Videotape
Two hundred women who were interviewing for jobs at a soon-to-open Hooters restaurant outside of Los Angeles were secretly videotaped in a trailer as they undressed and changed into the official Hooters uniform: skimpy, tight-fitting orange shorts and low-cut tanktops.
The ethical question of the day is this. What is worse for the women who applied for the Hooters waitress jobs: To be videotaped undressing or to actually get the job?
Yes, I know. From a purely ethical discussion, the videotaping is worse. It’s sneaky, demeaning, privacy-violating perversion at its lowest level. And, of course, working at Hooters is just objectification of women to sell chicken wings and beer. No biggie there. Right?
But let’s add an economic slant. Hooters girls know what’s up when they slip into that form-fitting uniform. They come to this job and this look of their own free will. Sex sells. Big breasts peeking out of tanktops equals big tips. That is, until those breasts are old and tired and without a meaningful retirement plan. With good lawyers, however, the 200 women caught on videotape may never end up bending over a table of men with a tray of beers. So…maybe the videotape debacle will save these women from taking the worst job of their lives and make them rich to boot. In which case, the illicit taping may prove to be the start of a better life. Hmm.
Now let’s talk about sensible footwear. A few weeks ago, Philip wrote a piece about the second largest Hooters in America opening up in the sleepy little suburb of Beaverton, Oregon. Why here? Philip wanted to know. I didn’t have an answer. Instead, we got into a discussion about the Hooters “look.” Philip opined that the Hooters girls of Beaverton would probably wear Birkenstocks with their uniform. The long hours required sensible footwear. I nearly lost it. This is an image that I will never shake as long as I live. Those orange shorts, long unshaven hippy legs, and Birkenstocks.
Who needs videotape when the mind can see so much more?
10:47:31 PM 
|
