The Hooters Myth

I have a group of coworkers that I often go to happy hour with. Sometimes the group grows, but there's a core group of 4 - 2 guys and 2 girls. We drink beer, eat bar food, and have a general good time talking about work, random stories, the usual happy hour schtick.

Normally we go to our local bar up the road from the office, but last night Dennis wanted to join us, so we tried to find a middle-ground location that wouldn't be far for anyone to get home from. We initially chose a bar I enjoy quite often, which just so happens to be 4 or 5 doors down from a Hooters. Somehow, we ended up at Hooters instead.

Now, of course my female coworker and I giggled and joked about it a bit:

Coworker: Why are we going to Hooters?
Me: Cheap beer and wings, I'm fine with boobs all over the place
Coworker: That's fine with me.
Me: I mean, I'm friends with you.
(Note, said coworker does not dress slutty, she just has WAY bigger boobs than me, which is really not too hard to accomplish.)

But in reality, we didn't really have a problem with going to Hooters. I mean, it's a sports bar. Yes, the place is known for its waitresses and their little shorts and low cut tops, but I've been to plenty other places where the female bartenders almost put my eye out with one of their knockers, and I didn't find it sexist or objectifying. It's not forced labor - if they didn't want to wear that kind of outfit, there are plenty other bars to work at.

It seems to me, however, that men often think women will be offended by Hooters (not my coworkers, because they know us and frankly probably don't care if we are offended). This is why you don't see people on dates at Hooters, or why people would possibly look at you funny if you said you took your family of 4 to Hooters for dinner. But why? No one would give you the evil eye if you said you took your family or your date to the beach, and I've certainly seen way worse outfits on way worse people at the beach than at Hooters.

On the flip side, I don't think as many women are actually offended by Hooters as men think. Yesterday, I posted on Facebook that I would be going to Hooters "for happy hour tonight. Bring on the boobies and beer!" - this post garnered 8 likes...all from women. Either this hatred of Hooters by women is truly a myth, or I am just friends with some kick-ass chicks. I'd like to think it's both.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.

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