Unoriginal boobs
July 13, 2009
Thanks to Michael for spotting this gem:
A new restaurant opened in south Tulsa in April called Twin Peaks. It’s a regional chain that already has stores in Dallas, Austin, and Albuquerque, and it’s billed as the main competition of Hooters. (The Urban Tulsa Weekly has a review of a typical dining experience on page 27, if you’re interested.) Here’s a picture from their main website. It’s the only picture I could find of their food:
Get it? Twice… cuz there’s two boobs. Two unoriginal boobs.
But before I go philosophizing, here’s a picture of some of the wait staff at the Tulsa restaurant with, I presume, a young birthday boy:
Ha!
First, I will say that I want to hate these restaurants, but I don’t want to hate the women who choose to work at the them or the people who patronize these places. That said, why do people work at these places?!?!?! I don’t understand. I would love to sit one of these lovely young ladies down and interview her. They look like they’re having fun. They look reasonable healthy (except maybe the one that’s a little sun-burnt). They look like they’re clean and making an okay living. SO, why do I care? Why do I still hate these kinds of restaurants?
My main complaint is that this particular chain of restaurants, which promotes it’s hyper-sexualized waitstaff to attract and arouse hetero male clients, is so UNORIGINAL! Why do we need another Hooters? Or is this restaurant a real alternative because this time the outfits cover even less skin?
Mostly I just have questions: Is this exploitation? Is it gross because it reflects a microcosm of our current culture at large? Or is it gross because it harkens back to primitive times when women were just supposed to smile, look hot, and bring men food? Does it even sit wrong at all with you?
I dunno…
What do you all think?
Spring
July 13, 2009 at 9:48 am
Twice as much fun as other restaurants? Do the waitresses at the other places only have one breast?
I’ve never been to Twin Peaks, but I’d guess the shtick is really an attempt to make up for the lack of decent food. I ate at Hooters in high school, and even then I recognized that my cheeseburger and hot wings were really, really, really bad.
I think it’s all the things you mentioned–exploitative, gross, etc. But overall I’m indifferent. I really have no desire to try their burgers or watch their women carry food trays. Besides, the Ritz serves fried chicken and the women are actually naked.
July 13, 2009 at 1:28 pm
This is going to be long!! I think we might have discussed this issue before…I feel REALLY strongly about these places, so I often rant to people about them and forget who I’ve chatted with about it. I agree with you in that I can’t QUITE put my finger on what makes these establishments so disgusting or why they are so offensive. First off, you will never see me ranting about strip clubs. I don’t find strip clubs particularly enticing, but I am not personally disgusted or offended by them for the most part…I have even been to strip clubs before out of sheer curiosity. But I find places like Hooters and Twin Peaks [which, btw, is the name of my favorite TV show, and this restaurant has now forever stained its name...] to be on a whole other level of sinister, nasty, sexist, heteronormative, white-trashiness!! Here are a few reasons I think they offend me so much, personally [as you can see, I’ve pondered this a lot]:
1. They are sex establishments in the guise of restaurants. Why does our culture need this guise so much? Is it because we are ashamed of sex, so we have to pretend that it is really the food that the patrons want and not the arousal and fantasy? And why do food and sex get conflated in this way? It is as if the hunger for food is culturally-sanctioned, so when it is mingled with sex, it somehow takes the attention off the shame or taboo nature of sexual hunger. Why can’t it just be OK to admit and satisfy sexual desire, rather than skirt the subject and create an entire cultural façade of dining mixed with voyeurism?
2. They water down and “normalize” sexuality. These are places you go for lunch or dinner with friends from work. They advertise on billboards and in newspapers. They offer coupons and specials. They are located in the “good” part of town. The problem is that these places are selling sex as their primary customer-draw [like Daniel said, the food is rarely worth going for in and of itself]. But this is not really sex! Even for a true voyeur, this cannot be a satisfying sexual experience. Why must sex always be “normalized” and made friendly in this way? I am not saying we should be ashamed of sex and hide it away, but I am saying that these restaurants pretend to be OK with a little sexy-fun, when really all they do is teach suppression and evasion of real sexual pleasure. Real sex, with all of its personal quirks and individual-specific needs, cannot ever be represented or fulfilled in this kind of environment.
