This week I road tripped my way way down to Las Vegas to attend CES 2012, the International Consumer Electronics Show with my good friends Rachael Herrscher and Breanne Mansell, both from Today’s Mama. All three of us are tech savvy, entrepreneurial women who run businesses in the social media sphere. At any given time if you were to check our purses you’d probably find at least one iPhone, a DSLR camera, and a laptop or two. Maybe throw in an iPad for good measure.
Sure when I emptied my purse yesterday I found 12 tubes of lip-gloss, some tampons, a bunch of bobby pins and elastics, and two tubes of mascara but I also found an iPhone and a DSLR Canon camera. I’m connected to some form of technology every waking minute of the day and sadly that’s not an exaggeration.
I expected booth babes for the tens of thousands of guys roaming through the CES conference center space over the course of the week, but I was kind of horrified. It’s not how the booth babes were dressed that freaked me out, but that the booth babes were a general representation of what’s expected of women in the technology sphere.
I love a sexy car as much as the next guy, and you know I want to keep up with all the cool tech trends. The problem is the huge disconnect between consumer electronic brands and their attitudes towards women; sure women buy and use and write about technology, but we also look so pretty up on a pedestal holding a camera while wearing a tutu and fishnet stockings.
I’ve got to say boys, I’m pretty disappointed in you.
Allison
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
Amen sister!
Ridiculous.
I used to work in the tradeshows industry and I’m sorry to say Booth Babes aren’t limited to only guy-centric shows. But I had to laugh (to keep from crying) when I heard that journalists were interviewing them to get the woman’s perspective on the tech instead of actually finding a woman attendee. I shake my head.
Did you read Maggie’s post about this? Brilliant.
Yeah, I read Maggie’s post. Spot on. I knew it would be silly but when the booth babes were interviewed, their reactions were naturally: “I, heeee heee, love to shop and buy makeup!” Me too girls, but you give the rest of us a bad name and feed straight into the stereotype.
I know! Wouldn’t it have been awesome if, when asked, one of them had busted out with a cost comparison anaylsis of the product agaisnt it’s competitors including the advantages/disadvantages of each technical spec? That would have been money well spent on booth staff instead of just a pretty smile and some lycra. :)
WORD.
Barf.