I have eaten in a Hooters, a small number of times. I am a female of the most flamingly west-coast, left-wing, freaky green-party voting, tempeh-eating, bike-commuting, Ivory-tower dwelling sort, and I thought the waitstaff was very nice, albeit flirty (wearing, gasp-- t-shirts and shorts! NOT subservient. They were having fun and seemed to get along very well as a group), and the food was really pretty good and there was little grotty or dodgy about it. Like someone else said, Denny’s, with better food and nicer waitstaff. A mixed clientelle (mostly women having lunch meetings) with some people watching basketball on the tv and such. The ASPCA is being stupid here.
Of course there are female-oriented places with gorgeous college-aged men with soulful eyes and lovely accents who will suck up to you for tips-- for example, the Torrefazione in northwest Portland. . . you just gotta look for them.
Seems the majority of those who complain about Hooters have never actually been inside one, and have no desire to do so because they know what goes on in there. Nice Catch-22 you have there!
Yeah, that poor lil girl. I mean, thank GOD she can watch TV and not see women with less clothing than at Hooters. And less sex. Or worse yet: can you imagine if you took your daughter to the mall and there were girls in :eek: low cut halter tops and short shorts! :eek: I mean, Hooters is the only place a little girl might see young, pretty women in tank tops and shorts doing something like waitressing.
Furthermore, heaven forbid a young girl see women that are in control of their sexuality or- god for bid- happy with their bodies. Instead, we should teach her that sex and all sexuality is ICKY and should NEVER be addressed outside of the bedroom. The bedroom where your husband fucks you missionary style only when you are trying to conceive. In fact, that’s the only time she should be naked- the rest of the time she should be covered down to the elbows. Heck, maybe even throw on a bonnet. :rolleyes:
Never been to Vegas, have ya? Or Hollywood. There are plenty of places where hot, buff men walk around in what equates to not much more than banana hammocks for tips. But because they’ve got dicks, they aren’t being exploited, right?
And like someone said before: the sad thing here is that who knows how many animals are going to die (or live in subpar conditions in the shelter) because this money was turned away. And as far as the argument that the shelter would lose money by accepting Hooters, I know that I will never give money to their organization because this. I also know that I’m not alone.
I’m just surprised that this happened in such a “progressive” place as Los Angeles. And they say Bakersfield is backwards. Our SPCA list of doners includes the local bars, strip clubs, and of course the estate of Buck Owens. They don’t care where the money comes from, all they care about is that they can save some innocent animals.
Then I’ll file your opinion of Hooters right next to the opinions of people who rant about movies they’ve never seen and books they’ve never read.
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, maybe it’s a duck that likes owl puns 
And if you’re cool with your impressionable preschool-aged daughter absorbing the lesson that you should never, ever go in a place where women wear shorts and t-shirts, then I suppose that’s your business. Thank you for giving me permission to raise my children with open minds.
Really? AWESOME! 
Please. You make it sound like every man that ever walked into a restaurant was a heaving, drooling ham-fisted letch, intent on ripping open your “special gift” right there on the salad bar. What IS your damage?
Look, if you think that what goes on in Hooters is any worse than what your “impressionable preschool-aged daughter or son” sees on the street, you’re daft. What’s more though, do you really think a preschool aged kid can actually infer subservience and sexual overtures in a room full of adults? Seriously? and another thing…Restaurants are pig sties. It’s the way it is. There are rat hairs in the oscar meyer wieners you stuff down your kids throat. RAT HAIRS. Frankly, I’d rather take my chances with one of Tiffany’s, or Amber’s hairs, no matter where they came from.
We don’t have female oriented restaurants? You say you were a waitress? Seriously? Every little French bistro is a female oriented restaurant. Every little Italian Trattoria? You guessed it. Men (or at least most of us) like things simple. Wood furniture, fried chicken, beer in pitchers, tv and hot chicks. That’s the way it is and frankly, the way women who we like, like us.
Moreover, if women didn’t oppress themselves (with a big help along from society) that half naked steak guy bar would kill. Ain’t that way though, is it?
The only eyes you can POSSIBLY be thinking of are yours, Jerry Falwells’ and maybe jack chick. Really, there aren’t enough :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
I’ve been to a Hooters. I thought the food was mediocre. Their selling point, anyway, is not the food, but the attractive waitresses (see what’s emphasized at their website). I could understand why a municipal office would be hesitant to associate with that inherently sexist image. What they should do is have a joint fund-raiser sponsored by two restaurant chains, one that brings in the customers with big-breasted women, another that advertises to women by putting focus mainly on their good-looking, T-shirt and short wearing waiters (I’m sure there must be a chain of restaurants like that, but it doesn’t come to mind.) Then it would be equal opportunity.
I’ve been a waitress, I’ve eaten in restaurants, I’ve worn shorts and revealing tops. What aspect of what’s going on inside Hooters do I maybe not understand?
xxxx
Are the young ladies in malls being paid to wear those low cut halter tops and short shorts and bring you food? Please name another family restaurant where women dressed for the beach are serving you food.
Ah, DiosaBellisima, if only I didn’t remember other threads where you yourself expressed being fed up with constantly being ogled. And yet other threads in which you expressed a desire to be taken seriously as a professional instead of being dismissed as a pretty young woman with nothing else to offer.
I don’t have children, but I would teach them that sex is a private matter between two adults, and not a transaction that should occur on the street. Not that that has anything at all to do with this discussion.
