Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined
Should We Be Offended by Hooters Girls?
Emma Parker
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Viewpoints
That's how Hooters is different than your average chain restaurant - its appeal is based entirely on entertainment value-and it has to be because the food is painfully average. You could find similar or better hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, and hot-wings at countless other establishments. A trip to Hooters would have to be for the friendly, attractive women and/or to watch your sport of choice on TV.
This doesn't really further Hooters' claim to being a "family restaurant." All I see (other than about eight simultaneous sports games) are short, orange athletic shorts and tight, cleavage-emphasizing tops worn by stereotypically and uniformly attractive young women smiling and bustling around to keep a male-based clientele satisfied. In fact, a 2003 study showed that 70% of Hooters customers were males between the ages of 25 and 54. And it's not necessarily a guys' night out type thing, because the times I visited Hooters, I noticed that about half of these men came alone to sit at the bar and chat with friendly bartenders and waitresses. At dinnertime and later, I've never seen many women at Hooters. Some came in groups consisting mostly of men, and there were an unfortunate few who didn't look too thrilled about being brought on dates to this establishment. Around lunchtime, customer gender and age demographics were more balanced. I even saw a (crying) child once, and a group of middle-aged women enjoying some wings and burgers. It was refreshing to see that my roommate and I weren't the only females who choose to come to Hooters and like it.
Even if the majority of Hooters customers are males, should we really care? What do Hooters girls think about the environment they work in? It's important to know that these women have to sign a contract acknowledging that "the Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal" and that "joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace." Some women may find this inappropriate and degrading, but the Hooters Girl contract also confirms that female employees find nothing about their jobs, uniforms, or work environment "offensive, intimidating, hostile, or unwelcome." I spoke to a few waitresses about their jobs, and they were friendly, enthusiastic, and had only positive things to say about the Hooters workplace and their customers.
This doesn't really further Hooters' claim to being a "family restaurant." All I see (other than about eight simultaneous sports games) are short, orange athletic shorts and tight, cleavage-emphasizing tops worn by stereotypically and uniformly attractive young women smiling and bustling around to keep a male-based clientele satisfied. In fact, a 2003 study showed that 70% of Hooters customers were males between the ages of 25 and 54. And it's not necessarily a guys' night out type thing, because the times I visited Hooters, I noticed that about half of these men came alone to sit at the bar and chat with friendly bartenders and waitresses. At dinnertime and later, I've never seen many women at Hooters. Some came in groups consisting mostly of men, and there were an unfortunate few who didn't look too thrilled about being brought on dates to this establishment. Around lunchtime, customer gender and age demographics were more balanced. I even saw a (crying) child once, and a group of middle-aged women enjoying some wings and burgers. It was refreshing to see that my roommate and I weren't the only females who choose to come to Hooters and like it.
Even if the majority of Hooters customers are males, should we really care? What do Hooters girls think about the environment they work in? It's important to know that these women have to sign a contract acknowledging that "the Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal" and that "joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace." Some women may find this inappropriate and degrading, but the Hooters Girl contract also confirms that female employees find nothing about their jobs, uniforms, or work environment "offensive, intimidating, hostile, or unwelcome." I spoke to a few waitresses about their jobs, and they were friendly, enthusiastic, and had only positive things to say about the Hooters workplace and their customers.
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