FUBBA-WUBBA

Synonyms:
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FUBBA-WUBBA ("fubba wubba," "Fubba Wubba," "Fubba-Wubba" and other variations) is the the pronunciation of "FUB WBA," which stands for "fat ugly broad with bad attitude." A variation is "unbelievable bad attitude."

From fan comments below:

• "Any obese female whom I don't happen to like for whatever reason I choose."
• "The term is almost always applied to women beyond the first flower of youth who are exercising authority."
• "Someone who's older and unattractive who holds opinions you don't like."

Origins

The term was possibly coined by Dick Eney, a science fiction and SCA fan. According to Fancyclopedia, this phrase is heavily used in the SCA, and may have originated there.

From Fancyclopedia in 1959:

And looking at the result a generation later makes me uncomfortably aware of the changes that took place since 1959. I can laugh at my comment to our remote posterity, "For our readers in the year 2000..." But who'd have thought that describing Kabu's females as "fubsy" [plump, pleasant and slightly pedomorphic] would have become offensive for people who saw the word as related to "fubba-wubba" [fat, sloppy and cranky]?

Incorrectly, David Gerrold cites the phrase as having been invented to describe two Star Trek fans, Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. See his 2016 essay: Just for the record, I always assumed Sulu was gay. That was a lot more fun than assuming Kirk and Spock were lovers..

"FUBBA-WUBBA" does not appear to have much of an online presence, nor is it a term that appeared in known print fanzines.

Examples of Use

Unknown Date

Cross-fade to a "FUBBA WUBBA", who's dressed in late-period clothes but wearing sunglasses and a straw hat, upon which perches a coronet. To the left is someone fanning her; at right is someone groveling at her feet and holding up a goblet.

Fubba Wubba: I'm very important.

1991

[Michael Litchfield]: Fubba Wubbas: Gods they are worse than usual, getting more frequent and more conservative, even worse there are more people in power who are fubba wubbas.

Dorothea of Caer-Myrddin Dorothy J. Heydt: Will somebody for Pete's sake tell me what is a fubba wubba? The term got used a while back on this newsgroup and I asked then and nobody would tell me.

[Melissa Cameron]: What's a "fubba wubba"?

[Michael Litchfield]: Hmmm a number of people have asked, have so many people become fubba wubbas they they frown on its use? IT is from an acronym, Fat Ugly Bitches With Bad Attitudes, occasionally Unbelievably Bad Attitudes. Generally it refers to someone of either sex who pays great heed to Mrs. Grundy and does not approve of all this singing, dancing, drinking, and merriment that some people have chosen to inflict upon their society.

[Charles Parr]: While Michael is rude, and does not speak gently as befits a man of chivalry, I also feel he is partly right. We do have a fair number of Fubba-Wubbas (our term where I am is "Poser" or "Posturer"...Which is less intrinsically rude, but just as offensive to those we apply it to). Many people in our society get obvious satisfaction from looking down their noses at those they feel are "non-period" or "partiers" or "stick jocks" or "court weasels.

Dorothea of Caer-Myrddin Dorothy J. Heydt: I received a LARGE number of mail messages. Most of them supplied the acronym, which has been discussed in this space and which I will delete. They all agreed about the acronym. The interesting thing was the different _definitions_ the various people gave me. Some said, "tailkissers." Others said "snobs." Some said, "Mrs. Grundies." Others said "Superannuated Peers who don't realize the parade has passed them by." And there were other definitions offered too, which don't linger in my memory at present. You'll note several of these definitions contradict each other, or cancel each other out. Maybe we've got interkindom dialectal variation here. Maybe. Otherwise, it begins to look as if the true definition of "fubba wubba" is "Any obese female whom I don't happen to like for whatever reason I choose." This could apply to a very large number of people, couldn't it. Perhaps before we start getting rid of useful terms like "newbie" and "mundane," which have real (denotative) meanings and may or may not also have negative connotations, we should try getting rid of words that have nothing _but_ a negative connotation and no denotation at all.

[Eliot Moss]: heard that fubba wubba = "fat broad with a bad attitude". Being a courteous person I would never use (and try never to think) of such an expression ....

