Jimquisition: Booth Babes

[MrFalconfly]

Booth babes or pit girls or paddock girls or whatever they're called can just sod off.

At a racing event I want to see the cars, the mechanics and the drivers. At a car show I want to see the cars and maybe sit in them. At a games expo I want to see the games. At any other entertainment expo I want to see the actually products and prototypes.

If I wanted to see scantily clad women I'd go to the beach or something.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Booth Babes

The punditry of the videogame community have been chatting an awful lot about booth babes this past year or so.

Watch Video

Thank god someone who's not treating these ladies like some kind of plague. There people too and I intend to treat them as such. also the fact that you can still have cosplayers where the booth babes are banned is hypocritical to me.

My solution: Find a middleground. since no one is objectively right instead of causing these poor women to lose jobs. Why not just dress em up a bit and hell teach em something about the games, make them knowledgable about the product.

You mean something like teach them the basic pitch for the product, let them play it for a short bit to get the most basic grasp of what they're talking abiout, suit them up as characters from the game in question, and call it a day?

Or something more like the SodaPop Girls (though several of them have characters based on them in that tentacle rape card game, so now they could pretty easily be the first group)?

CAPTCHA: crash and burn. Yes, captcha this thread most probably will.

not familiar w the soda pop girls but the first parts the gist of it. Points of your already knowledgable

 

[Sylveria]

If you're uncomfortable around booth babes.. you need to get some help. Do you get uncomfortable when you have an unusually attractive waitress? Do you start dry humping the window display when you pass a Victoria's Secret? Should we start banning attractive women from other professions just to make sure no one's panties get bunched? How about the beach? I go to the shore every year and more often than not the beach-going females look better in their bikinis than I do and are 8-12 years younger. Should we start sectioning off parts of the world into relative attractiveness areas so no one gets upset when someone with a tighter ass or better abs walks by?

I dunno, maybe if we're getting uncomfortable around booth babes, we are the sexually repressed, perma-virgin stereotypes we've been getting labeled as for years.

And let's stop pretending that gaming is the only industry that has the "sex sell" gimmick. Booth babes and sex-based advertising are not new and nearly every other industry uses them. Acting offended by it when it's been around for decades is just silly.

 

[Sylveria]

Just to reply to your "this is putting people out of work" comment...

It strikes me that people working in coal mines probably feel the same way. If you're saying that what they do for a job makes the world worse, not better, then losing their job as a consequence to your criticism seems fair, doesn't it?

I'm not saying that booth babes are an issue or that they're doing something wrong - I'm just saying arguing that we shouldn't criticize them because they might lose their jobs, when the merit of said job itself is being drawn into question, seems silly to me.

They're models. Period. Their purpose there is to be pretty and draw attention, as with any other model. Now we've started drawing a line between "good" modeling and "bad" modeling.

 

[Elyxard]

I do have a hard time deciding on how I feel about the matter as well. In earnest, I'd rather they not be there, but in reality, I wouldn't want to impose that view on these conventions.

My main beef with it is how patently lazy they've been with it. I actually have some respect for the controversial Jessica Nigri because she actually cosplays, not just dresses in some random frilly skirt and tube top. She actually delves deep into what she does and she should be commended for it.

Most of these companies, however, just hire a bunch of attractive women to shove on the showroom floor. It's lazy pandering, and I simply feel insulted by it. Dress them up, have them actually cosplay and promote the product that you're promoting, maybe actually inform them about the product, etc. And for crying out loud, hire some men; I'm sure there's some male characters from your game that you can make costumes for as well. That's a lot more interesting to me than just a random pair of boobs that I can find anywhere in the wild.

 

[Jimothy Sterling]

Just to reply to your "this is putting people out of work" comment...

It strikes me that people working in coal mines probably feel the same way. If you're saying that what they do for a job makes the world worse, not better, then losing their job as a consequence to your criticism seems fair, doesn't it?

I'm not saying that booth babes are an issue or that they're doing something wrong - I'm just saying arguing that we shouldn't criticize them because they might lose their jobs, when the merit of said job itself is being drawn into question, seems silly to me.

They're models. Period. Their purpose there is to be pretty and draw attention, as with any other model. Now we've started drawing a line between "good" modeling and "bad" modeling.