3. Also, I don’t want to degrade the women who work in these places, but honestly I have to wonder at these women’s own sense of self. They keep their clothes on, but they are paid to be sexual objects and give ‘pleasure’ to their customers. They are sex-workers without the sex…and probably without the higher pay scale. I have no problem with strippers or prostitutes [though they deal with many difficult issues], and I actually admire them in a way, because they street-smart, business savvy, and often very in tune with their own bodies and their own pleasure. But I worry that the women who work in places like Hooters are in denial of the ways they are being objectified [at least strippers and prostitutes are fully and consciously involved in their own objectification]. It is as if these waitresses are playing at being strippers, but without the actual sex-work, the actual challenges, and the actual pleasures.
4. These restaurants implicate families, children, and women, thus creating a cultural norm. Your wife wouldn’t step a pinky toe in a strip club, but she joins you at Hooters from time-to-time because you like the wings? You take your son to Twin Peaks for his 10th birthday, because it will be fun for him to have his pictures taken with the waitresses? That’s exactly the kind of mindset these establishments want their patrons to have. It’s innocent. It’s fun. It’s not THAT offensive…surely it’s OK for boys to be boys now and again, right? If everyone is OK with it, then it can happily [and profitably] continue unchecked. This is a frightening and insidious problem. Men obviously need to be acculturated to be more open and honest about their sexual needs rather than repressing or transferring them [both with themselves and with their partners], and women need to demand this!! And for the love of humanity, stop taking your kids to these places!! If you want to teach them about sex, teach them about sex in a forthright and educated manner – you are doing them no favors teaching them that hot wings and boobs are all there is to sex!
6. They perpetuate heteronormativity and racism, and this a huge, unchecked, and often blindly accepted practice in most cultures. Ironically, places like Hooters and Twin Peaks are very, very conservative at their core. At their core, they are racist [how many dark-complexioned girls do you see in the ads or working at these places?]. Their purpose is to emphasize and to normalize heterosexual relationships and sex, thus marking anything outside of heterosexuality as “abnormal” and culturally unacceptable. And, as long as it is “OK” and “natural” for people to frequent these places, then these cultural practices of hate and bigotry will continue to be the dangerous and hateful norms.
July 13, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Tara, my lady! I knew you’d come through with some kick-ass analysis! You are so right on!
July 13, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Yeah, what Tara said. And: ick.
July 13, 2009 at 8:09 pm
I just remember something, and I can’t believe I’d forgotten it until just now. I ate at a Hooters a couple years back and the experience was…interesting. Even enlightening. Here’s what happened.
In 2006, I went to Atlanta with several of my work colleagues to attend a conference for the Society for Neuroscience. I was sharing a hotel room with my boss, a born-again Dubya-lovin’ good-ol’-boy from Texas (don’t get me wrong, he’s pretty much the coolest boss I’ve ever had). He’s a big sports buff too, and during our last day, there was apparently a highly relevant baseball game going on that afternoon. He was looking for a sportsy-type place where he could have a burger and an O’Douls and watch the game, and asked me if I wanted to join him. So we stepped out the hotel and lo and behold, directly across the street was Hooters. He looked at me and kind of sheepishly asked if that place would be okay (I could really care less). He seemed a bit embarrassed, expressing that he was worried that some of the grad students might see him in there and “get the wrong idea about him”, whatever that meant.
