On Wed, Dec 15, 1999 at 12:22:46PM -0000 or thereabouts, Ian Phillips wrote:
(with no linebreaks, Ian, what happened? :))
> > LUGs to larger events with several thousand. And I would have put
> > the proportion of women who have attended those as much nearer 1-2%,
>
> That would be about right in my experience as well. The only time the
> numbers have been consistently higher than that is when the groups have
> been small enough that 1-2 women could register as quite a high percentage.
Good point. That's my experience too.
> > the women working on stands and stalls (I am coming to hate the phrase
> > 'booth babes', but that's how they are commonly described, grrr), it
>
> "Booth Bimbos" was the term I'd heard used. Judging by the level of their
> technical knowledge on average, I'd say it was more appropriate as well.
Although I agree with the general point, in fairness I should add that
I've met some fairly ignorant men on stalls at these things, too :)
Typically it's the people who know all about their product, the
product has just been ported to Linux, and they don't really know
a lot about Linux.
> I'm not even sure that they serve their purported marketing purpose well
> either, as far as I'm concerned a much better draw for a stand would be
> a cool give-away instead of the usual stress-ball or cheap biro. It
> wouldn't be nearly as condescending either.
Whilst I think that's a pretty common reaction, I regret to say that
judging by what I have seen and heard (and this isn't just the Slashdot
comments, this is at the shows), some people do indeed swap notes about
which stalls to go to on the basis of the appearance of the women there.
What peeves me, in effect, is not just that some companies are cynical
enough to think that pretty women make a difference to the numbers who
go to their stall; it's the fact that to at least some extent, they're
right...
Telsa
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