Newsflash: 'Booth Babes' don't want to ruin your fun

So I’m well known for banging on for equality for female gamers around these parts. I know it’s rather annoying, but when stuff like this and this happens, you HAVE to keep banging on about it, or these daft idiots get away with being daft idiots. Sometimes however, I’m literally gobsmacked by what some of the gaming community think is OK to say out loud. I refer you to ‘Booth Babes Need Not Apply’ by Joe Peacock.

I HIGHLY suggest you read it.

Done? Right. What the hell?!

If you didn’t read it, I’ll sum it up for you: Peacock has real issues with women dressing up as ‘booth babes’ for conferences such as E3. They are posers, in his eyes, desperately seeking attention from innocent male gamers because they’re not ‘hot’ enough to make it at real conventions, or as models.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Normally I would never assume to know anything about a stranger’s personality or psyche, but I feel as Peacock has some real, well, issues with women. There’s no consideration for the fact that these women do the ‘booth babe’ thing because they’re in it for the day’s wages, not the attention. In his words, ‘They decide to put on a "hot" costume, parade around a group of boys notorious for being outcasts that don't get attention from girls, and feel like a celebrity’. Yes, Peacock. That’s exactly why they do it.

What’s really sick though is his ‘6 of 9’ theory. Basically, he claims that these women would be a 6 on some imaginary ‘hotness’ scale in everyday life. However, once they pull on a sexy outfit and stand at a booth for male geeks’ enjoyment, they shoot up to a 9. This means that they get a cheap thrill at the expense of the ‘outsiders’, and cheapen and nullify the geek culture at large.

I’m not entirely sure Peacock lives in the real world. He can’t even decide which side he’s on. One moment he’s deriding these women who are just making some money, and the next he’s calling men ‘disgusting’ because of the recent treatment of Felicia Day. So what’s happening, mate? Are women demeaning your culture by daring to have attractive bodies, or are men destroying it by scaring all the cool women away?

I personally think he’s taken offence at the wrong people entirely. These women aren’t a threat to male gamers, but the people who hire them are. Despite gaming growing up as a medium along with the audience, gamers are still treated like the 13 year old, girl obsessed shut ins they were portrayed to be twenty years ago. It’s still assumed that the way to make gamers interested in your product is to insert a scantily clad woman somewhere along the line, whether it’s in the marketing or in the game itself.

Men, why aren’t you completely outraged at this stereotyping? Why aren’t you utterly insulted that a large section of the gaming industry thinks the easiest way to hold your attention is with a naked woman, rather than good gameplay or storytelling? Peacock has totally missed the point. He’s somehow mistaken this horrible assumption as mean spirited attention seeking by the women themselves. In the process, he’s deeply hurt the community he was trying so hard to ‘save’ from these ‘harlots’.

Get over yourself, mate. When you do, come back to me and we’ll work on the real problem. Until then though, go away because you’re just making yourself look like a misogynistic idiot.