Slashdot Mirror
A Day In the Life of a "Booth Babe"
jfruh writes "Booth babes," promotional models paid to showcase products, are ubiquitous figures at tech trade shows. Ever wonder what they think of their jobs? Well, it may not surprise you to learn that standing up for eight hours in heels isn't much fun. Some enjoy the work, while others don't enjoy being the subject of stares. And one model adds that 'The industry is now moving towards making models show more skin.'"
Why not quit their job?
Someday, I will have the courage to go through with this Slashdot rite of passage and post non-anonymously.
These women have taken a job where their bodies will be used to manipulate the minds of lonely men by displaying their sexual atttributes, and then some of them have the gall to be upset that they're being regarded as sex objects? Wake me up when someone intelligent is interviewed. They oughta be happy that someone will pay them for something if standing around in heels is one of their finest talents.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Nobody pays us for standing around. Imagine having to do actual work.
Ever wonder what they think of their jobs?
I couldn't care less. Why is this on Slashdot again?
How do you...
Ah, yes, there's a certain form to these things, let's see...
First you write "Obligatory" and then your medium.
Ok. I can do this.
Khm.
Obligatory Penny Arcade.
Yes! Nailed it!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
These comments should be funny...
No sig today...
She said problems with sexism have been absent from her own work as a model. "I'm used to it," she said
Just because you are used to it doesn't mean that sexism is absent. There really needs to be a boycott of companies that use these tactics. The tech industry is probably the last major holdout in the understanding that women are not simply sex objects. Women refuse to work in the tech industry because of sexual harassment. Unfortunately, the field becomes dominated by men who don't understand it, which then perpetuates the alienation cycle.
Look, these women are doing a job. They KNOW that it involves sexism. The clothes that they wear is more conducive to a model shoot, then to an office job. It is silly, that they grip about it. If they object, they should NOT do the job. Simple as that.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You promised me booth babes and only gave me 3.
Pics or it didn't happen!
Most guys would've just used the "hey I'm writing an article about booth girls!" line as an opportunity to get her drunk. Geeks actually follow through and write the article.
"Her other part-time job as a dancer" ... dads, it's up to you to keep your daughters off the pole. 'Nuff said.
Breakfast served all day!
Anyone who works as a booth babe and doesn't like being stared at, probably should find another line of work. Kinda goes with the territory (particularly with the stuff they wear often).
Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
I usually avoid the booths in question, but if I have a specific need to find something out, I ignore the booth babe as they know nothing about the products or services.
I feel terrible for the women as they could easily be in our industry if they wanted, but instead all they do day in day out is be leered at by men who should know better. Why would they enter our industry if their only experience of it is to be objectified?
I don't do business with any firm that thinks so lowly of women in our industry. I make it absolutely clear to vendors that I do not buy from them if they have booth babes at conferences I attend. I will also strongly recommend against them to my clients. I am not the only one who does this.
It's 2012, not 1962. It's time to grow up.
Andrew van der Stock
I don't believe the girls comment that there is a shift for the models to show more skin.
To substantiate this claim, I think we need to see more photos of booth girls.
This career is dead-end, 100% shallow (they don't even have to know what the fuck it is they are holding) and based on their looks.
It's also an obviously annoying work-place.
However, your reviews are based on your abilitiy to smile and how you look, meaning it only requires you to do exactly ONE thing.
And they complain?
Work in mcdonalds or any other no-skill job and see how funny it is.
Fucking whiners.
Really?
Did you engineer the product?
No? Ummm.... so you're wanting respect simply for standing up at a booth meeting people?
My friend works as a promotional model and is working at E3. Its easy money and its her job. She more often ends up promoting alcohol products and trade shows pay better. Also the pay is much higher in the US than Taiwan. Its not like they just come and pick women working regular jobs off the street and stick them in these trade shows. Most of them do this type of work for a living.
I'm sorry.These women take jobs that are sexist (their job is to arouse the customer and link sexiness and sensuality to some plastic product that isn't really sexy at all) by some sexist companies and then get ogled by the people who are supposed to ogle them.
No. Sympathy. At. All.
While I don't agree with the whole concept of booth babes (I would prefer having real people from the companies instead of models. Not scantily clad, just real people who know the product) it is very hard to sympathise with those who choose to take part in it. They knew what the job was about when they took it. If I take a job that entails wearing a Borat style Mankini then I know I will be the subject of stares (not for the same reasons as these women, but still, my crotch will garner some stares) and then it's my own stupidity to blame if I'm unhappy about being stared at...
But, again. Stupid companies. Stop using booth babes. It makes the industry look adolescent in nature, and is disrespectful to all women, and even more disrespectful to women in tech.
THIS kind of attitude is why many of us geeks can't get a date.. change it!
"She hoped that visitors would respect her profession. "This is a job for us, we just wear less," said Xue, who was in a blue mini-skirt and top. "We are doing real work.""
Yeah, sure. If you have to justify it to a reporter, probably not.
There is no better way to convince people that you were born yesterday than to be ignorant of history.
As someone who has seen a few generations of these girls go by, I can say that the BB's of around 15 years ago were less dressed than they are now
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
The proper term is twart, as in "Get a load of the tits on that twart in the Asus booth."
Ever wonder what they think of their jobs?