What made the experience pretty fascinating was this: In Atlanta, African-Americans are the racial majority. So walking around the downtown business district, my Oklahoma white boy self noticed that practically all the businessmen, the cops, and the Mercedes-driving rich folks were black (this was a novelty to me, born-n-raised in sunny Oklahoma). So naturally, all the Hooters girls were Black. Along with everyone else, I’d always pictured a Hooters girl as the blond-haired, fake-breasted, sprayed-on-tanned slice of boredom seen in the chain’s
advertising. But in Atlanta (and hopefully other places?) the sexy Hooters girls have brown skin, Black hair, full figures, broad shoulders, thick thighs, wide hips, big butts, and perfectly natural breasts. Um, not that I was checking them out or anything. But my point is that these women were pretty much the polar opposite of plastic peroxide Barbie look that we’ve not only begun to regard with disgust, but view as the epitome of the exploitative, unhealthy, unnatural, unattainable body images that destroy the self-esteems of young females.
So there’s my contribution–a sexist AND racist comment at the same time!
(“Hooters”. “Twin Peaks”. I’ve been wondering–and I’m only half kidding–what do you think would happen if someone opened a new breastaurant but dropped all the stupid puns and innuendo and simply called it something like “Big Fucking Titties, Plus Cheese Fries”? Would there be some big backlash from the city’s disgusted residents, or would people just be like “Whoa, sweet, this place is even cooler than Hooters!”?)
July 14, 2009 at 11:39 am
Daniel — that is fascinating!! Thanks for sharing; it gives me something to think about certainly. Also, I pretty much love the idea of a place named “Big fucking titties, plus cheese fries,” though it would probably not go over well in south Tulsa!?
July 14, 2009 at 11:56 am
AMEN to everything about this post. Tara, I found your connection between food and sex particularly dead-on. Living in south Tulsa, I also have the privilege of driving by the restaurant’s giant billboard on the highway home every day from campus. Ugh.
The only thing worse I’ve encountered was The Library in Albuquerque. A cool restaurant with floor-to-ceiling bookcases… and a bunch of female waitstaff dressed in faux Catholic schoolgirl uniforms. They were even less-clothed than any woman I’ve seen at Hooters or Twin Peaks. GAH! I felt incredibly stupid being there–I sincerely thought it would be a cute little nerdy place.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who squirms at all the negative implications of businesses like these.
July 14, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Preach it, Tara!
I’d have to say for me, what gets me so. boiling. mad. is exploitation of youth and the female body. Pure and simple. It really bothers me that the women employed by Twin Peaks are going to be (mostly) 20 or under. I would speculate that some of them are under 18, since you can wait tables at 15 or 16. This is problematic in light of the extremely sexual ‘uniforms’- but honestly, not that suprising, since girls are trained from an early age to be ‘cuteandsexy.’
And of course, the outfits themselves are RIDICULOUS. The shirts are cut and fit in such a way as to lift the breasts to an abnormally high positions and reveal the ENTIRE WAIST/MID-SECTION. And then there’s the little khaki shorts, with what? a 2-inch inseam? Gross. I’ve got lingerie that covers more.
Finally, it angers me that culture has made these girls complicit in their own objectification. And it saddens me that the waitresses will be sexually harassed and made uncomfortable by their work environment. Because they will be, and they won’t have the tools to understand why it makes them upset.
July 14, 2009 at 8:13 pm
i HATE these places. there has got to be something really terrible about the owners’ that we can uncover… OPERATION HOOTER FREEDOM, go!
and, uh, can we talk about how if you change one letter in the name of the joint, you get HOOKERS?
July 14, 2009 at 8:16 pm
The Smoking Gun website obtained a copy of the Hooters Employee Handbook[10] which notes that:
Customers can go to many places for wings and beer, but it is our Hooters Girls who make our concept unique. Hooters offers its customers the look of the “All American Cheerleader, Surfer, Girl Next Door.”
Female employees are required to sign that they “acknowledge and affirm” the following:
My job duties require I wear the designated Hooters Girl uniform.
My job duties require that I interact with and entertain the customers.
The Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and sexual innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace.
