gs and beerö (Kasper and Moore). To put it in film rating terms, it is a ôPG-13,ö compared to the ôRö or even ôNC-17ö ratings found in strip clubs and the like.
Thus, the next question is: Do we want such an establishment in our city? If no, how do we stop Hooters from establishing a franchise here?
Many businesses use sex to sell, from car makers to car insurance to cigarettes to. . .well, the list is endless. That list includes restaurants, and that list includes establishments in this city. Other restaurants require their servers to dress in provocative clothing, such as miniskirts or very short shorts. These same establishments also hire only women as servers. This seems no different from Hooters, where women wear T-shirts tied around the midriff (so as to reveal their navel) and short shorts. Or they wear tank tops, hot pants, and suntan panty hose. So what is the big deal?
Clearly, what we are troubled by is the explicit nature of HootersÆ immature celebration of womenÆs breasts. Those other companies may exploit women to make money, but they are not quite as loud as Hooters, which by its very name proclaims an adolescent obsession with womanÆs bodies. The name evokes images of leering men, exploited women, and all of the societal ills that accompany such a reality. Do we want a restaurant in Santa Monica that uses a slang term for part of female anatomy? If I do not approve of those other restaurants, those ones where female servers are exploited, I can simply choose not to go there. However, if Hooters opens in Santa Monica, every time I drive or walk by I will be assaulted by this distasteful notion, just by its very name on the sign.
Going inside the restaurant is only worse. It is just what you would expect from a place called ôHooters.ö Women are belittled throughout, with signs such as ôcaution: blondes thinking.ö The back of the menu tells how the restaurant got its name: ...