Hey! It’s my second A-to-Z Blogging Challenge post. Today’s letter is B, and it’s time I tackle the topic of booth babes. Since I started this blog, I’ve been wanting to write about them as my feelings on the issue of booth babes are complex.
Since then, I’ve had time to sort them out. I realized (with the release of “Thor”) that I don’t mind if women are portrayed as objects in comic book movies–as long as men are treated equally! Some movies allow me a nice long look at a shirtless Thor or the well-toned abs of one King Leonidas. Do I still have issues? Nope! I have options.
I thought maybe I had several reasons for disliking booth babes at conventions. Booth babes are attractive women (often models, sometimes knowing nothing about video games) hired to attract attention to games and products at conventions.
Being a non-model female geek, I thought perhaps I was just jealous or angry over the fact that video game companies hired a pair of boobs instead of a spokesperson with product knowledge.
That wasn’t it at all. It wasn’t even the fact that there wasn’t a hot piece of man-meat advertising products geared towards me.
It’s that the companies were completely alienating my demographic. I want to buy the product, but the advertising is telling me “well, this game really isn’t for you.”
Thank goodness this is changing. According to Lisa, who left a comment on my previous blog entry about Star Wars: The Old Republic, gaming giant BioWare does intend to address the issue of equality in their MMO.
While this is a step forward, it would make more sense if developers could simply anticipate a female player base–especially when creating a game that is story-based and relies heavily on social media for advertising.
I’ve let go of a lot of anger on this issue now that I understand it, especially since so many males (friends and in general) seem to support equality instead of just bashing women for complaining (cause that’s how it used to go down).
Sure, I’d feel better if games hired a stand in Crixus in a cod-piece to advertise the latest video game. A shirtless Alcide would work also. But for now, there’s progress. I look forward to future conventions with attractive male models repping the latest video games.