No. If I have mused it in passing, it has immediately slipped through my mind, as the answers are obvious.
Well, it may not surprise you to learn that standing up for eight hours in heels isn't much fun. Some enjoy the work, while others don't enjoy being the subject of stares.
You're right, it didn't surprise me, as it's fucking obvious that's what they'd think about it.
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
like bare breasts and tight clothing. That's the standard I use to buy my motherboards and CPUs! Just imagine how many iPads they would have sold if they had two lesbians making out in the ad! Anyone swayed by this kind of marketing deserves the product they get!!! Don't blame the companies marketing to your demographic blame yourself for having such low standards.
Please tell me where a 40 yr old male or 50 yr old female can apply for the job as booth babe?
What goes around in high-school, comes around in later life. Homecoming queen is a boothbabe for the class geek and the captain of the football team is pumping his gas.
Hmm, Car industry- car babes in trade shows. Yogurts- babes eating it in TV ads. Clothing/Fashion- babes wearing it. Alcohol & soft drinks- babes in ads. Furniture- babes using it in ads. Why should electronics be any different?
Sex sells. Every industry that can use sex for marketing will do so. Both men & women will be used for their sex appeal. If you think it's immoral- well corporations cannot have morals and do not have morals- they are not people.
--Coder
Don't paint everyone with the brush that you've been painted with, some have less options.
It's all in the mind
If you think that you have less options, you _will_ have less options
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
... and they had like a bunch of "famous models" talking about modelling and guess what?
They bitched about people looking at them as though they are 'sex objects' !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Have you ever taken a crap job because you needed the cash (especially when you were younger)?
Yes, I had
And I had to endure all the abuses that came with the menial job
The experience only made me tougher
Filled me with more determination to make myself much better
And I have
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
This is stupid. If you can't stand being looked at like a sex object. Please go and work in a different job. There are plenty of people can't find a decent paying job for 1/10 of what you are making.
... and I've frank talk to many of them on this subject
According to many women, the dress sexy part is actually a "moral boost"
It's kinda hard for us men to grasp, but it goes like this
Women like to be stared
Deep in their psyche they like to be stared by the opposite sex
It made them feel that they have "worth"
That's why we get to see so many women parading their skins, their boobs, their buttocks
But, on the other hand, women do complain about men staring at them
They do complain that we men stare at them as if they are "sex object"
They feel that the more we stare at their boobs, the more they feel degraded
As I say, the entire concept is not easy to grasp, especially by us, the male species
On the one hand they want us men to respect them
But on the other hand they parade whatever God have giventh them in front of us, and then complaining when we start to salivating uncontrollably
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If you take a job whose title is "Shoveler of Elephant Shit" and then you whine about how you don't like shoveling elephant shit, nobody will give a fuck. Now, if you complain that you've been given a spoon to shovel the shit with, that's a valid complaint; you're actually a spooner of elephant shit, and that's a whole different job.
You're the man !!
You wrote that when you have a headache
Can't imaging what you'd write when you aren't suffering any headache !!
Thanks for the laugh !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
"ook at my low user ID, I've been here for longer than some of you have been alive."
No one cares. I'm probably the same age as you but I don't go around pointing it out as if it somehow adds extra weight to the argument.
"I am literally white hot angry with whomever did it b"
You'll get over it.
"f you have a daughter, I expect you'll want her to be a geekgrrl. If you want that outcome, you will join me in boycotting booth babes."
Actually if I had a daughter I'd let her do whatever she wanted. Unfortunately you obviously don't realise it but you're just another one of those self righteous prudish males who seem to think that women should only do the jobs YOU approve of. Newsflash pal - its the WOMEN who get to decide whether to do it , not people like you.
I suspect in another century you'd be at the pulpit foaming at the mouth and damning any woman who dared go out with an unmarried man or wear a short skirt or speak before a man gave her permission.
You know what - Fuck you and your kind.
It's only sexist because we allow it to be. If we got rid of the social stigmas behind the human body and embraced a more open and understanding concept of what is expected of both men and women in regard to sexual scenarios then we could probably work this out to a much more beneficial outcome. Sex sells. Instead of trying to make this into something negative and arguing about how horrible it is to objectify women, we should be trying to figure out why we do it in the first place and whether or not it's really even an issue. For all we know we could be midway through an evolutionary cycle meant to naturally limit our population. Just knee-jerk labeling stuff as bad and forcing our will upon society to adopt our views could very well destroy us as a race.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
back in 2006(I think, or maybe 2007?) there were already topless girls walking around 3gsm.
ok, they were bodypainted but still, topping that would require them to be doing pantyless spreads.
and ok, on the second day they had some tiny bras.
still, easy easy easy eaaaaaaaaaaaasy job. in all the cities a big convention is held in there's strip clubs too. It's not like people are asking actual company engineering or sales females to stroll around in sexy lingerie. if they(booth babes) want to make money by looking pretty then they shouldn't bitch.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
They sell their body, and the IT guy sells his brain. Both get no respect. Both complain about not getting any respect. Cry me a river. :-)
An article about booth babes posted to a site for nerds & geeks, and it only has one photo??? How rude is that?
Blah blah blah feminism blah blah blah don't exploit women blah blah blah if I had a daughter blah blah blah.
In fact most of us didn't read it because there weren't enough pictures.
