Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse

Post by abraininavat » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 9:02 PM UTC

originalcvk wrote: post #17

jgj wrote: post #12

Interesting read, but I have to say I'm a little put off by the conclusion > [...] if I could have substituted them all for traditional booth babes, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Then I’d be free to have a great time being what I normally am at conferences: a curiosity, an anomaly, and an excitable nerd. In my opinion, this trivializes what was, prior to its inclusion, a worthwhile lament. The conclusion makes…

I don't think that was the point of her statement. I think she was basically saying "At least before, the booth babes were obvious, and other women were assumed to be engineers who belonged there for their technical merits. Now, companies are sending attractive, non-technical female product promoters and others outside of the engineering field dressed in street clothes. Now, it is harder to tell which women are engin…

Post by redthrowaway » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 9:04 PM UTC

JulianMorrison wrote: post #18

onemorepassword wrote: post #6

Seems like a hard problem to solve. Sending people to do product promotional is perfectly legitimate depending on the type of event. Even if you weren't deliberately targeting a male audience with attractive females (although I'm sure that was the case), odds are that if you were recruiting for that kind of work 90% would be outgoing and attractive young women. Just like recruiting programmers will get you 90% geeky…

Lets make it really, really simple. 1. Do not hire eye candy as eye candy. Of either sex. Dressed up or dressed down. 2. Product promotion staff should be clearly labeled as such.

Post by mtrimpe » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 9:04 PM UTC

chc wrote: post #13

onemorepassword wrote: post #6

Seems like a hard problem to solve. Sending people to do product promotional is perfectly legitimate depending on the type of event. Even if you weren't deliberately targeting a male audience with attractive females (although I'm sure that was the case), odds are that if you were recruiting for that kind of work 90% would be outgoing and attractive young women. Just like recruiting programmers will get you 90% geeky…

Are PR people really 90% attractive young women? I would be very surprised to find that out.

Post by abraininavat » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 9:06 PM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #24

Since in general few women are developers, I rather doubt the hiring of pr women has any bearing on the situation. If it is really so frustrating, maybe dressing accordingly would alleviate the pain - don't know, carry a Linux book, a T- Shirt that says "no, I won't fix your computer", or something like that.

Post by scott_s » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 9:07 PM UTC

abraininavat wrote: post #31

originalcvk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that was the point of her statement. I think she was basically saying "At least before, the booth babes were obvious, and other women were assumed to be engineers who belonged there for their technical merits. Now, companies are sending attractive, non-technical female product promoters and others outside of the engineering field dressed in street clothes. Now, it is harder to tell which women are engin…

Yeah, but you could (1) wish all non-technical women went back to dressing like hookers, or (2) wish there were more technical women at the conference or that there was some other means to distinguish between techie and non-techie.