Well, I lived in LA for almost thirty years and worked in Hollywood for a few of them. But you were right that I’ve never been to Vegas. Are you saying that men are or are not being exploited?
Well, we all have a line somewhere. You might draw the line at accepting money that Bin Laden raised for you by having a kidnap-a-thon. You might accept a donation from NAMBLA. But some people are going to draw the line somewhere else.
I’ll say it for the third time, if Hooters so desperately wants to donate money to these poor animals, they can donate the money quietly.
Hey, bluethree, you need a new stick for your ass? 'Cause the one that’s stuck up there now seems like it might be a little snug.
I think you hit a main point, men like certain things, basically simple, and if you will crude - like having paper towels instead of napkins, and just a down home feeling.
Thanks for the kind thought, but I’m quite comfortable.
Ignorance is bliss, eh?
Oh I don’t know–maybe the actual experience of going to see for yourself so you would seem like you actually know what you are talking about? To come into a thread stating you ‘know’ what happens there without every going in one isn’t going to win very many people to your viewpoint. It appears you don’t know what you are talking about–and your subsequent posts after this support that.
As for them donating the money quietly–well that isn’t corporate American now is it? Do you expect Starbucks and Amazon and Microsoft to also donate quietly? Where is your outrage for their business practices which frankly are more harmful than anything you would see at Hooters.
So Hooters projects itself as both a naughty place and a family place—good for them. They have figured out how to get a range of the public that many restaurants haven’t figured out. Sounds like good old American ingenuity to me. They use their public donations to promote that family restaurant side–what is wrong with that?
Let me quote a wise person — you — from earlier in the thread.
You say you have no need to go there, and yet you are certain that what happens there is the equivalent of, I again quote, women “dressed for the beach” in a “softcore strip club.”
You lose credibility when you speak of which you do not know. When I go to the beach, people are wearing much, much less than the waitresses in Hooters. When I go to a strip club, there is actual, you know, stripping going on.
Is Hooters kind of a stupid premise? Yeah. Is it kinda tacky? Yeah. Is it a strip club?
No. I’ve only been in one strip club and I observe that it had fewer windows, fewer TVs tuned to sports stations, and much more ogling going on.
Also, I would like to suggest that people — all people in Los Angeles — have had, for many years, the opportunity to “donate quietly” to the Humane Society in question.
Has it worked, do you think?
I think it has not worked, that “donating quietly” doesn’t raise money as well as a nice, brash, loud, in-your-face fundraiser — no matter who’s holding it. You hold a bikini contest and you don’t advertise it anywhere, and my wager is it ain’t gonna gross dollar one.
InvisibleWombat summed it up nicely:
And I certainly didn’t see any flirting in the Hooters where we had dinner a few years ago. I’m sure it goes on in some of their restaurants, I’ve heard of waitresses who worked in a Hooters attached to a hotel and would find room keys with the tip–probably left by some drunk hoping for a one night stand.
Me, I draw the line at promoting someone who is deliberately and actually trying to hurt people. I’ve not seen an argument that Hooters is doing this, and so the line I draw pretty clearly has HOoters on the okay side.
On the other hand, I can kind of understand the ASPCA’s action. If they get a substantial amount of income through donations, they may have a substantial number of donors who would stop donations if they do this fundraiser. They may be pressured into declining the money by donors; and if that’s the case, then they’re probably doing the right thing. (At our shelter I’ve had folks ask whether, if we had to euthanize a pig, we’d be willing to have it done humanely and then given away for a barbecue; I’ve had to wince and cringe and say that we’d probably lose major funding if we even considered that).
Back on the first hand, although I could be wrong, I believe our shelter has been approached by Hooter’s for exactly this fundraiser; and here in the South, I believe our shelter has said yes.
Daniel
Hot Dog on a Stick comes pretty close. Their tops aren’t as revealing but they make up for that when they make the lemonade.
See, here is the reason your point is totally off base: when I’m at work – at my professional job - - and people talk down to me because I’ve got a uterus- yeah, that’s wrong. When I’m at the grocery store in sweats and a ponytail, torn up like there’s no tomorrow, and a bunch of guys SEXUALLY HARRASS me, that’s different.
You know what’s not different? When I wear a miniskirt and have my tits out for the world to see. THEN they can oggle. They can stare. They can cat call and whistle. Then they can think I’m nothing more than a set of tits. And you know what? I’m ok with that because it is my choice to put that image out there.
Are you one of those women that wears a shirt with her tits popping out all over the place, then complains when a guy stares? If you’re not (and therefore a sane and logical person), you can see the difference.
I actually don’t think anyone is being exploited- except for maybe people that are forced at gun point to wear short shorts, tank tops, and serve hot wings. I don’t think that’s the case though.
And there we have it, folks. Running a restaurant that has girls-- completely on their own free will- - in tank tops and shorts no shorter than what you’d see at the mall (getting paid a fair wage plus great tips) is the exact same as running a terror organization that kills thousands . . . and fucking little boys. Exact same thing. Why didn’t I see it before? Won’t someone think of the children? I mean, first we accept money from Hooters. Then Hugh Hefner. Then Osama Bin Ladin. Then the little boy fuckers. Then Hitler. Then it’s the nuclear Holocaust. Duh.
Hooters has an imitator but it’s hard to tell if they’re a family restaurant or not. They don’t have a kid’s menu but neither does this place, and I know that one is a family restaurant.