Hooters: An Experience That Truly Brings Out The O_O Look

Last evening, I had the opportunity to dine at a Hooters Restaurant. The last time I went to Hooters was with my Boy Scout troop when I was 12. Naturally, I had much more of an interested perspective on Hooters from a scholarly point of view this time around. I couldn't believe that here, gender stereotypes were emphasized to the borderline point of
ridiculing them.

As I walked into the establishment at 11:00pm on a Thursday evening with a male friend of mine, we were two of about a total of 15 men in the restaurant. One other dining group had a woman with them, who was obviously working towards embodying the "perfect model" look that our society values so much in women. In the background, "Barbie Girl" was blaring, and almost every square inch on the wall seemed to have a tv on it. There were more screens showing basketball than people in the restaurant. The waitresses were dressed in extremely short orange shorts, with short sleeved, low cut shirts with the restaurant's slogan of "Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined" written across the front. That seemed to definitely be the theme of the evening.

As we ordered drinks, my friend was asked whether he would like his beer to be "man-sized". That was such a necessary affirmation of his masculinity. When we ordered the buffalo wings (since everyone comes to Hooters only for the wings, right?), we were asked whether we would like to have them breaded or naked. Every single item on the menu seemed to be aimed towards playing with a straight male reader's fantasy. For me, it was astounding that not every person in the place wasn't either repulsed by all of this, or bursting out laughing at this joke.

It's easy to be caught up in a university atmosphere where equality between genders is not even drawn into question. At least in classroom settings, one would be scorned at by the rest of the class if one were to make a comment that would indicate that one seriously believes that one sex is better off than the other. Sexualizing one gender is kept at a controlled level, since such sexualisation of someone reduces their scholarly credibility. That is why it can come to such a drastic shock when one steps out of such a controlled environment into a world that seems to have neglected any progress society has made since before the suffrage movement. Hooters seems to treat its female employees as sexual objects rather than people, and makes no effort to hide that fact. Customers frequent the venue with such expectations, and as long as one knows what one gets themselves into when entering a Hooters Restaurant, all is at peace. Yet it is frustrating to see that some people who act in a certain way in the workplace or at a university can so easily switch roles and go back to more deeply engrained habits and beliefs. One can only hope that society will come to a point one day when Hooters and other similar forms of entertainment for men are seen more as a parody than a serious money-making business.