Hooters or hookers?

TODAY: A guest blog entry by the one and only, the incomparable Daryl Hannah (no, not the quite actress).

Yesterday I experienced one of the rarities of being a New Yorker—the opportunity to sit back and mindless watch TV. Or so I thought.

As I flipped through the many channels to which I now have access—thanks to my pop-culture-junky roomie—I settled on a new CBS show, at least to my knowledge, entitled “Undercover Boss.” The premise of the show? Simply put: disguise a senior-level executive as an entry level employee. Trade in their C-suite and private jets for a Budget Hotel room and $5.50 an hour. All-in-all—give them a dose of reality.

Yesterday’s victim: Hooters CEO Colby Brooks.

In full disclosure, I am anti-Hooters for the obvious reasons, but as the Cup of Joe would say: “It’s important to expose ourselves to perspectives with which we disagree, if nothing else but to understand why,” so I forced myself to watch the episode.

And so the story went.

The show opened with Brooks recounting the history of the company to his all white and mostly male board. The tale goes as you probably can already imagine: In 1983, a group of men, in Clearwater FL, decided they “needed a place to go and drink” and, therefore, opened a bar. A few years into the operation Brooks’ father bought the bar’s franchising rights and took it international. Colby inherited the business after his father died and today is a divorced father of three (two of which are girls) and describes his “good life” as being constantly surrounded by “beautiful women”.

As the show progresses, one immediately uncovers that Brooks is a stranger to labor. Despite his efforts to prove he is “one of the people” he is slow on the cleaning assembly line, causing piles of dirty dishes to stack up and a cutlery shortage for customers. He complains about the smell of the trash, while his Latino “helpers” simply do their work silently and with immaculate precision. Both of these force the manager to cut Brooks early. (For those who’ve never worked in a restaurant. Brooks was asked to leave before his shift was over and, therefore, not paid for the remaining hours he was to work.)

On day two, Brooks was sent out to promote the restaurant with two Hooters women. Brooks remained “place-less”—both as a man and as someone who’s physical presence leaves much to be desired—while immediately the two women turn on their “Hooters charm” bouncing up and down and twirling their hair as they had been trained. Brooks’ time is further made awkward as he encountered both women and men who condemned his establishment as “sexist” and “degrading to women”—much to his own surprise (seeing this gave me the strength to finish watching the show).

Needless to say, the rest of Brooks’ experience is riddled with bouts of sexism including watching one of his store managers force “his” Hooter-girls eat a plate of beans without their hands, so they could go home early. (Btw: Larry, the manager, was only forced to apologize for his mistreatment. He, on his own volition, left the company to pursue “personal interests.” )
Watching this episode reinforced a number of modern-day truths about male privilege. For starters, Brooks—as a man; as a white man--never acknowledges the problematic nature of his business—the exploitation and degradation of women. Why? Because he doesn’t have to. To him, Hooters is risqué only in the sense that the title alludes to a woman’s breasts--not that he forces his employees to actually expose them. To him, his use of women as economic means—not people—for his own capital gain is perfectly justifiable. In this sense, Brooks, like countless men in America, is able to turn a blind eye to the social ramifications of his actions and guise them as merely “providing an entertaining experience.” Society does not force him to take that statement further to answer: But at what cost?

Brooks is also never forced to confront his “contribution” to society, the message: “Dear women, you don’t have to be smart…just beautiful.”

But let’s be fair. Brooks does call the franchise owner of the bean-eating manager (Larry) to demand he “talk to” Larry. But even when Brooks confronts Larry, after revealing his identity, and continues to receive push back, he doesn’t fire Larry. He merely scolds him more and demands that he apologize to his staff.

And let’s also not forget the Hooter girl-turned-Hooter manager, whom Brooks compliments for her efficiency and compassion as a manager. He acknowledged her ability to multi-task and problem solve. But did he give her a promotion? No. Did he invite her to a seat at the board room table for her ingenuity and know-how? No. Instead, he offered her a vacation--a temporary leave from the daily gruel of her life.

Now, I would be remised if I didn’t address the truth that these women did choose to work at Hooters and knowingly accepted the uniforms and the chauvinistic environment. While this is true, one must get to the root of that question and explore why these types of institutions exist. And more importantly, why are they so popular—a billion dollar industry operating in 28 countries? Come on!

Watching this show did, however, help me realize one thing positive and that is: FUCK HOOTERS!