Hi KH. Very much wanting not to be rude with this, so please forgive any clumsiness of wording.How do you feel your job as a Hooters girl reflects on your attitude to feminism?
Feminism at its heart is about equality between the sexes and allowing both men and women to make their own choices regarding their lives, their bodies, their health, and so on. I have made the personal decision that the money that I am able to make as a Hooters Girl and the flexible, low number of shifts that I need to work to pay my bills is worth the trade off of being objectified by my customers and exploited for my appearances by my employer. I am comfortable with this exchange and at this time in my life I feel that it is worth it. Working at Hooters has given me the financial means and the free time necessary to pursue a number of opportunities that I would not have been able to explore otherwise. I am under no illusions that I am somehow furthering feminism by working at Hooters and I will never pretend that I am. That being said, however, I certainly don't feel as though my job is somehow detrimental to feminism at large. That Hooters and other restaurants of its ilk are so popular worldwide seems to me merely a symptom of a much greater issue wherein women are largely seen primarily as sexual objects and only within narrowly defined conventional standards of beauty. In a perfect world, Hooters would likely not exist, however, it is clear that that world is not feasible. Until it is, I am happy to use the sexist, misogynistic, objectifying behavior of many of my customers as a means to achieve my goals, which is an exploitative equalizer in my mind.
