The RSA Conference, a five-day tech security event, is banning scantily clad women — commonly referred to as "booth babes" — from selling products at exhibitor booths, ending a long-standing tradition of using sex to sell.
The practice of putting women in bikinis or skin-tight outfits to talk about tech products has been under
fire for some time, CNET reported.
“Booth babes are the Vanna Whites of the technology world, meant to reel in bedazzled male onlookers and then show off a company's products. But they've also been the subject of debate, with many critics saying it's demeaning for companies to treat women as sexualized props,” CNET’s Dana Kerr wrote.
"The outcome of dressing women inappropriately, establishing them as eye-candy or as decorative objects or hypersexualized figures, results in people taking women in general less seriously and being less inclined to hire women and promote women into positions of authority," Carol Colatrella, co-director of the Georgia Tech Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology, told CNET.
Controversial or not, the concept of booth babes, which PC Magazine said was a selling practice that began in the 1960s, is popular.
New York magazine recently questioned whether more shows are banning such behavior, describing booth babes as “women hired to dress in slutty outfits and entice lecherous consumers to check out new products.”
So far, Europgamer Expo, ChinaJoy gaming expo, and Mobile World Congress have all banned skimpy clothing in exhibitor booths through new dress codes.
PC Mag, though, put together a slide show of booth babes from the CES 2015 show, commenting, “Gadgets aren't the only thing to see at CES this week. Wink, wink.”
The new RSA Conference exhibitor dress code said booths need to be staffed by people dressed in a way “considered appropriate in a professional environment" and noted that “overly revealing or suggestive” clothing is not allowed, CNET reported.
Many online responded positively to RSA’s decision.