[mnw.pm] Re: Booth Babe rant

[Adam Turoff]

On Fri, Jul 07, 2000 at 06:01:29PM -0500, Elaine -HFB- Ashton wrote:
> David H. Adler [dha at panix.com] quoth:
> *>As I happen to know the PM booth babe, I know that that is probably
> *>the least of her talents (and I only say probably because she may have
> *>some even less interesting talent of which I am unaware...).
> *>Furthermore, if you do think that's all she is, I would advise you not
> *>to mention it to her, for the sake of your health, if for no other
> *>reason. :-)
> 
> David, don't be stupid. I met and like Amelia quite much and find
> exploiting the prime directive of human males to be smart marketing.

Yes, that was a factor, but it wasn't the only factor.  I'd go so
far as to say it wasn't even the primary factor.  So Amelia was
selling raffle tickets this year, but how many of you bought a
lanyard from that crazy guy with an amish beard last year?  Whomever
works the crowd with a smile in the name of all that is wholesome
and camel-haired will get sales.  It's as simple as that.

Amelia staffed the fourth Perl Mongers table.  As a staffer in each of the
previous three tables, I can assure you that we can get swamped
because of the swag, whether a pretty woman sells tshirts or four
balding bearded men sell tshirts.  

At TPC3, the table was a logistical nightmare.  We had three people
selling shirts and ten people gather around the table to hang out,
eat lunch, get in the way, gather and regroup, generally block
access to the ladies room or what have you.  In fact the table was
such a cause of problems that we got flack about it each and every
day of the conference.

And, yes, this happened at TPC2 and yapc99 to some degree, but at least
we were fortunate enough not to be blocking access to the loo.

If Perl Mongers is going to operate a table to sell anything at
all, it is unrealistic to expect that it be staffed by Perl Mongers
anymore; it just causes too many headaches.  We need booth staff.

> However, this doesn't mean I think highly of the men who continue to say
> that sexism doesn't exist in this industry out of one orifice and compare
> notes about booth babes out another.

Call them what you want, but paid booth staff are pretty much a 
requirement now.  Would it help if we replaced Ameila with a bevy
of booth boys next time?  

Yes, I'm serious.

Z.