From Reuters via Yahoo News
"Sexy "booth babes" face fines at video game show"
For those of you over the age of 35 who have worked in tradeshows in their job, know that the "Booth Babe" used to be a staple in almost every companies exhibit. There they stood in all their glory. The Booth Bimbos with their 20-something skin, cinched waist, flowing locks, and of course behemoth boobies, standing on the booth perimeter handing out brochures, chatchkis, or simply just standing to get the male attention. Outwardly, I just hated those gals, but secretly wanted to be one because they all have "perfect" skinny jeans bodies.
The Booth Babe, symbolically, is simply the last mark of gaudy male dominance in the business world. It's so old school now, that to have scantily clad booth bimbos in your exhibit is now considered purely tacky and classless. The car industry was notorious for having scantily clad bodacious beauties hawking cars at the big auto shows. Now, since women buy more than 60% of new cars, the bimbos have been replaced with respectable Calvin Klein suited spokespeople, female and male.
In an effort to get yet another male dominated industry to mature and do away with the Booth Babe, the huge and popular gaming tradeshow E3, Electronics Entertainment Expo, will now be handing out on the spot, after a verbal warning, a $5000 fine for any exhibitor who has a scantily clad female in their booth. If you have never been to the E3 show, it is loud, colossal, and full of life-like versions of game characters which include many half naked women in combat boots or bikinis. Okay, they are not that naked, many in addition wear hats or maybe a scarf. The show can get outrageous and tacky. One year in the early 2000's, there was an exhibitor who hired about a dozen midgets dressed in costume from slutty Catholic school girls, the band KISS, to Fidel Castro. The slutty midget school girls was just so beyond even my own flexible level of tolerance. However, the E3 tradeshow is merely a reflection of the games being sold, so you can almost say that the booth babies are not simply in the booth for gawking purposes, but they are the living representation of cast members of the game being sold.
I worked in the game industry for 3 years, and honestly, I can say that I got out because I hated the overall portrayal of women in video games. Yes, there are more female game characters that kick ass, and beat the hell out of the bad guys, but every single one of these game heroines has D-cup boobs, and is wearing something skin tight, and revealing. And, let's not forget the shower scenes. After a hard day of fighting aliens and criminals, there is always a gratuitous shower scene with our lady hero. How about seeing her male counterparts take a shower. I might play more games if I could some digital male eye candy. How about more depictions of guys like in the Volleyball scene in the movie Top Gun. EVERY woman loves that scene. I get tingles simply thinking about all that sweaty man meat on the beach being all athletic and what-not.
Anyway, back to eliminating Booth Babes, I'm all for using sex to sell. It is provocative, it is stimulating, entertaining, and it is part of human nature. However, there is a huge difference between sexy, and Bimbo. Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft was sexy. Lara Croft in a string bikini and combat boots is Bimbo. Farewell E3 Booth Babes, the adolescent 30-year olds will miss you, but I won't.