I thought the question was whether or not these kinds of models have a place in our culture or not. Maybe I'm totally off base here.

 

[Blade1130]

I'm sure someone's already said this, but I'm too lazy to check so I'll just throw it out there.

A good alternative to booth babes, would instead be cosplayers. You could have a cosplay of Bayonetta standing by her booth, and that would attract plenty of attention (some booths already do this). However this also works for guys, since a cosplay of Nathan Drake or Master Chief would get just about as much attention, so it isn't really sexist. You could obviously make the argument that Bayonetta is a hell of a lot more objectified, but that's more sexism in games and the character itself, rather than the booth babes, so it's a different issue entirely.

I know some booths already do this, just do more of it, and replace the booth babes with that, I'd much prefer cosplayers over booth babes.

 

[GTwander]

I couldn't have been more against his stance on the DoA topic, but am right on the same page with him here...

...so conflicted.


~I guess he just makes more sense when the topic lacks bias.

 

[Mr.Mustacho]

video game conventions are few and far between i doubt most booth babes get most of their income from them

and it's not like there is a lack of jobs for attractive people that are ok with showing themselves off


also i think there is a difference between sexy commercial cos-play and generic boot babes

 

[vxicepickxv]

Couldn't coordinating plans for "appropriate" attire for booth babes be done between via an intermediary between the publishers and the expo hosts?

The expo isn't going to freak out because there are under dressed women, the publishers still get their booth babes, and the women still get jobs. I believe this is the least terrible solution.

 

[Jynthor]

I must say I did expect the Booth Baby to end up like this.

But anyway, I didn't particularly care if they are there or not, but if it gives these girls jobs and they enjoy it, why not let them continue. Make them put on more clothes, and participate more in showing off the game besides perhaps just standing there (I assume that's what they do) but I don't see a huge need to get rid of them. And get Booth Bros as well if there's a potential gender issue as well.

Oh my god, Sammy is on fire!

Spoiler

I never expected to see a Grabowskis GIF on this site.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

A pretty well thought out video, especially since it gives both sides to the argument. Rather depressingly all the best arguments seem to be ones that don't actualy provide a clear answer.

To all the people mentioning the idea of booth boys to balance out the booth babes, that's an opinion that I generally share. However, I don't think it really solves the particular problem Jim was talking about in this video since he was focusing on the argument over whether booth babes are a positive influence in general, rather than discussing it as an equality issue. So while I think the idea of booth hunks potentially solves the equality problem, I don't feel it confronts the issues mentioned in this video.

If you're uncomfortable around booth babes.. you need to get some help. Do you get uncomfortable when you have an unusually attractive waitress? Do you start dry humping the window display when you pass a Victoria's Secret? Should we start banning attractive women from other professions just to make sure no one's panties get bunched? How about the beach? I go to the shore every year and more often than not the beach-going females look better in their bikinis than I do and are 8-12 years younger. Should we start sectioning off parts of the world into relative attractiveness areas so no one gets upset when someone with a tighter ass or better abs walks by?

I dunno, maybe if we're getting uncomfortable around booth babes, we are the sexually repressed, perma-virgin stereotypes we've been getting labeled as for years.

And let's stop pretending that gaming is the only industry that has the "sex sell" gimmick. Booth babes and sex-based advertising are not new and nearly every other industry uses them. Acting offended by it when it's been around for decades is just silly.

Well apparently someone didn't listen to the bit about "Try to have more empathy for the other side" bit. I guess your feelings are just more important than other peoples.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

But... he didn't say "Thank god for me!"

I... I am lost and confused... I don't know what to do now... WHAT DO I THANK GOD FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!??????????

 

[mrhateful]

I love that the mere sight of a half naked lady is now considered objectification, remember these ladies was hired to do the job. If your having trouble with this practice then blame it on the booth babes themself since taking it up with anyone else is acknowledging that those women are are stupid to understand your arguments and thus you are the person objectifying.

 

[karloss01]

theres a simple solution to all of this.

Booth Bros.

even women gawk at some eye candy.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Why not hire women who actually know about the product they're meant to be selling me

So to sum up (without the use of a shovel) Jimmy don't like the ladies 'cause they make his bits tingle.

Did you watch the video?