-Styopa
Maybe I'm completely alone on this, but I really dislike booth babes, poster girls, or any form of sexual manipulation used as a marketing tactic for products I'm interested in. It actually drives me away instead of enticing me. It's one thing to use colors, styles, or themes that appeal to our demographic, but every one of us know that tits have about as much to do with the quality of business electronics as Obama's birthplace has to do with his performance as president. We all know that as aroused as that big, fake bleached smile looks, she is NOT attracted to any of us in the slightest and views us all as sexist pigs by virtue of our attention to the very thing she's getting paid for. I purposefully avoid it because I know my shit about what makes a good product and don't appreciate my intelligence being insulted.
The only point of experiencing booth babes is to look at their sexiness. Their actual lives, their problems, what they care about - that's the extra baggage that is the opposite of why you're interested in them.
They're strippers who don't strip. Who themselves are hookers who don't screw. Why would you care what they think? Not caring what they think is the whole upside; it attracts people whose thinking isn't worth caring about unless you absolutely have to.
--
make install -not war
Exploiting women for their sexiness is often complained of being bad.
But what about the equivalent exploitation of men? Many men have jobs solely for their physical appearance: looking tough. Security guards and cops have to wear uncomfortable uniforms, including bulletproof vests in the direct Summer sun, carrying other heavy equipment. And they're taking a risk of physical harm that far more often materializes in actual harm than the frequency with which booth girls have to deal with a grabby conventioneer. Cops, rentacops, bouncers take punches and worse a lot more than booth girls get groped. But their jobs are considered relatively prestigious, even cause for heroism when they do take a hit.
Further along the scale are strippers and hookers, whose jobs are more often condemned as sexist, and who face more physical costs because they're hired for physically exercising their sexiness. But male soldiers and special forces who are further along the masculine scale, exploited for the effects of testosterone making their suggestion and exercise of violence convincing even though it's merely for hire, don't have sympathy and crusaders for how they're exploited as sexist.
No, I'm not being sarcastic. No, I don't think we should prevent either gender from renting out their physical charms. We should ensure people have choices of work so they are in these jobs by choice, and ensure they have workplace safety that still accepts some harm when that's necessary to the job. Hookers and boxers should both have a modicum of respect for their gender-specific (or gender oriented - there are opposite gender practitioners of each gender's traditional jobs) behavior. But we should stop the sexist double standard that says hired screwing exploits women in a way that hired fighting doesn't exploit men. It does. And most work is exploitation. And though that's not perfectly OK, it's equally not OK for either gender. And that's a choice anyone can freely make; we shouldn't have to also fend off the people trying to protect us from ourselves.
--
make install -not war
I live in Brazil, where booth babes are a fixture at any trade show. My daughter has been one of them. She's in college, speaks three languages and looks fantastic in a short, tight dress. She gets paid several hundred dollars a night to engage prospective customers outside the booth and qualify them as to whether to bring them into the booths for the salespeople to work them over. Speaking three languages, she's in demand for this job - she's tired at the end of a show, but it's good money and she meets interesting people. She's not a prostitute - she knows that she's being ogled, but she's worked hard on her looks and is proud of them. She gets propositioned occasionally, but she's a big girl and can handle herself. Next year, she'll graduate with a degree in Chemistry from University Federal do Rio de Janeiro, one of the best universities in Brazil, and will go into pharmaceutical research. She's not being degraded - she goes into her job with her eyes open and feels like this is a heck of a lot better than other jobs that she could get.
Jesus, I'm glad I don't live where people debate this shit endlessly.
I've been to a lot of trade shows over the years in the electronics industry, and almost always, the booths without booth babes tend to be the ones where the more useful products are displayed. After awhile, you start to realize this and either gravitate towards the booth babes because you're there for the wrong reasons, or you go to the booths where the innovative technology is being displayed. Some of the most useful products I've discovered over the years were in booths manned by two geeky guys who had no crowd and almost no attention.
Misoginy : No smoke without fire
By which I mean, do they really increase footfall and drive interest in company products? These discussions around sexism are usually predicated on the assumption that they must do. Of course, not every person that attends a trade show is the stereotypical "lonely businessman". Some of them will be happily married men for which this cheap ruse in not effective, whom may look down on the practise and may form a negative opinion of the company / product. Increasingly some of attendees will be women, whom I would speculate are rather more likely to view the use of "booth babes" quite negatively. At the very least, using booth babes looks like it might be a trade-off between a small attractive effect on some people and a larger repulsive effect on a (growing) few. Reading that the modelling industry is moving towards making booth babes wear less at trades shows sounds like the tech industry is getting locked into a stupid "arms race" where companies compete to have the 'sexiest' exhibitors. Whatever happened to having the best products?
The whole gaming market has this all over it. Not just booth babes but in the games (comic book industry is worse). It's not just the women that are oversexed but them men too, look at all the shirtless brawny action hero's in games. Just wanting to point out booth babes aren't the only sexualized content of the gaming industry.
You know what I find sexist: Being seen as someone who is more driven by his libido than his rational thought processes, which is the premise of employing "booth babes". Those women are actively and willingly participating in this sexist (misandrist, in this case) type of advertising and have the nerve to complain about the cases where it succeeds.
