No Booth Babes

No Booth Babes

Predictably and depressingly, people are making fun of RSAC’s new “no booth babes” policy.

Oh, you brave freedom fighters, snarking away in defence of… what, again?

If you can’t see the problem with hiring women as eye candy, I can’t really help you. Sure, as hackers we all look at policies and processes and think about the failure modes, and the fact that RSAC phrased the ban as clothing guidelines leaves the obvious opening of “wait, are you trying to ban my shorts/utilikilt/mankini? OPPRESSION!!11ELEVENTY!”.

This is completely missing the freaking point. I can’t say it better than this:

As I reported a while ago after my own uncomfortable trade show booth experience, it turns out that hiring booth babes doesn’t even work - so you are demeaning women for no reason. And make no mistake, you ARE demeaning women by doing this. Whether it’s the traditional booth babe in a skimpy outfit, or the newer variety of miniskirted presenter who only knows a script, you are insulting both the women you hire for this idiotic job, and all the other women who are there as professionals with a job to do.

I suppose I should know better than to expect anything from humanity, and IT people in particular, but still. Grow up.