Hooters new uniforms.
Let’s talk about them.
If you aren’t aware of Hooters, it is a chain restaurant which first opened in Florida in 1983. The appeal is the all-female waitstaff that wears short shorts and low cut tank tops. It has been going strong for many decades, and is especially popular among men – both teenage boys and grandpas alike.
Just this past week, young women who work at Hooters have revealed on TikTok their new uniforms they must wear, downgrading from albeit comfortable booty shorts, to bottoms that are borderline underwear.
Many of these women have expressed their uncomfortability with these new uniforms, because they are just genuinely that short.
Now, I am absolutely not shaming women for working at Hooters. Women have to make money somehow, and if they feel sexy and empowered working at Hooters, or if they don’t really care either way, then hell yeah, good for them. I think there’s a certain power in knowing that other people think you’re hot, and that you yourself think you’re hot.
But Hooters is a restaurant based on objectifying women. Yes, I said it – objectifying women is the system that Hooters is based on, and why it has still remained popular to this day. Men love to think that women are there to entertain them. These women are literally there to be hot and serve you chicken wings. It’s an old-man-in-an-unhappy-marriage’s dream.
And these shorts are just proof of it.
The most appealing body part of a woman has gone from breasts, to butt. Having big boobs used to be the desirable feature, but in recent years it has since become having a big ass. Boob jobs are so out, Brazilian butt lifts are in.
And Hooters took note of that.
If you look at pictures of Hooters in the early 2000s, the most important part of the uniform were the boobs. Because that’s what a majority men, at the time, were into. But now, Hooters knows that men are going to be looking at the asses of waitstaff instead, so they created the best possible uniform (sarcasm), designed to avert the male gaze over to the ass. That is what will keep them coming, an ass show, all for the price of a $7.99 burger.
And honestly, it’s disgusting. It’s disgusting that this restaurant continues to exist. It’s disgusting that these poor girls have to be uncomfortable just for a paycheck, and it’s disgusting that people continue to support it.
Am I saying to never go to Hooters again? No. Because these girls need an income, and I’ve even see TikToks of Hooters girls saying they were completely fine with the uniform. But it is important to acknowledge that it is a restaurant purely based on objectifying women. Maybe, the girls can have a choice of what they want to wear, instead of being reprimanded.
Until then, continue listening to women.