Just as many newvou riche old farts will marry a young dumb blonde bombshell to look successfull to the world, many companies will display their products with a gaggle (harem?) of good looking women for the same reason. At least if the product is one that will be marketed to men, or if men are the ones making the buying decsisions to purchase the product. I wonder what happens when the shoe is on the other foot? How about a trade show for products intended for sale to women? Will there then be plenty of dumb barely dressed "beefcake" men displaying the product to the women?
Every trade show I've ever been to had booth babes, and guys ogling and photographing them. It's not just the tech industry that is male dominated, it is the business world, and whether they enjoy it or not, the booth babes will be employed until this changes.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
Ended up sitting next to her in the train. She was a nearby college student, and loved that she could make a few hundred DM for a day of standing around in heels. She said it was tiring, but the money was well worth it.
I remember reading this article by a guy who wants to discourage the use of booth babes. Here's one of the suggestions that appealed to me:
The Tactics: Actually, this part is pretty simple. When the first person at a booth approaches you, treat him or her exactly the same way you would a sales or implementation engineer. Ask questions regarding the technology. Ask about planned life cycles of the software, on use counts, and other things. Treat them exactly as you would an equal.
If this person is a booth babe (or a clueless marketing droid), they will inevitably hand you off to the lead technical (or sales) person at the booth. Here comes the important part: Demand to know why they wasted your time with manning the booth with clueless people. Don't discuss sales or tech with this person (which is what they will desperately want to do at this point). Ask why their company wastes everyone's time and their investors' money using people who provide no value. Tell them that you will not be doing business with them, regardless of their technology, because you believe that any company that needs to hide behind tricks, gimmicks, and sex appeal, can not offer you any value. Point out that a great number of their competitors don't need to use flimflam to sell their wares. Then walk away.
You figure the 'capitalist system' causes hot babes to stand around looking pretty?
So communist and socialist countries only have deformed women?
Communist and socialist countries don't have booth babes?
People don't have to work in communist and socialist countries?
Wow dude, just wow.
Guess I should go to one of those countries so I don't have to work and I'll bring a LOT of paper bags so I won't have to look at the girls. I'm wasting my time here having to work and seeing all these pretty girls.
No brain, no pain.
I've been to a few shows over the years, and had a few really nice chats with both booth-babes and minor celebrities drafted in to promote a companies products. Every single one of them has been polite and really nice when you treat them as a person doing a job rather then something to be objectified.
Personally I couldn't muster the courage to walk in to a show every day knowing that I'm at best going to be ignored and at worst drooled over like a piece of meat. The fact that they can keep smiling and professional when all they get is sweaty geeks undressing them with their eyes is a tribute to their professionalism.
I agree that we should be beyond this by now, but on the other hand if you want to reach a target audience with your marketing materials does it make sense to ask a developer or technical guru to stand around, or do you employ semi-knowledgable people to act as a filter and answer 90% of the usual questions before passing the customer off to a proper salesperson when they are out of their depth.
Booth babes perform a useful function (apart from being decorative) and work damn hard to promote the company they are hired by. Next time you're at a show treat them with a little respect instead of as a piece of meat.
Is it weird that I'm actually impressed that, not only did one of these models come to this stunning realization, but that she could also pronounce a 3-syllable word.
Girls, it's really a basic marketing strategy. For young kids, put bright colors into your product to attract their attention. For adults, sex sells. You use your gimic to draw them in to get a better look at your product.
At least, that's how I sees it.
Karma: NaN
OK people, let's not be quite the gynophobic nerds we're made out to be.
First, RTFA. There was essentially no complaining at all in the article, besides a little "it's tiring to stand in heels for eight hours" Really really sad the number of slashdotters who without reading the article just assumed that it was a bunch of women whining. Not to mention the number of posts here responding to accusations of sexism that were never made. Defensive much?
Second, to the parent post, you know what the one who didn't like it did? She quit and got a different job.
Given that like every third slashdot post is someone complaining about their job, you'd think people here would maybe cut these women a little slack. Or is it really that offensive to hear a women who's job is to be professionally pretty talk about it just like it's any other job?
Dunno if you're trolling or not, but clearly you didn't read the article, because there were multiple accusations of sexism.
"Some models say the money is reasonable but there are drawbacks too, such as having to smile for up to eight hours a day and endure what many consider sexism."
"Lee is looking forward to leaving the modeling work, especially after the Asus tweet. 'I'm very sensitive to these kind of things, and I really want to leave this career,' she said. 'The industry is now moving towards making models show more skin,' she said. 'People will look at you, but do so in a way that's more sexist and sexual. There's no respect.'"
I used to attend the West Coast Computer Faire in the late 1970s. Skinny red-hair Gates was there hawking his BASIC and FORTRAN. There were not many apps for software developers at the that time so MicroSoft stood out even then.
Hire a booth bunny who knows her subject. I realize such women are rare gems but speaking from personal experience, it works. What happens is that the prospective customer lowers his defenses and when she actually can answer his questions intelligently and defer when necessary, you're a lot closer to making the sale. Then, if you can keep her on staff and have her make the followup sales calls, the customers remember the experience.
No, not trolling, just kind of depressed at the reaction.
