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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions

"Pretty young women sell stuff"

74 replies

HollyMiamiFLA · 07/02/2014 21:48

I mean it's pretty obvious. I have done a search for conference display stands as I hope to exhibit at a conference soon. I would say 50% of the images showed a stand with a pretty young women posing.

No men. No old women. No "plain" women. Just pretty young women.

That's just the way it is. Eye candy. I remember watching the Apprentice and one of the blokes suggested having one of the women on his section of the exhibition as it would attract more blokes.

Will this ever change? Or do people only want to see young women to sell stuff?

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MothratheMighty · 07/02/2014 21:51

Look at the cosmetics adverts too, and the clothing for women. All on ideal, youthful or youthful-looking bodies.
Young and pretty sells, to both genders. At least some people are asking questions now, and spoofing it on occasion.

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HollyMiamiFLA · 07/02/2014 21:56

It's just everywhere. If someone has something to sell, they seem to feel the need to put a picture of a pretty young woman there.

If they have a phone number, why not add a picture of a pretty woman with a headset? Much better than an ugly bloke Grin

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MothratheMighty · 07/02/2014 22:00

DD is brilliant on this, lots of online stuff about the posture and angles and juxtapositioning of figures. She's a 22 YO feminist, with very strong opinions. Smile

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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:08

You see young men can be "pretty" too, in the sense of sexually attractive, and it's a similar % of the population who will potentially respond to that.

Sad thing is that because "pleasing to the eye" is defined in our society as "young woman in some kind of sexualised pose" (in which I include coy etc.) most men and women seem to respond to that regardless of sexuality, due to conditioning.

There are some out there who I have seen say, in all seriousness, "but women are simply more attractive than men. They are objectively better to look at".

Which is of course clearly nonsense.

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HollyMiamiFLA · 07/02/2014 22:12

I was at a conference last week. When I left, there were about 10 "meeters and greeters" who said good bye as I walked towards the exit.

All young, pretty women. Loads of make up. Short skirts. Just what the client ordered?

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ErrolTheDragon · 07/02/2014 22:15

Yes ... except perhaps that whereas most women are fairly neutral towards a young, pretty woman, I suspect that a fair few men would be less than comfortable with a young, pretty man.

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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:17

Ditto prizes in sporting events, the tour de france springs to mind.

After all, what celebratory event is complete without a few attractive women standing around looking attractive?

It's ridiculous.

I say to DH. Imagine if all the images of hot young women were replaced globally with images of hot young men. For one day.

Would straight men like it? No they would not.
Would lots of people say it was disgusting exploitative too much obscene etc? Yes. And they wouldn't even see the irony...

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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:20

That's just socialisation though isn't it errol.

Women learn to grin & bear it and ignore, and respond to the messages as well.

Men could learn the same.

Not that I want them to.

You know, the one time I was on a tube and there was a man fairly openly looking at a hardcore gay mag, I felt much more relaxed, than any time I had been sat next to a man with the sun.

I think probably most men simply don't understand, how it feels to know you are a sexual object from about 12. They think "what's wrong with looking at an attractive woman?" and they have no clue. Switch the tables for one day and they (vast majority of straight UK men) would hate hate hate it.

If I had 3 wishes maybe that could be one Grin

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KissesBreakingWave · 07/02/2014 22:24

... and here's the interesting thing. They don't actually sell stuff. Damned if I can find it right now, but a chap got a chance to test it. He got a buckshee second stand at a trade fair and left along to book greeters for it. Asked for 'good people skills' and got a couple of friendly matronly types sent along by the agency. In terms of sales leads generated, they wiped the floor with the booth babes on the other stand.

Short of available time for googling it back up, but this was quite recent.

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KissesBreakingWave · 07/02/2014 22:26

I suppose that the moral of the story is that if you hire people to look pretty, that's all they're going to do. Hire people for relevant skills and they're going to get stuff done.

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HollyMiamiFLA · 07/02/2014 22:30

"booth babes"
"grid girls"
"those women who walk around the boxing ring with the round number"

Sad

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HollyMiamiFLA · 07/02/2014 22:30

"podium girls"

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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:32

Also true kisses.

Does anyone know what the point is of having "dolly birds" around people who win sporting competitions?

Can you imagine the bizarreness of a competition which was all female having a bunch of hunks standing around in tight pants while the prizes were dished out?

Or a bunch of women looking attractive as well....

Is it a man thing?

Things which are predominantly heterosexual get women.
Things which are predominantly gay get hot men standing around (I think - have seen it a few times anyway)

So what do women get, whether gay or straight?

No-one?

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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:34
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MothratheMighty · 07/02/2014 22:36
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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:36

heh

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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:36

Note elvis Grin

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Gladvent · 07/02/2014 22:39

I've been exhibiting at a trade show all week - fairly even split of genders on stands - but I did get offered a job as a PA - wtf - I was not there doing anything remotely PA like.

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HollyMiamiFLA · 07/02/2014 22:41

gladvent

This was literally a line of young women saying bye on the way out.

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NiceTabard · 07/02/2014 22:43

That ducati site is great.

Interesting that some of the men have gone for it and are genuinely going for the poses. I bet that a lot of men looking would feel quite uncomfortable with those.

I'm not sure if it feels like a bit of a piss-take of the model they chose to do the calendar though, TBH. It is well done but still it feels like, well they are doing it for what, a laugh? make a point? they did a good job BUT it's not their living and they don't face what women do all the time so the poses are less, um, emotionally impacting or something.

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grimbletart · 07/02/2014 23:46

The thing about the ducati site is that the women look equally silly sticking their arses and their tits out.

When I see glamour models and page 3 types I can't helping thinking "don't you look a total prat" - so insincerely coy, so artificially sexy, just so, well….utterly naff.

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mythbustinggov · 07/02/2014 23:48

Techcrunch just did a piece on this _ techcrunch.com/2014/01/13/booth-babes-dont-convert/

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KissesBreakingWave · 08/02/2014 00:40

I dunno. Some of the guys on the Ducati site make it work, there. In two of the shots, rather better than the model did...

... I'll be in mah bunk.

(Also, mythbusting? That's the piece I was thinking of.)

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starballbunny · 08/02/2014 01:15

It's always been thus, my DDad took me to a couple of engineering shows as a sixth former.

We always used to joke I knew more about engineering than the "pretty girls" on the stand. Sadly a lot of companies seemed to choose a woman out the office, with long legs and blonde hair, rather than a techie.

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VegetariansTasteLikeChicken · 08/02/2014 04:45

Art used to reflect men as pretty young things quite frequently didn't it? They used to love a marble penis back in the day.

When did it become only women as sexual and worth looking at?

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