# Age discrimination in strip clubs and Hooters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237 "2008-03-13T14:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zeno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zeno/32/15040_2.png) [@zeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeno)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/1 "2008-03-13T14:14:00Z")
How do businesses that provide attractive young women as their main ‘service’ get around age discrimination laws? What if some feisty 50 year old insists on being hired ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/2 "2008-03-13T14:32:09Z")
What if some MAN “insists on being hired?” wrap your head around that one, the next time you are at Hooters. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/3 "2008-03-13T14:40:58Z")
[QUOTE=CoG888] What if some MAN “insists on being hired?” wrap your head around that one, the next time you are at Hooters. [/QUOTE] I went like [this.](http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1997/vp971001/10010439.htm) No head wrapping required. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/4 "2008-03-13T14:47:45Z")
It’d be harder with Hooter, but AIUI, a lot of strip clubs hire their girls on contract. That means they don’t have to provide benefits, and it keeps girls from working at their club who aren’t going to make any money. They can charge the girls a “stage fee”, which can be hundreds of dollars a night, plus a percentage of what they make. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/5 "2008-03-13T16:25:47Z")
Business that have a bona fide job requirement that one be pretty/female/tall/black/male/not blind - or whatever - are allowed to discriminate during hiring. I think Hooters has counter-sued on this very claim and won but I have no cite for it. Edit: I didn’t read the link above when I posted this. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/6 "2008-03-13T16:29:25Z")
What if a woman wanted to get a hair cut at Sport Clips (a men only hair place)? ---
**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/7 "2008-03-13T16:32:12Z")
[QUOTE=missbunny] Business that have a bona fide job requirement that one be pretty/female/tall/black/male/not blind - or whatever - are allowed to discriminate during hiring. [/QUOTE] Right - it’s the same justification used for hiring models, or for hiring freakishly physically gifted athletes. I’m not sure Hooters can get away with it, because they can’t necessarily provide a compelling reason that they need to hire smokin’ babes, but that’s the logic. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/8 "2008-03-13T17:06:23Z")
> [@](#): > > What if a woman wanted to get a hair cut at Sport Clips (a men only hair place)? I believe that there is sufficient difference in average length/services provided/etc. that warrants both price disparity and customer specialization in the hairdressing field. Although I may have skipped that day in Constitutional Law, so don’t quote me on that. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/9 "2008-03-13T17:27:37Z")
I’ve been to a couple of strip joints where there didn’t seem to be any sort of age discrimination going on. I don’t think the hiring authorities were _at all_ discriminating, as a matter of fact. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/10 "2008-03-13T18:41:11Z")
from today’s [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooters) > [@](#): > > The restaurant hires only women as servers, and refers to them as “Hooters Girls”. Several discrimination lawsuits brought against the chain by men wishing to be employed as servers have been settled out of court or dropped by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), some after an advertising campaign featuring St. Petersburg, Florida Hooters’ kitchen manager Vince Gigliotti dressed in a Hooters Girl uniform. Men do find employment at Hooters as cooks, dishwashers, and managers where most wear Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and similar garb. > > The company’s website acknowledges that “many consider ‘Hooters’ a slang term for a portion of the female anatomy,” but it adds, “Hooters Girls have the same right to use their natural female sex appeal to earn a living as do supermodels Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell.” There is no specific mention of lawsuits by unattractive women, but several mentions of how they justify their hiring practices (such as the second paragraph of what I quoted). ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/11 "2008-03-13T19:24:14Z")
I would imagine they use whatever legal precedent that modeling agencies use to hire only extremely attractive women or men. Unlike say, being an accountant or doctor, being a young, hot woman is inherent to the job of being a striper or Hooters girl. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/12 "2008-03-13T20:21:29Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I would imagine they use whatever legal precedent that modeling agencies use to hire only extremely attractive women or men. Unlike say, being an accountant or doctor, being a young, hot woman is inherent to the job of being a striper or Hooters girl. [/QUOTE] The trick is being classified as an entertainment venue vs. a simple restaraunt. This is why you can get away with discrimination in hiring certain races/sexes for performers/actors. Amusement parks often skirt this line as well using all male or female attendants in many themed park areas. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/13 "2008-03-13T20:24:41Z")
[QUOTE=An Arky] I’ve been to a couple of strip joints where there didn’t seem to be any sort of age discrimination going on. I don’t think the hiring authorities were _at all_ discriminating, as a matter of fact. :eek: [/QUOTE] And, admit it now, neither were you. You _totally_ stayed. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/14 "2008-03-13T21:24:17Z")
au contraire, dude…I didn’t want to permanently affect my mojo by having unpleasant images burned into the, um, mojo part of the brain… I had to just drink at the bar until someone with a less frighteningly poor choice of careers came on. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/15 "2008-03-14T00:34:25Z")
I know a lot more about this business than I probably should for someone who is not actually in it, I guess, but most of the strip clubs I’ve heard of do not in fact ‘hire’ dancers at all. The dancers are independent contractors who pay a door fee (known as ‘tip out’) for the privilege of dancing at the club. They keep the dance fees paid by the customers, when paid in cash, and any cash tips they make, but pay for drinks and use of the dressing room, and usually tip the house mom (who helps out in the dressing room in various ways), the DJ, and the floorwalkers or managers, out of their takings. The house generally collects a surcharge on dances charged to a credit card. In this way, there in theory is nothing to prevent older and/or physically unattractive ladies from working in a given club, but since their livelihood depends on obtaining paid dances from customers, and customers generally won’t pay for a dance from someone unattractive to them (outside of some fetishists, maybe) there’s a degree of self-selection going on there. I know for a fact that managers at some high-end joints do enforce (probably unwritten) standards of physical appearance for entertainers (body mass index lower than a certain amount, no obvious tats, etc), and, of course, a lower age limit, but I don’t personally know of any that overtly enforce an upper age limit. Waitresses and bartenders, OTOH, are paid help and while the clubs would surely like the female help to be the same general age and as pretty as the dancers, in fact pretty much anything goes as long as they’re willing to wear the prescribed outfit, which generally means lots of leg and decolletage on display. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/16 "2008-03-14T00:40:39Z")
I’d assume they get around it the same way the get around not having to let Samuel L Jackson play a 12 year old white preppy girl in a movie. It’s listed a a requirement. So long as it’s reasonable (hell maybe even rational) you can discriminate based on qualification. Samuel L Jackson obviously doesn’t fit the qualifications of the character being portrayable as 12, white, preppy, or girl. In the case of strip joints or hooters, as long as they have a good reason for hiring young pretty girls they can get a way with it MUCH moreso than an office hiring only young pretty girls because their reaosn is probably going to be stupid. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-discrimination-in-strip-clubs-and-hooters/441237/17 "2008-03-14T14:19:04Z")
VirginBlue (Australian subsidiary of Virgin Airlines) was in the press a year or two back when several older flight attendants took them to court for age discrimination. The airline responded by saying that part of its interview process was for applicants to demonstrate the “Virgin Flair”, which was - conveniently - subjective. Google “Virgin flair” for lots of .pdf files on the case.