Robotic, compliant, submissive; lacking in individuality.[After the fictional suburb of Stepford, Connecticut in Ira Levin's 1972 novel, The Stepford Wives, later made into movies (in 1975 and 2004). In the story, men of this seemingly ideal town have replaced their wives with attractive robotic dolls devoid of emotion or thought. More details on the movie are at http://imdb.com/title/tt0327162/ ]
"Eight months ago at the Olympics, Michael Phelps was the Stepford Swimmer. He won six gold medals. He smiled. He gave bland answers to questions. He returned home to Baltimore and rode in a parade. All very nice. But his personality never broke the surface." Mark Purdy; More Mature Phelps More Interesting, Too; The Mercury News (San Jose, California); May 20, 2005This week's theme: words from movie titles.
Permalink:
http://wordsmith.org/words/stepford.html