the late 1940s through the early 1960s, brunette, exotic, and ethnic versions (e.g., Jane Russell, Dorothy Dandridge and Sophia Loren) were also cultivated as complements to, or as satellites of, the blonde bombshell.Katie King and Debra Walker King, Body Politics and the Fictional Double, page 157, Indiana University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-253-10832-6}} Some of the movie stars, largely of the 1940s–1960s, referred to as bombshells include Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth,{{Cite web|last=Callahan|first=Dan|title=Get To Know Rita Hayworth, The Reluctant Bombshell|url=https://www.nylon.com/articles/rita-hayworth-100-years|access-date=2020-09-16|website=Nylon|date=17 October 2018 |language=en}} Nylon Magazine Diana Dors,{{Cite web|last=Rozen|first=Leah|title=The British Marilyn: Blonde Bombshell Diana Dors|url=https://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/anglophenia/blog/2011/11/the-british-marilyn-blonde-bombshell-diana-dors|access-date=2020-09-16|website=BBC America|language=en-US}} Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren,{{Cite web|last=Nolasco|first=Stephanie|date=2020-02-27|title='50s sex symbol Mamie Van Doren on leaving Hollywood after Marilyn Monroe's death: 'There were a lot of drugs'|url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/50s-star-mamie-van-doren-sex-symbol-tells-all|access-date=2020-09-16|website=Fox News|language=en-US}} Jane Russell, Ava Gardner, Camelia, Carroll Baker, Brigitte Bardot,{{Cite web|title=Brigitte Bardot's Best Bombshell Moments at the Cannes Film Festival|url=https://www.wmagazine.com/gallery/brigitte-bardot-cannes-film-festival/|access-date=2020-09-16|website=W Magazine {{!}} Women's Fashion & Celebrity News|date=16 May 2017 |language=en-US}} Kim Novak, Julie Christie, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Ann-Margret, Hind Rostom, Veronica Lake, Raquel Welch, Ursula Andress,Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin, America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, page 344, John Wiley & Sons, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-4443-5759-2}} Marlene Dietrich, Betty Grable, Marie Wilson, Judy Holliday, Lana Turner, Dorothy Dandridge, Barbara Eden, Carol Wayne, Goldie Hawn, Claudia Cardinale, Anita Ekberg{{Citation|url=http://www.rsvlts.com/2014/10/08/anita-ekberg/|title=The Old-School Beauty Of Anita Ekberg|publisher=The Roosevelts|access-date=11 January 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150118192331/http://www.rsvlts.com/2014/10/08/anita-ekberg/|archive-date=18 January 2015}} and Gina Lollobrigida.{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/3957219/gina-lollobrigida/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150724020431/http://time.com/3957219/gina-lollobrigida/|url-status=live|archive-date=July 24, 2015|title=The Italian Bombshell Who Proved That Life Is About Much More Than Curves|first=Eliza|last=Berman|magazine=Time}}

The epithet rose sharply in popularity after the death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962, and declined in popularity in the late 1960s due to emerging ideological conflicts.

Bombshells are identified with hypersexuality, their curves, including hourglass figures and large breasts, sex appeal, larger than life personas or hedonistic lifestyle,{{cite book|author=Stephanie Ann Smith|title=Household words: bloomers, sucker, bombshell, scab, nigger, cyber|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tEy5rNbAV8kC&pg=PA74|access-date=13 September 2011|date=1 January 2006|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-4553-4|page=74}} as well as stereotypes associated with blonde women and supermodels.Afshan Jafar and Erynn Masi de Casanova (edited), Global Beauty, Local Bodies, page 73, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, {{ISBN|9781137365347}}

• Pin-up model
• Sexual attraction

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Category:Erotica

Category:Stereotypes of women

Category:Slang terms for women