I do not find my job duties, uniform requirements, or work environment to be offensive, intimidating, hostile, or unwelcome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooters)
July 14, 2009 at 8:19 pm
APRIL 13–We’ve carefully read the Hooters employee handbook and it does not address what a manager is supposed to do when a corporate trainer tells waitresses they could earn extra money by sexually servicing customers. In a federal lawsuit, Jarman Gray, a former assistant manager of an Alabama Hooters, charges that he was fired last year after complaining about comments made to employees by a female “visiting training manager.” In his April 7 U.S. District Court complaint, a copy of which you’ll find below, the 31-year-old Gray claims that a trainer named Cat told waitresses that they were “the ones with the pussys and you are in control because of that.” Then she reportedly added, “If you need the extra money, go ahead and suck a dick or fuck a customer if the money is right.” Gray contends that offended waitresses approached him and “asked if he could resolve this problem and correct Cat’s offensive behavior.” But after he called the Hooters corporate office to complain about the trainer’s remarks, Gray said he was canned by the owner of the Auburn franchise where he worked. Gray, who is suing for sexual harassment and retaliation, charges that franchisee Darrell Spikes told him, “I’m top dog, you don’t call corporate. You no longer have a job here.” Gray, who worked at Hooters for about nine months, filed his complaint days after receiving a “right to sue” letter from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In mid-2005, Gray filed a complaint with the EEOC alleging that he had been terminated “in retaliation for reporting sexual harassment in the workplace.” (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0414061hooters1.html)
July 14, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Yes to Tara’s analysis! Yes yes yes!!
I would only add that my boyfriend has been to Twin Peaks (and Hooters, I guess, back in the day or whatever) and it just makes me angry! I told him this. I think what’s starting to bother me the most about these kinds of restaurants is that they are just so unoriginal. Capitalism, your reliance on vanilla sexuality and American cookin’ is boring the hell out of me. Your non-friend, Courtney
July 17, 2009 at 8:35 am
I love this blog, but this is my first time commenting. I have to admit I’m fairly shocked at how conservative all these comments are, considering this is an obviously liberal blog! I fully agree that these restaurants seemingly objectify women, require ridiculous uniforms, are unoriginal, and my favorite: “normalize sexuality.” What I find most paradoxical is when Tara stated, “I have no problem with strippers or prostitutes [though they deal with many difficult issues], and I actually admire them in a way, because they are street-smart, business savvy, and often very in tune with their own bodies and their own pleasure.” How do we know the 19 year old Hooters girl isn’t street-smart, business savvy, and in tune with her own body and pleasures???
I can’t speak for WHY a young woman would choose to work at such an establishment, but I can comment on why I contemplated working there when I was a teenager. Basically, I was poor. I was in college and had no assistance from my poor parents and there was no way in hell I was going to let being poor get in the way of me finishing my degree! I wanted to make the most money in the quickest way possible…which is why stripping and Hooter’s topped the list. I wound up doing neither; rather, I settled for a a shitty job making $7/hour.
Why did I not choose to work in a place where the concept is based on female sex appeal? Precisely for that reason! But I would also never judge any woman who chooses to work at such a place, even if she is 18. Even though 18 is practically a baby, women of that age are *gasp* capable of making informed decisions. I was.
The issue really is not that Hooter’s and strip clubs and prostitutes exist. They exist because young women feel they have no other choice than to work these jobs because they need the money. The money is a helluva lot better than working fast food. The real issues are WHY women resort to working these jobs:
If a young mother had better access to birth control she might not have had a baby, so she wouldn’t become a stripper to support said baby.
If there was better financial aid a young woman might be able to actually afford college without taking out exorbitant student loans. Thus, she wouldn’t feel like there is no other choice than to work at Hooter’s.
If parents taught there daughters to not adhere to the unrealistic norms set by society regarding there bodies, then maybe they would have high enough self esteems to not work in an exploitative field.
If you don’t like abortions—don’t have one! If you don’t like teen pregnancy—give them a condom! If you don’t want your daughter feeling like she has to show her tits to make a living—be a good fucking parent and teach her there is another way!! And if you don’t like Hooter’s—don’t eat there!
July 17, 2009 at 1:23 pm
CORPUS CHRISTI — A Corpus Christi man is suing Hooters, accusing the restaurant chain of gender discrimination for not hiring him as a food server in a filing that attempts to reopen an issue that was settled 11 years ago.