Note that the first quote you provide is in the reporter's voice, not any of the models. To some extent, this reads like the kind of story where the reporter started with an angle and wrote it regardless of what the actual subjects say. The direct quotes are all pretty down to earth: "But the work is pretty relaxed and you don't have to do a lot in order to get paid," "It's not a great feeling to see that, but there's nothing that can really be done. We work to promote products," "I'm used to it" and so on. Of the four women quoted, three don't say much more than that a job's a job, and standing and smiling all day is harder than it looks. Ellen Lee, the only woman who's quoted complaining about the job, is pointed out as looking for other work.
These all seem within the usual spectrum of responses when people are asked about their jobs. I guess the formula "You knew that [X] existed when you took the job, so you have no right to complain about it." just doesn't ring true for me. If X = {'carpal tunnel syndrome', 'stupid management', 'TPS reports'}, I suspect there'd be a supportive reaction from slashdoters. So why when X = 'sexisim' is there such a huge angry response?
Really, these people are taking advantage of mens basic biological urges for commercial gain.
Just treating us like semi mindless slaves to our basic psychological urges.
They're using these attractive women to cloud our judgement impair our cognitive abilities for commercial gain!
Can't they treat us like real people, capable of making informed and rational decisions, instead of trying to distract us with appealing visual display?
Also a suitable motto for basement-dwelling, underwear-clad, forum-trolling nerds.
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
Thank you for posting this. It's important for those who don't suffer from depression and low self-esteem to understand how debilitating it is, and how close to impossible it is to get rid of it. Paths out of depression exist but are damn narrow and easy to slip off of.
Personally, after suffering all my life, trying everything including anti-depressants, I finally found a way to climb most of the way out of the abyss. I recognized that it was neuro-chemical in origin, that there was nothing I could physically do about it; so I decided to try to recognize the depression for what it was when it happened, to take a deep breath and try to zero out the dark thoughts, list out the empirical facts of a situation, then consciously work to spin those facts in a positive light to myself. I can now mostly function, but the darkness haunts me like a specter and even now cripples my productivity and drive sometimes. For me that's a victory, but one that has come with an enormous cost of will and almost at the expense of my very life (you know what I mean).
I hope that others who haven't met this particular demon will read what you wrote and try to put themselves in their shoes before they judge, or make glib remarks.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
I guess for consumer trade show it's mostly for look alone, BUT at a startup I previously worked for, our sales folks from the states (Canada here) hired one of these "PR agent" at a show in the states. Obviously she looks great. But she actually took the time to learn about our product (wide area enterprise storage), dress business-like, and spoke with visitors as if she's part of the company that knows the product. She has the ability to gather crowd and talk to a group of audience and at some point in time, she'll pull in the real tech. sales guy in and the group still stay intact. Off she goes "generating more traffic". Honestly, if you look around any large organization, pretty people are hired as PR/marketing partially because of how they look. Obviously they have to go beyond that but it is definitely not purely meritocracy.
As someone who works conventions as a booth monkey (even a blind man couldn't think of me as a "babe"), I can tell you that standing for eight hours isn't fun even with comfortable shoes.
Normally the booth I work has foam matting down to help cushion it somewhat. But this only helps reduce the amount of pain in short stints.
Standing on bare concrete for 3-4 days is enough to make you think everything below the navel has been reduced to the consistency of Jell-O.
You know how people who work retail can do it (without requiring knee and hip replacements every 6 months that is)? Frequent breaks.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
"gynophobic"
misogynist is the correct word to use. You're funny in how you want to act holier-than-thou, try to use big words, and then fail.
Well done.
"Some enjoy the work, while others don't enjoy being the subject of stares."
Gee... then get another job.
"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar."
Why it's suddenly outrageous if attractive women even hypothetically complain about their job puzzles me. I've yet to run into a person who would continue to work at their current job if they didn't have to for the money. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's why they pay people -- no one wants to do any of this shit we spend most of our lives doing, at least not for free. We need to be paid to do it.
Getting paid doesn't magically make the downsides of a job magically disappear. It's just crap that we're willing to put up with in exchange for money. We do not surrender our right to complain about the things that suck about it, just because money is involved. So yes, let's invite the booth girls to our support group, because --whaddayaknow?-- their job sucks, too.
I'm amused that the usual cynicism found on slashdot is not cynical enough on this topic. Some of these booth babes are actually prostitutes billed to the company so an exec or manager can get free hot sex at a convention, expo, conference, etc. while away from home. I imagine when you see only one in a booth, she's a sex-worker, rather than the ones that gather in packs.
Imagine being the Oracle Booth Babe.
They'd just have to hire a brown dwarf *wink* *wink* know what I mean ^^
It's the law of supply and demand, not just supply. Scarcity only describes the supply. Demand must exceed supply for the value to increase. These booth babes may be scarce, but the demand (profit) isn't enough. Beauty fades; dumb is forever.
The precious metal gold has the opposite problem. People over-value it as a commodity and horde the bricks. So, it is too expensive to use in electrical equipment. Yet, gold is among the best electron conductors and never rusts.
"Ever wonder what they think..."
Stopped there. No.
Ok, sure the job is hard, but it is modeling at a public venue, in other words showing yourself off in eye catching outfits in an attempt to draw attention to yourself and those you represent.
To say a booth babe doesn't like being stared at is like a physician that despises sick people.
If you can't take a basic and obvious requirement of the job, you really shouldn't be trying to do the job in the first place.
