Hooters Girl Research Paper

As an embarrassed preteen girl sitting with her dad in a booth, I made a vow early on to never voluntarily step foot into such a restaurant that would force a woman to dress and act in such a demeaning way. Little did I know that at age 16 I would apply for my first job as a hostess at Hooters, and two years later be promoted to the infamous Hooters Girl. Just as my disposition as a white, middle-class, female initially sparked my prejudice against the entire establishment, it also largely affected the percentage of tips received based upon the guests and my experience at the restaurant as a whole. While obviously gender was not as a defining factor in being a Hooters Girl, a girl’s class and race-ethnicity afforded some a certain level of

Gender wise, obviously there is less focus between men and women as waitresses must be female, and more about the scale of femininity of each girl. Although there is no requirement for the girl’s breast size, the larger she was, the less she had to rely on her personality in order to receive a good tip. Likewise, all waitresses are required to style their hair and wear a full face of makeup, however those who spent more time to curl their hair and wore brighter, natural makeup tend to receive better results. To quote Johnson, “Men don’t have to deal with an endless and exhausting stream of attention drawn to their gender (for example, to how sexually attractive they are)” (Johnson 2006:28), which is especially proven so in a profession that one’s pay full relies on such. In my own experience, the day shifts where I wore lighter, more natural pinks and brown makeup with straight hair, my tips were significantly higher than if I were to use the same color scheme for a night shift. Conversely, for night shifts I had the best results with a full face of glittery, dark makeup and curled hair. The level of femininity required heavily relied on the time of day. This is such a large part of a Hooters Girl image, that we are required to “line-up” before each shift to ensure that our uniform and physical appearance, from hair to nails, was up to