Open Letter To The Guy Who Said Wearing Cheetah Print Makes Me A ‘Bimbo’

To the guy who cheetah shamed me...

First of all who uses the word bimbo anymore?!?! I’ll tell you who, the same guy who calls his boots "goulashes", a back pack a "knapsack" and his flip flops "thongs".  That's who. That's the guy who shamed me for wearing animal print high heels at happy hour.

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So I’m having a happy hour drink with my friend when an older man strikes up a conversation with us. As a happily married woman, I had absolutely no interest in this conversation, but I hate to be rude so we indulged him. After mere minutes, I’m using every social cue imaginable to signal that my cocktail was getting warm and I needed this interaction to come to a close. In a desperate attempt to keep the conversation going, he notices my cheetah print shoes and says, “ok, I just have to ask, aren’t animal print shoes just for bimbos?”

First of all, I’m a born and raised Jersey girl and animal print is what we do. I thought, obviously he's not from around here.  I detected a bit of a twang earlier so I responded with "where are you from anyway?" he said he was visiting from Kentucky. This was starting to make more sense now. Maybe if I was wearing camo gear I would have been more suitably dressed.  I said, “well, my husband thinks they're cute…and I'm far from a bimbo” at that point he sauntered off.  Full disclosure, I've got cheetah print for days and I'm proud of it.

Aside from the fact that with an attitude like that he will be single forever, who taught that man how to talk to women? This 'bimbo' is a Penn State graduate, a wife for 20 years, a mom of 3, an inventor (check out Vino Diva on Amazon), a voice over talent for 20 years and a radio host for 25 years. He caught me though, I wore cheetah print kicks so I must be dim.  I should have worn the whole ensemble that night including my accessories to make his head explode...

My FAVORITE sweater off all time...

Assumptions say a lot about a person. His idea of women was clearly formed early on and has stayed with him all those years. We all look at life through our personal lens of experience but may I suggest he get a new prescription? In this world we judge people for much more than shoes…it's time to leave our assumptions at the door, they don’t serve us well.  Let's all respect each other and assume the best, not the worst.  In my defense I'm just gonna tell that dude to get some taste because those shoes slay all day.