Trans Pornstar Finally Granted Dream Name of Candi Bimbo Doll

Even in San Francisco Some People Find the Word “Bimbo” Offensive

William Shakespeare may have been right when he wrote that “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but porn performer Juliette Stray really wanted to change her name. As a 40-year-old transwoman, she wanted to make the moniker she had used for more than a decade legal. She dreamed of having the DMV print “Candi Bimbo Doll” on her driver’s license, right next to her photo.

Alas for the woman who would be known as Candi Bimbo Doll, in 2023, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Gail Dekreon refused her request, insisting that the submitted middle name was offensive. To support her point, she quoted the Oxford English Dictionary, which defined a bimbo as “a young woman considered to be sexually attractive but of limited intelligence.” The judge agreed that people can formally change their names to anything they wish, with the caveat that they not be “vulgar and offensive.” Although she accepted that “the perception of ‘bimbo’ may be changing in the TikTok world,” she countered by saying, “the word itself is perceived as offensive and seen as a step backward for women empowerment in our culture.”

That all changed when the 1^st District Court of Appeal overturned the lower court’s decision, asserting that in the world of the hit movie Barbie, the word bimbo is not “universally recognized as being offensive.” Justice James Richman wrote in the 3-0 decision that “Bimbo is not a fighting word. It is not vulgar.” In another nod to the popular grrl power movie, he concluded that “As best we understand it, Bimbofication is using the once derogatory term as a means of empowerment, to build a sense of community.”

Further, Richman observed to the Bay Area Reporter that “The Secretary of State has no issue with Bimbo. Nor does the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The DMV instructions state that it will not issue a personalized license plate that has ‘sexual connotation’ or a ‘vulgar term or a term of prejudice or hostility.” To support his argument, he pointed out that the DMV has issued personalized plates with the words Bimbo, Bimbo 1, and Bimbo 25, among others. In fact, the word is so popular that the state now tells applicants that it is no longer available.

Doll was thrilled by the reversal and sent a statement to The Bay Area Reporter through her attorney, James Reilly, saying, “Today is absolutely a personal win. I’m giddy with excitement, really, but it’s a win for all the other dolls out there, too, who, when they’ve contemplated showing who they are to the world are confronted with nothing but rejection and disregard.”

Bimbofication has special meaning to Doll, as she envisions her gender transition as the process of crafting herself into a living, breathing sex toy with killer surgically enhanced curves. “I’m unquestionably proud to be a bimbo,” Reilly told the press for his client. “And now, with this ruling, I’m not just a bimbo, I’m a Bimbo Doll in a way that can never be stripped from me even beyond my death.”

As Doll explains, aware that some think her decisions are extreme, “Some people are into electric trains. Some people are into giant, flame-belching monstrosities that they haul out to the Nevada desert. I change my body and change my persona, and I wanted my identity recognized in a way that’s beyond the clothes I wear.” What she isn’t changing is her stage name, which she has spent a decade turning into a brand.

While some members of the queer community have criticized the decision, both Reilly and Doll assure that none of the heat is coming from within the trans community. In fact, the term “doll” has become slang on TikTok and Reddit for a feminine-presenting trans woman. “I acknowledge,” admits Doll, “that this portrays me as vacuous and unintelligent and all those things. That’s fine. I like that. The best I can say is that it thrills me. It makes me happy and excited when I think about it. It makes me feel validated.”