Sexism? Geez. I guess you won't be very happy when they start having the booth-babes give out free hand-jobs at CES next year.
When I was 20 years old and still in college, I worked retail. I had to stand 8+ hours a day, and always had to smile and greet customers. I made exactly $6.54/hr. Being a man without a college degree, I did not have the same options available to me as many of my good-looking female friends, who almost always made more than me doing less work. These very women who are complaining about sexism could take a job in retail; however, they would certainly have to take a pay cut, and have to do more work.
They should be thankful that they are female, and even have the option to make $25/hr. A 21 year old male w/o a college degree has no chance to make this kind of money. These women could also go get a 4-5 year degree in, say, Computer Science and work an office job; however, I have the feeling if offered this option, many of them would continue to do what they are doing now.
That's modeling. Below the top 100 or so supermodels, nobody is making much money. If you've spent any time in LA, you've met actress/model/waitress types, competing for low-end modeling jobs. There's trade show work, like this. There's catalog modeling ("OK, the next item is S-3721, the beige skirt, and hurry it up, we have 50 more to do before lunch"), fit modeling for designers ("it's too loose in the back, stand still while we get the pins in"), and extra work in movies ("be in makeup at 4 AM, we shoot at dawn").
In the early days of Autodesk, the company was doing about 30 trade shows a year. They hired two young women to run the trade show operation. They were both California blondes with cheerleader personalities who liked to travel. They could do a small trade show alone; they knew how to use the software and do demos. For bigger shows, they'd have assistance, but for smaller ones, it was sometimes just the two of them. It surprised some people that they weren't just decorative, and it amused them to be underestimated.
They had booth setup down. They had a space-frame booth made in Scandinavia which fit into a large rolling suitcase. (Those were rare in the early 1980s) They'd roll their cases up to a booth space, take out the space frame, grab hold of the ends, pull to unfold it, and lock it open. Setup took about two minutes. One of the women described to me the look of anger and hatred she got from union labor at Chicago's McCormick Place when doing this. She grinned back, and wasn't intimidated.
because no one on Slashdot has ever communicated verbally with a model.
Slashdot's reputation? What about women's reputation?
I have a low opinion of booth babes, and not for trying to push my buttons. It's that I can be almost sure that they don't know much about the technology and worse, don't give a crap about it. Anyone who is there ought to have a modicum of interest in the show. Even worse than that, they view the attendees with contempt and disgust, for being nerds as well as for having the typical male wandering eyes. They hate men for ogling them, but intend to trade on their looks to persuade Mr. Right to sweep them away to the life of luxury and ease they deserve, or even better, pay them lots of money so they can have the good life without him. Do they have anything other than looks, like, oh, brains? Sense? You might think some might have signed on to meet a few men, but no. Geeks can actually be good catches, but they don't think so. They don't have the intelligence to appreciate geeks, and view us negatively for in our turn being just as brainless as all other men over hot women. Try to chat with a few of them, and you'll see. A discussion about technical merits will instantly fizzle on their lack of knowledge. Persist by trying to educate them, and they will see you as a creep who is just trying to chat them up because they're hot looking, and they are probably right. They will quickly make it clear they don't care, and would rather you and your skinny nerd ass just dropped off the face of the Earth. If they have zero enthusiasm for the products they are promoting, and feel the attendees are all stereotypically smelly, socially awkward nerds, that leaves money as the only reason they are there. Total gold diggers and dumb bunnies. Just about the worse ways and representatives possible for advancing women's issues. Should we respect this?
Note what the article did not say. None of the babes interviewed expressed the slightest interest in technology. As for the social aspect, they put it as "You just need to talk to people" and "You have to meet a lot of people" as if that's such an imposition and a chore. "Have to" and "need to", huh? I can certainly understand that meeting lots of people is a strain for an introvert, which is most nerds. Are these women introverts? I don't think so, not when they're pining to get back to their dance class.
We're not even supposed to talk to them beyond the most banal, polite, and brief things you might say to any stranger, and trying just marks us as about as stupid as they are. Sad. We're supposed to understand that they are only models, a profession not noted for requiring much intelligence. They are only there to look pretty, and were chosen without regard for whether they might actually know anything or care.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
"while others don't enjoy being the subject of stares"
Bullshit.
The article say 100 to 170 bucks for 8 hours of work. That is 12 to 21 bucks an hour. Pretty low for a model.
Thank you for this. There was so much commentary that was off the point it made my head spin.
What is so hard about understanding that people do work that makes them feel not so great yet have to do it anyway? And they may have opinions about what they do?
There was so much commentary with the undertone that these women should feel lucky to just stand there and look good to get paid, that their genetics is a ticket to lifelong success.
In the end, it is a job. It requires skills and discipline. Looking like that requires knowing how to dress, to stand and pose, makeup, how to communicate with lots of different people and to be (or appear) engaged. Hell, how to stand in place for long periods doing nothing but not being able to leave.
You have to take care of yourself, you have to make tough choices, and people will resent or vilify you for tapping into the existing market for attractive people.
If you make the choice, you often have to stick with it, because there are few options for you once you are pegged at "just a pretty face".
Oh, I should note that modeling is for men and women. Frankly, the idea of having to watch every calorie and workout 10-15 hours a week just for a hope at a photo shoot makes me happy that I am a programmer.