Nikolai Grushevski’s suit acknowledges the earlier agreement, which established that the chain’s signature Hooters Girls would continue to be the restaurants’ only food servers and established gender neutral jobs. But the suit challenges the policy, saying it still is discriminatory, and invites other men to seek a class action suit.
He asserts in the suit that when he applied to be a waiter at the local restaurant in May he was not hired because of his gender. The suit says that even though food servers are referred to exclusively as “Hooters Girls,” the job should not be limited only to women.
“Just as Southwest Airlines attempted nearly three decades ago with stewardesses, the waiter’s position addressed herein is being limited to females by an employer…” the suit states.
Grushevski says in the suit he isn’t trying to prevent the company from employing Hooters Girls but wants to ensure that men also have the opportunity to work as wait staff.
In 1997, Hooters agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by a group of men. That class-action settlement allowed the chain to continue to have only Hooters Girls serve food and beverages.
Hooters also agreed to create gender-neutral positions such as bartender, host and kitchen staff.
Grushevski’s suit, filed Thursday in federal court, seeks an unspecified amount of money including for emotional and punitive damages. It also asks the court to grant an injunction to stop Hooters from “discriminating against male applicants for the waiters position.”
An e-mail seeking comment from Hooters officials was not immediately returned.
Attempts to reach Grushevski were unsuccessful.
Houston-based attorney Martin A. Shellist, who represents Grushevski, said he wanted to make it clear his client didn’t sue to become a Hooters Girl.
“My client wants to be a waiter. He does not want to be a Hooters Girl,” Shellist said. “He wants to serve food and earn tips, and why can’t he?”
(http://www.caller.com/news/2009/jan/13/local-man-sues-hooters-claims-gender-bias-seeks/)
July 17, 2009 at 1:31 pm
these restaurants assume all kinds of silly things about their target audience, males:
all men want fried food
all men want to watch sports
all men want to look at sexy young ladies
all men love crop tops
all men are heterosexual
all men are skeevy pervs
etc.
July 17, 2009 at 6:05 pm
…and yet a shitload of heterosexual (and don’t you forget it), sports-obsessed douchebags who demand that cheeseburgers be served to them by women with bleached hair and fake breasts patron these restaurants every day, proving them dead-on correct in their assumptions about their target audience.
Harmonious,
You say you contemplated working at Hooters and/or a similar establishment out of desperation for money to pay simple living expenses as you pursued a degree. The fact that it’s just so easy, and sometimes necessary, to begrudgingly resort to that line of work is demonstrative of how disgustingly sexist the industry is. Of course, there are women who actively pursue and enjoy working that type of job, hell, it looks like it would be kinda fun. But balance that with the many, many women who see that they have very, very few opportunities for employment that don’t carry risks of humiliation and harassment. And compound it with a woman in a similar desperate situation that happens to be flat-chested, overweight, etc, likely unable to earn tips or even be hired in the first place.
August 21, 2009 at 8:30 am
Jealous perhaps?
August 21, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Ok…so what do you all propose? making a law and driving these kind of establishments underground? On top of that..lets go to every bar in Tulsa and berate every good looking, flirty bartender… and then we can go to Pink Rock ‘n Roll bar and drag out all the go go dancers.
If you dont’ want to be a go go dancer, twin peaks waitress, stripper then DO SOMETHING ELSE.
There are other waiting/service industry jobs and while they don’t pay nearly as much I know more then a fair share of people who live comfortably off them.
Listen..I’ll admit I’ve been to hooters once..and the whole thing is a big joke. Our waitress was, of course, very beautiful and flirty and our food was sub-par at best. All it is is a big fat waste of time and money…who would want to pay for attention anyhow? I’m not the best looking, in shape rich guy in the world and yes..I enjoy fried food on occasion and immensely enjoy watching certain sports…but despite all of that me: a moderate conservative, sports eunthesiast (non-spelling), occasional junk food enjoying who secretly wishes he was married to Bar Rafaeli thinks that hooters is the dumbest waste of time and money there ever was.