The "lustful" promotion doesn't bother me as much as the prize. You can go and get a photo taken with a booth-babe if you want, whatever floats your boat, but since when did the promise of "two hot babes" become something you give away in a promotion? Women are prizes now?
Yeah, this should be like a game of Assassins - you can't do it if the booth babes see you coming, in which case they're allowed to find out if you're wearing a jock strap that can withstand heavy force.
Yeah. And just the whole booth babe thing at cons is like, "WE ARE CATERING TO STRAIGHT MALES", and particularly to the teenage mentality exhibited by the geeky straight male set. Yuck. If we're really all so smart (as geeks are supposed to be), can't we use our smarts toward progressive ends and not be troglodytes?
As was stated above - sex sells. The girls have CHOSEN to stand their in their bikinis, and WILL have been briefed fully on what was happening. They are not victims, they are not being abused by the company. If they were not happy with it - they wouldn't do it. They are not stupid -despite the common perception."
and what about "any other booth babes" who work for companies other than EA? Has EA fully briefed them on what was happening? Urg. Don't most companies run all contests past their legal department first just to make sure the rules are clear? How did the HUGE LAWSUIT POTENTIAL sneak by them?
"Chest-full of Booty" probably not helping the situation.
I used to run a booth at conventions. One year one of our competitors brought an exotic dancer with him who would pose for topless photos (Polaroid) with the con-goers for a reasonable sum. We did better than he did. He had lots of young males standing about fifteen feet away staring but relatively few customers. I think the ploy actually cost him money. It will be interesting to see if this flops as badly.
I'm really surprised at the number of people, male and female, who instantly leap to the "well if they didn't expect to be harassed they wouldn't work as convention model". Right. Because being paid to be a model is the same as getting harassed for money. I wonder what these people think about sex workers - cannon fodder, every one?
Sex sells sure... But this also discriminates inherently against female guests, on top of the harassment those women will recieve.
This is one of those weird questions for me.... because while I certainly agree declaring open season on your own employees is .... ridiculously stupid, I'm not sure how this discriminates again female guests.
Female guests can still take a photo with the booth babes to enter the contest. There's no specification that you have to do *more* than take the photo.
While I disagree with the 'Well they sign up for harrasment so this is okay' argument, we also need to honest about the fact that there are no real innocents here either.
I think the contest is all-in-all a horrible idea.. but I always back away from the 'You're objectifying these women by even making them be booth babes' argument because let's be clear... noone is *MAKING* them do anything.
There exists, worldwide, a career path open to a select group of women (and a smaller group of men) that walks the thin weird line between sexual objectification and celebrity. It runs the gamut from ring girls, hostesses, booth babes and all the way up to women like Olivia Munn. It is an occasionally skeevy career path but one that can be lucrative if you catch the right breaks. It tends to be a little less skeevy in America than it is in some other countries (some of the things that on japanese game shows, for example are.... insanity), but we're hardly the least skeevy.
They are not paid to *just* model, sadly.
Does that say anything good about us as a culture? Not particularly. But it is what it is.
(and it's also nowhere near being a sex worker either)
The reading of the contest implies you have to be commiting some lecherous action in the shot, like a kiss or a grope, which will discourage women from attempting it. On top of that, the prize is something targetting specifically men. Most women might like a date in a limo to a nice restraunt, but doing so with two hot female dates? Not so much.
True... neither the prize nor the contest is necessarily *compelling* to women. But it's also not a requirement that it be so. There are also a (minute, miniscule, infintesimal) selection of women who might find the contest funny / interesting and who might actually be interested in the prize (let's say given the ComicCon sample size that the number is probably 1).
There are a rather large number of contests that either through the logistics of the contest, or the prize awarded are heavily favored towards one sex or the other. (Lifetime TV contests for spa getaways, SpikeTV contests that give trips to a party at the playboy mansion, etc).
I'm completely in agreement that the contest is ridiculous and stupid. But just because the prize is uninteresting to a majority of women, doesn't mean the contest is discriminatory.
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theweaselking
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-24 11:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-24 11:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-24 11:31 pm (UTC)The whole idea of booth babes is altogether pretty awful. What makes them any different from, say, Vanna White or those women on the Price is Right?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-24 11:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-24 11:56 pm (UTC)Or were you talking about the booth babes?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 12:05 am (UTC)The "lustful" promotion doesn't bother me as much as the prize. You can go and get a photo taken with a booth-babe if you want, whatever floats your boat, but since when did the promise of "two hot babes" become something you give away in a promotion? Women are prizes now?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 12:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 12:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 12:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 01:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 02:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 06:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 07:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 09:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 10:12 am (UTC)As was stated above - sex sells. The girls have CHOSEN to stand their in their bikinis, and WILL have been briefed fully on what was happening. They are not victims, they are not being abused by the company. If they were not happy with it - they wouldn't do it. They are not stupid -despite the common perception."
You GO girl.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 10:16 am (UTC)@christyxcore I feel like everyone overreacted to this Dante thing. It's not like they started with "Let's objectify women!" #EAfail
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 01:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 02:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 03:12 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's gonna go great.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 03:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 04:35 pm (UTC)In retrospect, using the term
Date: 2009-07-25 04:40 pm (UTC)I used to run a booth at conventions. One year one of our competitors brought an exotic dancer with him who would pose for topless photos (Polaroid) with the con-goers for a reasonable sum. We did better than he did. He had lots of young males standing about fifteen feet away staring but relatively few customers. I think the ploy actually cost him money.
It will be interesting to see if this flops as badly.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-25 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 01:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 01:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 02:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 11:17 pm (UTC)This is one of those weird questions for me.... because while I certainly agree declaring open season on your own employees is .... ridiculously stupid, I'm not sure how this discriminates again female guests.
Female guests can still take a photo with the booth babes to enter the contest. There's no specification that you have to do *more* than take the photo.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 11:22 pm (UTC)I think the contest is all-in-all a horrible idea.. but I always back away from the 'You're objectifying these women by even making them be booth babes' argument because let's be clear... noone is *MAKING* them do anything.
There exists, worldwide, a career path open to a select group of women (and a smaller group of men) that walks the thin weird line between sexual objectification and celebrity. It runs the gamut from ring girls, hostesses, booth babes and all the way up to women like Olivia Munn. It is an occasionally skeevy career path but one that can be lucrative if you catch the right breaks. It tends to be a little less skeevy in America than it is in some other countries (some of the things that on japanese game shows, for example are.... insanity), but we're hardly the least skeevy.
They are not paid to *just* model, sadly.
Does that say anything good about us as a culture? Not particularly. But it is what it is.
(and it's also nowhere near being a sex worker either)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-27 02:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-27 04:58 am (UTC)There are a rather large number of contests that either through the logistics of the contest, or the prize awarded are heavily favored towards one sex or the other. (Lifetime TV contests for spa getaways, SpikeTV contests that give trips to a party at the playboy mansion, etc).
I'm completely in agreement that the contest is ridiculous and stupid. But just because the prize is uninteresting to a majority of women, doesn't mean the contest is discriminatory.