Look, certainly there are tons of people that are shallow and self-obsessed in modeling, but those people are everywhere.
As for knowing what you are getting into, well the job is promote a product. Imagine how fun it would be trying to impart information to the forty fifth time to some guy that is just staring at your breasts and steadfastly refusing to acknowledge you as a human being. Doesn't sound like fun?
Well, maybe it's real work after all.
On several counts.
Moderate depression is actually remarkably treatable. SSRIs work for some people. Buproprion "worked" for me but left me feeling spaced-out. I switched to the lowest does Pristiq and I'm finally feel like myself again. I am a model for moderate depression.
Clinical depression is an _illness_. Used in this manner it is not equivalent to the "layman" use of the word "depressed" (sad). You don't have any idea what you are talking about.
Comments like "she knew what she was getting into, she doesn't have the RIGHT to complain" and "if you take a job, you are not ALLOWED to complain" are hilarious. Nerds evidently struggle with the concept that we are all ALLOWED the RIGHT to complain. Further, while these comments aren't explicit, they seem to hint at two things: victim blaming and a authoritarian mindset.
How about this: if you're an angry, undersexed nerd on the internet who has never been, or even come close to having a conversation with, a beautiful woman who has been in a situation where she must take a shitty job to support herself, you do not have the RIGHT and should not be ALLOWED to comment about something you know absolutely nothing about. You should all be banned from posting your simple-minded expositions about women, workers and women-workers on the Slashdot.org News for Nerds internet website.
Of course, as it has been pointed out, the women featured in the article that hardly anyone bothered to read weren't even really complaining and the summary made that clear.
""it's tiring to stand in heels for eight hours"
Yeah, and it's "tiring" running a cutting torch at a scrap yard, not to mention the filth or the joys of hot slag finding its way into your clothing.
It's offensive to have people not appreciate it when they get paid to fuck off. I LIKE getting paid to fuck off, because getting PAID is NICE.
The proper response from those who have skate jobs should be that "it's a skate job and beats working".
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I have a low opinion of booth babes, and not for trying to push my buttons. It's that I can be almost sure that they don't know much about the technology and worse, don't give a crap about it. Anyone who is there ought to have a modicum of interest in the show.
I actually made this point to the Aizen booth at Winter NAMM 2010. They had a cute Asian gal (pretty sure she wasn't Japanese though) in a kimono, handing out flyers. This is all well and good -- her unusual attire certainly got attention without requiring leering, and made people pause long enough to take what she was offering -- but she knew NOTHING about the goods on display. I'm not saying she needs to know anything about musical instruments, or about music in general, but she should darn well know which people do what, and where things are stored. For anything other than being pretty, she was utterly useless, and that's just sad. I tried to make this point with one of the actual Aizen employees, but he didn't seem to give a shit. Maybe his grasp of English wasn't good enough to even know what I was saying, or he wasn't in a position to do anything and didn't like being asked to deliver bad news to his superiors, I don't know. So I brought it up with one of the people there who was clearly there (at least in part) because he DID speak perfect English. All he had to say was "Tell me about it. All she has to do is refer all questions to me, and she can't even do that."
It would have done them a lot more good to find themselves a female musician who might not be incredibly hot looking, but can actually demonstrate what they're selling. They're out there, and they can use the gigs. It's Southern California for fuck's sake!
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Some shoes are better than others. I broke my foot a few years back and discovered how much of a difference it makes. Everyone is different, but try experimenting. Some people like orthotic insoles or a specific type of support. My broken foot is happiest with a specific running shoe that corrects overpronation, took me a year to find the best comfort.
Man, you really need that seminar!
(As in; are they still effective marketing. Obviously, the fact that they do work and that it is unpleasant work is pretty much the entire point of OP.)
I like the sight of a beautiful woman as much as the next guy. Preferrably the sight of one who is comfortable and enjoying themselves. But thats entirely beside the point.
I would not buy a tech product from a company that thought so little of me that they thought that draping sexy women over their product would convince me to buy it, and thought so little of their own product that they thought that it needed sexy women nearby to distract from its technical details (read shortcomings.)
I guess this is why I don't do trade conferrences, and why they don't market to me, but it still surprises me that this works terribly well. I mean sure; us male geeks may be conditioned early-on to be suckers for a pretty girl, and even moreso if its one who can spout a line of technical specs, but we're talking hardware here - if you're not paying more attention to the specs than the girl spouting them, you aren't a real geek.
Went to the DAC on the free Monday this week.
There was one company that had a booth babe. They were notable in that they were the only one.
I guess there's one in every crowd-- a company whose marketing doesn't let the quality/usefulness of their products do the selling. If you ask me, needing to use a booth babe is a red flag...about their products...
Great and insightful articles like this really needs a photogallery.
Thanks.
Well, yeah. I've been to technical trade shows in San Francisco where some vendor had the skimpily dressed booth babes, and what it said was that they totally failed to understand their audience. Not only is it disrespecting the women who work in the industry, it's also telling the men "We think you're more interested in ogling babes than in finding out anything specific about our product" (and also saying "We didn't even think to bring both genders of irrelevant eye candy, does somebody other than straight guys work in this business?") At least one time that happened was at my previous job, where not only had I worked for female technical managers for a decade, but also the sales VP and her boss that we supported were there, hoping to discuss business development. The vendor with the booth babes didn't get their time.