[Cathy Lindsay]: I had hoped Fubba Wubba would just die out someday, but in light of the recent postings this seems an unreasonable wish. What wrong with the term fubba wubba? It buys into the beauty myth: that only females who are young and attractive and agreeable are worthwhile. How is this? The term is almost always applied to women beyond the first flower of youth who are exercising authority. Then someone disagrees with something or other the lady in question does (pick your gripe: bossy autocratting, picking at inauthenticity, etc.). Then *ta da* the lady turns into a fubba wubba: someone to be dismissed --she's ugly and fat and has a bad attitude. This term gets thrown around in jest and it's an easy way to disempower (there's probably a better word, but...) someone who's older and unattractive who holds opinions you don't like. Never mind that the gentle in question may contribute a good deal. There's gotta be a better way. Of course, the best way would be for everyone to behave courteously and chivalrously, so there wouldn't be a need for this term. Failing that utopian dream, there's got to be a nondiscriminatory term for someone who's doing something you don't like that doesn't insult a whole class of people: older or less beautiful women. Think of it this way: our consciousness has been raised (most of us) to the level where if a black person did something we didn't like we'd still never call him a "lazy nigger". Anyone who did use that kind of language would be reviled. Our consciousness has to be raised to where it is also unthinkable to disagree with the actions of a particular gentle without resorting to the pejorative fubba wubba. I've actually witnessed (at Pennsic) someone call an older woman who admittedly wasn't pretty a fubba wubba. He didn't know this person, had no gripe with her, but she wasn't beautiful or smiling. And no, this isn't defensiveness on a personal level. I'm not old or overweight or considered unattractive. Bad attitude is of course all in the perspective ;-). But I'd really like to see fubba wubba die out for its sexist and age-ist overtones.

[a fan's Usenet sig]:

Therion Calgate

Mountain Confederation

Not a fub, but definitely a wub

Shire of Nithgaard

mea culpa

Prin. of AEthelmearc

[James Drew]: Since it is merely a pronounced acronym (FBWBA), the term is equally applicable to Fan Boy With a Bad Attitude. Or if you want to boost the acronym to FBAWBA, Fan Boy A**hole...

1992

[Mario]:

Probably you've already got this info by now, but just in case: Fubba-wubba stands for "Fat Ugly Broad With A Bad Attitude", also known as Fub's for short.

As a Companion of the Pelican [...], I kind of find this offensive since it pretty well fits the stereotype of a Pelican (at least in "Eastern Rite" kingdoms.) On the other hand, it's a wonderfully succint term for a type that everyone meets sooner or later--it's just that it encourages stereotyping, which is often unwarranted and inaccurate.

[Dave Aronson]: Alternately, F U Bitch W A B A; I've heard this one more often.

1999

[Richard Tucker]: As evidenced by Ansteorra's population decline. The FUBs ran off the crafts people, no more equipment, population declines. Participation (at least in the north) is down severely. Pop meetings are now little more than the FUB officers. No one is making armor. Everyone wants Excalibur, for the price of the Amazing Ginzu. I guess they got tired of sweating for nothing.

[Cynthia Virtue]: What's a FUB?

2016

I am going to introduce a term here. It's not mine, and I do not use it ever. I am reporting it. The term is FUBBA-WUBBA. It's a term I heard in fandom. It stands for "fat ugly broad with unbelievably bad attitude." The term was invented to describe two women in particular. (As it was told to me.)

[snipped]

In the several years that followed, M&C fully earned the obligatory epithet of FUBBA-WUBBA by the way they treated other fans.

Ugh Tumblr is full of FUBBAWUBBAs and they all ship Johnlock and accuse anyone else who doesn't as being homophobic and heteronormative and they insist that their slash is canon. As far as I could tell other fandoms weren't that bad but it drove me right off Tumblr.

FUBBA-WUBBA was still an extant term in fandom as recently in my hearing as of 2003. And properly descriptive in the case that I recall.

Personally, I prefer the term "neurotic drama queen who's lodged herself into a position of authority and won't let ANYONE forget it." and figure they're compensating for an adolescence and early 20s that were hellish.