Dawn Szymanski and Chandra Feltman share the data of their findings on work environments designed to sexually objectify women, and the psychological toll for the employees.
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By Dawn Szymanski and Chandra Feltman
“Breastaurants” – restaurants that feature scantily clad waitresses – will occasionally appear in the news, whether it’s the biker gang fight at the Twin Peaks in Waco, Texas earlier this summer, or the racial discrimination suit won by a former Hooters employee back in April.
Yet despite negative media attention, breastaurants like Twin Peaks, Spice Rack, Hooters and Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery seem to be thriving. While casual dining chains like Applebee’s and Olive Garden are struggling mightily, many breastaurant chains reported 30% or more growth in the last few years.
But for all the tongue-in-cheek restaurant names and salacious headlines, it’s worth asking: how would working in one of these breastaurants affect your emotional and psychological well-being? What’s it like to actually be in the shoes of a waitress at one of these restaurants?
In a series of studies, our research team sought to help answer these questions.
Put on display
The majority (about 75%) of breastaurant customers are men, many of whom are middle-aged. And these restaurants uphold traditional gender roles by employing an exclusively female waitstaff. (Nationwide, 72% of servers are female.)
In fact, Hooters legally gained this right in a 1997 class action settlement, in which they used the Title VII Civil Rights Act’s “bona-fide occupational qualification” as its defense.
In essence, they argued that being female was essential to the performance of the Hooters Girl’s job responsibilities: because women’s bodies are tools of the trade, they should be exempt from the federal discrimination policy.
“Breastraunts” are examples of what academics term sexually objectifying environments, which are settings, subcultures or situations that promote, intensify and sanction the treatment of women as sexual objects. These could include beauty pageants, cheerleading squads, modeling and the little sister organizations of fraternities.
Places like breastaurants emphasize women’s bodies while suppressing their humanity and individuality, and two distinct ways restaurants promote sexually objectifying environments are by putting women’s bodies and sexuality on display and by encouraging the “male gaze.”
Restaurants that promote the former regulate female workers’ appearance and wardrobe in ways that draw attention to their physical and sexual attributes. For example, they often require their waitresses to wear uniforms or clothing that accentuate their buttocks, upper legs and breasts.
In addition, some will force waitresses to maintain the weight at which they were hired. These restaurants will also promote events (like wet t-shirt competitions among waitresses) and products (such as swimsuit calendars) that market the sex appeal of their waitresses.
Meanwhile, restaurants that elicit the “male gaze” implicitly acknowledge and sanction the “right” of male customers to watch, stare at and visually inspect waitresses’ bodies – and to even appraise female servers’ sexual desirability and appearance.
More money and flexibility come at a cost
Given the growth and unique characteristics of Hooters-style restaurants, we wondered about the impact – emotionally and psychologically – on the women who worked in these sexually objectifying environments. After all, no one had ever investigated this before.
So our research team conducted two studies to shed light on this topic. The first was a qualitative study where we interviewed waitresses who worked at a so-called breastaurant.
Participants reported that the main reasons they chose to work and remain employed at the breastaurant were (1) to make more money than they could have otherwise, and (2) to have a high degree of flexibility in creating their work schedule.
But they also described receiving unwanted lewd comments, sexual advances and other forms of sexual harassment from customers, which included being grabbed, having pictures taken of their body parts without consent, being propositioned for sexual favors – and, in some cases, being stalked.
All the waitresses reported feeling a host of negative emotions tied to these experiences: anxiety, anger, sadness, depressed mood, confusion and degradation.
Furthermore, participants relayed other negative aspects of their jobs. They felt a general ambivalence toward the work, demeaning and challenging interactions with customers, and poor relationships with unsupportive and competitive colleagues.
Many reported finding themselves in double-binds: situations where they received contradictory messages that created dilemmas that they couldn’t resolve or opt out of. This could mean, for example, receiving an unwanted sexual advance from a frequent customer who’s a hefty tipper, which creates the dilemma of asserting oneself and eliciting an angry reaction.
Shame and depression acutely felt
Although this study provided an in-depth and rich descriptive understanding of these waitresses’ lived experience, it didn’t tell us if their experiences were any different from women working at restaurants that didn’t create a sexually objectifying environment.
So we conducted a second quantitative study, where we surveyed a national sample of 253 waitresses who worked in settings ranging from breastaurants to family-oriented, casual restaurants.
Consistent with the results of our first study, we found that waitresses working in restaurants that sexually objectified their employees were more likely to experience a host of negative interactions with customers, ranging from unwanted advances to lewd comments. They were also far more likely to internalize cultural standards of beauty, experience symptoms of depression and were more likely to be dissatisfied with their job.