I'm sorry, I'd rather talk to the woman who developed the critical features for the current release of your product (assuming the developers speak English) or at least to some marketing/sales person who knows what they've brought and why it's interesting, or if you're going to have somebody who's not specifically about your company, hire $RANDOM_FAMOUS_HACKER to tell stories about how hopelessly broken some critical infrastructure is and how it needs to be fixed or replaced, and then let your sales people talk about how you can help.
(Of course, saying we're insulted about being bribed with eye candy doesn't mean we're above being bribed with chocolate candy, or blinky marketing swag, or raffling off an iPad if we don't have to wait too long. And bribing us with coffee is a way to let us stay on the show floor longer, near your booth, as opposed to ducking out because our eyes are glazing over.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
You're there to look pretty, we don't really want to hear from you. If flaunting your body is part of the job description, don't get all prissy when people look at it.
It would be like a Chippendale dancer complaining he's not taken seriously for his mind.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
It takes more than "comfortable shoes", it takes "very comfortable shoes": gum soles, gel inserts, and similar stuff. And keep moving, the circulation of blood and other fluids in important.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Thank you. Was nice seeing this rose amongst the thorns.
They hate men for ogling them, but intend to trade on their looks to persuade Mr. Right to sweep them away to the life of luxury and ease they deserve, or even better, pay them lots of money so they can have the good life without him. Do they have anything other than looks, like, oh, brains? Sense? You might think some might have signed on to meet a few men, but no. Geeks can actually be good catches, but they don't think so.
I hate to break it to you, but I've had lots of luck with them. Women respond to to the messenger more than they do to the message. ...
BB: Hello Sir[wide fake smile], May I interest you in
Me, cutting her off with a genuine smile: No thanks, I'm not interested, I'm just checking you out
BB:[genuine smile]
I took it from there and we had coffee later, dinner the next day and sex two days later. I usually manage to at least get a phone number off of them, so the stuff you're saying ... well, if the women don't like you, perhaps it's not them after all?
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
But there's a lot of weird anger coming out in these comments. They've got a job, they complain about it. Who doesn't?
Nothing to see here.
Thank you, Green Tom.
I have been reading along, thinking "male who has never been offered this sort of work, male who doesn't know anyone who has been offered this sort of work, etc."
Some plain truths from the someone who used to be offered this sort of work.
1. The people offering the jobs frequently lie. Think about short-term, low-level contract work you have been offered that turns out, once you are on the job site, to be much worse than you were expecting. If you took the contract in the first place, you likely had a short-term need for immediate work. These are not career positions, they are pick-up-some-cash jobs. It is also likely that some of the women who take these jobs aren't as familiar with the nerd world as everyone here. They may have heard that geeks are harmless.
2. Some women do this work regularly, know what it entails, and are fine with it. Like the folk in the article. The headlines here are frequently not that well aligned with the content of the articles. Which is fine. The purpose of the headline is to get you to read the article. How many would click through on a headline that read "Booth Babes Kind of OK with Work"?
3. The real question is why y'all till need booth babes? Do you really expect to make time with someone paid to lure you in to a product presentation by tugging (metaphorically) on your short hairs? Are you really still that vulnerable to the oldest trick (so to speak) in the book? It is deeply disappointing. Women in the industry keep hoping to work with adults only to find themselves surrounded by folk who don't know they are acting like 12 yr olds. Sigh. Seriously, some self-respect eventually? Demanding booth babes also sets the industry up for charges (accurate, in my view) of cultural misogyny. It is difficult to have a professional conversation with a guy who is still at the "hyuk, hyuk, girl parts" stage. Tiring, too.
4. No one, of course, is alarmed by the fact that the female performers at technical professional conferences are being pushed to wear fewer clothes? Do we need to have the "why don't women want to work in STEM" conversation again? I am constantly bemused by the inability to see the correlation between childish behavior toward women and women avoiding your company.
People kvetch about their jobs!
Shocking film at 11!
more cowbell
while others don't enjoy being the subject of stares
Well cover them titties up and I'll quit looking at them.
WTF? That's why they call it work. Want to be a Security guard who watches the monitor for 8 hours a day? How about a guy making sand castings for an engine block (that's really tough by the way)? How about writting code all day long.
There is one downside for them. It's called 3-oh UH UH! Once they turn 30, they are mostly done. Few women look that nice after 30. Tossed aside for a 20 some year old.
Trend is towards more skin?!?!?! Great! I can look but still can't touch. Haven't been able to touch for over 30 years.
but photo shows white booth babes.
If we care what they think, ask them, or have their agencies poll them.
Are they exploited? No more than any other trade show 'babes'. I would guess most do it for the money, while waiting for their 'next big thing' to happen. Most that I have seen that can at least repeat the techie aspects they have been told, are articulate and I am guessing pretty smart individuals.
From a conference attendee perspective, I enjoy the 'eye candy', even though they are not 'necessary' they do add an appeal for most guys, which are most of the audience at these events.
If you feel 'bad' seeing them 'exploited', don't go to the conference or don't go to their booths. If the advertisers don't see an 'edge' in getting their message out by having them there, they won't be there. ... It's just economics.