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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?
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.
"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!
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
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?
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!
Please tell me where a 40 yr old male or 50 yr old female can apply for the job as booth babe?
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 !
A model is no more a sex object than a store mannequin is a sex toy. They are selling products, they are not hookers. Get some perspective.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
... 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 !
"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.
First of all everyone is a sex object (unless they are unlucky). Second of all no one is only a sex object. Models emphasizing their sex appeal to sell stuff to men are the same as strippers who sell drinks, and are certainly on a low, lazy, and overpaid rung of sex work.
A model is no more a sex object than a store mannequin is a sex toy.
They dress scantily when everyone else is fully clothed and they don't hire ugly ones. True, they are not hookers but they do sell sexual attractiveness though not sexual services.
http://marriedmansexlife.com/
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
You aren't trying hard enough.
Actually, the jock is the underpaid geek's overpaid worthless boss. And the homecoming queen is the boss' wife whose ass the geek has to kiss at holiday parties.
For most people, especially stereotypes like the class geek, football star and homecoming queen, highschool roles define their life roles forever.
--
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.
A modern model, by definition IS a sex object. Most are being used to sell sexuality. They don't wear red lipstick because they are saying hi. That's the primative and literally way of saying I'm ready for sex NOW. And if you think I'm wrong in any way, you know nothing about human sexuality. Get some perspective. Learn something about the subject matter before you open your clueless mouth.
In advertising, its shocking just how must sexuality is consciously (what these models are complaining about) and sub-conciously being sold right in front of you. A lot of advertising goes for, even when its not obvertly done so, is done so on the basis of sexuality and education of product. For example, those old tic-tac commercials where the lady is bouncing it off her tongue over and over and over again - ya, that's all sub-conciously about oral satisfaction which has nothing to do with tic-tacs.
So please, be quiet, stop parroting your improperly placed and all too frequently ignorant politically correct perspective and bother to learn something about the subject matter. Seriously, its amazing how much sex is used to sell, even when its non-obvious to most clueless people.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
(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.