[UCANSEE2]

I would think BEM would be BUG EYED MONSTERS.

[SES1066]

Affirmative B.E.M.s = "BUG EYED MONSTERS". In reference to "Doc", [example from Lensmen Series] it might be the Ploorians in their winter stage, big eyes for very dark days & nights.

Generically, see many SF Pulp Magazine covers from 40s and 50s, where BEMs were generally reaching for an incredibly pulchritudinous but scantily clad human female. Given that the mean audience of these magazines were mid-adolescent males tending towards what later generations would call nerd-dom, a good marketing strategy.

Ah yes, the good old days when men were men and sheep were ...