How Sex Appeal Has Made Hot Wings Irresistible: Hooters & Sex Discrimination
Hooters vs. Winghouse
The cavalier attitude of the Hooters company with respect to its female servers is apparent in a lawsuit that it leveled against a company that unashamedly imitated the Hooters concept, Winghouse. In the ensuing court case, lawyers for Hooters claimed that the predominant function of the Hooters Girls was to "provide vicarious sexual recreation, to titillate, entice, and arouse male customers' fantasies." How, you may find yourself asking, does this relate to the product that is being sold: chicken wings?
Hooters Policies
Equality Now activitst Taina Bien-Aime is not simply exaggerating when citing that Hooters "is a place where a woman's body is really the object of the restaurant" (Source: "Despite Controversy, Hooters Prospers," by Daniel Yee). While the Hooters website claims "Hooters marketing, emphasizing the Hooters Girl and her sex appeal, along with its commitment to quality operations continues to build and contributes to the chain's success, (Ibid.)" Hooters CEO and president, Coby Brooks, lavishes praise on his staff of gorgeous female employees: "It's the girls. The girls are what we're all about," giving only secondary attention to the restaurant's food.
Who Wins?
So, if the restaurant is all about the girls, what do the girls receive? They certainly don't receive protection from gutter talk & sexual innuendos, as the company's Non-Harrassment Policy expressly states: "the Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace" (Source: The Hooters Employee Handbook). And they certainly aren't cut a huge slice of the monster profits that the company generates, although the company compares the girls to pro-athletes in its official web site: "Claims that Hooters exploits attractive women are as ridiculous as saying the NFL exploits men who are big and fast."
To many Hooters Girls & patrons, these drawbacks will simply be considered the cost of doing business. But if the girls are what the business is all about, why are the girls receiving so little? On its website, the Hooters Company claims that it IS recognizing women's rights by allowing them to be the objects of sexual fantasy and slim protection from sexual harassment: ". . . the women's rights movement is important because it guarantees women have the right to choose their own careers, be it a Supreme Court Justice or Hooters Girl."
It appears that Hooters has done just about as much for the women's rights movement as it has for the chicken's rights movement.
Sources:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/12/14/financial/f125027S60.DTL
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0915051hooters8.html
http://www.hooters.com/company/about_hooters/
Published by James Withers
I believe there is a unity that can exist in a chaotic universe, and I believe that art and history can reflect this truth. When we study our different perspectives of the world we live in, we can live with... View profile
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8 Comments
Post a CommentOurWorldWeLiveIn, where did you draw those baseless conclusions? Your argument is so weak and typical from a Hooters hater I won't even bother dissecting it. Shut your uninformed trap and go die in a hole, peckerwood.
Hooters is awesome! i mean come on, where else can fat ugly a$$holes go to eat chicken wings & drink beer while drooling over attractive women (they could never get) that are only being nice to them because they are paid to....women that have no actual interrest in them and only see them as income? btw do strip clubs serve chicken wings?? :P
You just don't get it, do you? I never said that sexual harassment was acceptable in any situation. Actions like tapping the waitresses' behinds, making crude comments (i.e. I want to touch your breasts), and groping the waitresses would not be allowed or condoned at any Hooters. I can guarantee you that any customer who commits such an action would find his/her way out the door. I've never witnessed any incidents at Hooters where the waitresses were groped or subjected to unkind remarks. They are treated extremely well and make enough money from tips alone to survive the day. Have you ever actually stepped inside a Hooters? Most critics of Hooters have never been to one, so their arguments are automatically invalid.
I wonder how you feel about the numerous charity and community events in which Hooters has taken part. I already linked a few stories about some of their positive deeds. Read them and be enlightened. I have Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, which delayed my social
I welcome interested readers to chime in about whether "joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal" is much different from "gutter talk and sexual innuendos". Not too many employee handbooks view such joking and sexual innuendos as part and parcel of the workplace. While Hooters' management may intervene in cases of crass misbehavior on behalf of its customers, a certain amount of joking and innuendos is deemed acceptable. My argument is that the women should be paid more if they are opting to lose standard workplace protections.
Hooters is silly and offensive (too me), in fact a plain old strip club makes a lot more sense. However, this is America, free market, free enterprise, the right to buy and sell any and all available services and commodities in transaction between consenting adults, blah blah blah etc....but seriously folks, that's the way it is, and if you actually believe in any of that kind of stuff, well you can't regulate and restrict a business on whether it is "PC" enough. But even women (and men) involved in various levels of sexually focused entertainment, as service providers need to make sure that they are getting what they believe to be a fair rate of pay, perhaps even unioninzing if possible.
As with all other trades, the finally responsibility for working conditions and pay falls on the workers, and their willingness to work together and bargain hard with the entrepreneurs who sell their performances, services, and physical assetts
I'm sure no one will believe me, but I actually like the wings at Hooters. I also read Playboy for the articles. ;-)
I have to say that I completely agree with you. I went to a Hooters restaurant for the first time several years ago, and have yet to return. I know a Hooters waitress with a fake chest bigger than Pamela Anderson's, whose boyfriend defends her by saying, "She only works there to pay for college, she is really such a sweetheart. I don't know why everyone gives her crap about it." ?? I am blond, 5'2, 105 pounds and a 34C. And I have never had a problem finding a respectable job with a nice paycheck to pay for school.. so no more excuses, please. ( I also have never had to put that information on a resume!! ) Furthermore, I would never date a guy who was okay with me working at Hooters. Or one who frequently visits places based upon half-naked, surgically enhanced girls. :)
Interesting read.