"Booth Babes" Follow-Up

It Seems I Touched a Nerve….

Wow, that post sure has garnered a lot of attention! I'm quite humbled by the number of likes, shares and positive comments. Thank you all for engaging! I wanted to start a dialogue, and that goal has obviously been achieved.

So what happens next? I think a good place to start would be to drill down into one of the responses I saw more than once: that booth babes are just there to draw men's eyes, because men are "wired" that way. There are several ways to approach this.

First, that the booth babes are only there to draw the eye: that is literally the definition of objectification. You have deconstructed a living, thinking person into a bauble; something to be dangled as bait. Put aside for the moment that a woman is willing to present herself as such a token; what does that say about you? What do your female employees think of that? Have you asked them with HR in the room?

Second, have you considered the fact that—increasingly—women are the ones making major purchasing decisions? I can anticipate the response: "Oh, we'll just have 'booth boys,' then; complete with rippling abs." Wait— didn't you just tell me that men are visually stimulated, while women are less so? What if those women aren't impressed? Also: how are you appealing to LGBT purchasers?

Third, have you considered how incredibly insulting your booth babes are to a heterosexual man like myself? It tells me you think all you need do is appeal to my amygdala. Ignore my cerebral cortex; I won't use that in making $50K decisions. I'm that easily manipulated. Sorry, but I don't do business with people who treat me like I'm an idiot.

So what's next?