Our findings also support classic objectification theory. That is, our data were consistent with the notion that women who waitress in these types of sexually objectifying environments will soon amplify their habitual appearance and body monitoring. This, in turn, increases their body shame. And as body shame rises, so do their levels of depression.
The end result? Many end up dissatisfied with their jobs. Furthermore, we found a clear inverse relationship: the more their bodies and sexuality were put on display, the less happy they were with their jobs.
Taken together, our research suggests that although “breastaurants” may be good for waitresses’ pocketbooks, they don’t appear to be good for their psychological and work-related health.
Unfortunately, sexual objectification of women occurs in a number of different contexts and settings, from the cultural to the interpersonal.
Our findings are simply consistent with a fairly large research base that shows how harmful sexual objectification of women can be.
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This article originally appeared on The Conversation US.
Photo credit: Getty Images
If you want easy answers, I don’t have any. I stopped going to bars because I got tired of dealing with drunk idiots, especially the ones who were looking to fight. I can’t tell you why some people harass and others don’t. People don’t come with warning signs, it would be nice if they did, like “Instant A******, Just Add Alcohol”.
That would be assuming that these restaurants are positive places to begin with. The only reason they exist is because women work there. If women en masse chose to boycott them and not work there would it even be an issue? When I go out to eat, I don’t care what the waitress looks like, only the service I get. And I always treat people with respect.
You still have not answered my question. Why are men not making these kind of environments more friendly toward women since women are the exact thing they desire in these environments? If men like women so much, why would they respond to a woman providing him a service, with abuse and harassment? Please just answer the question directly. You keep tip-toeing around it. I am asking you, as a man, why men behave this way. Again Wes, you put primary blame and responsibility on women. If we didn’t live in a culture that turned women’s bodies into a man’s entitlement,… Read more »
Being an adult apparently only applies to women who choose to work in sexually charged environments but not men who choose to do the actual harassing or who choose to visit sexually charged environments to begin with. The fact that you keep saying it’s women’s responsibility to make certain choices but you apply no such similar ethics to men, speaks to the ‘boys will be boys” attitude. Aside from the fact that the example you used is an issue about prejudice, and racism should never be welcome, why would you compare racism, to men’s relationship to women in sexual environments?… Read more »
I have the freedom to go to a rap concert wearing a cowboy hat and Confederate flag shirt, but I have the simple common sense not to do it. So why work at a place where you KNOW you are being objectified and are more likely to be harassed? Avoid the problem in the first place. And for the record, no one is entitled to anything. Men are not entitled to sex just as women are not entitled to engagement rings, unpaid labor, dinners, drinks or jewelry. They are also not entitled to be rescued from their own bad decisions.… Read more »
My point is these women CHOSE to work in these environments. Do they deserve to be harassed? No.
But unless they were incredibly naïve they knew it could happen. These are not the only waitressing jobs available. Read Sex-Ploytation by Matthew Bracken.
So because there are women who choose to work in these environments, this negates the responsibility of the costumers who populate these environments to treat them with some decency? I know you said they don’t deserve to be harassed but then you contradicted yourself and go on and blame them for the harassment regardless. Choosing to work in a sexual environment does not entitle men to be disrespectful. The reason these men feel like they can do these kind of things to these girls in these environments has nothing to do with the girl choosing to work there in the… Read more »
Breasturants are a waste of time and money, just like strip clubs. The food is mediocre at best, and it is all about separating you from your money. It is based on the fantasy of sex without any actual sex. Every man who goes there is nothing more than a potential tip, and the waitresses know just how to push their buttons for bigger ones. They are volunteers, not victims.
You’re not even addressing anything that the actual article is talking about. Which is the emotional and psychological affects of sexually objectifying environments on workers.
Congrats, you set out with a goal in mind and you ‘found’ the data to prove it. Nice going. Not confirmation bias here of course.
Zygor, what is the bias? They study wanted to know what the emotional and psychological affects where on women working in sexually objectifying environments. Are you suggesting that calling places like Hooters sexually objectifying environments a biased onto itself? And if so, what would you call places like Hooters then? Do you believe that environments like Hooters create positive, uplifting experiences for women?
I’m sure anyone whose job is dependent on their appearance and / or weight is going to have issues with their body. How much is it general body images issues and how much is a concern for being able to continue to work? I heard all women have body image issues. Are they being over stated? How significant is the difference in body issues not counting work pressures as compared to regular women?
And then these waitresses go on to get married. After a short life lesson which convinces them that ALL MEN actually do think of only one thing, they become expertly skilled in using the only power they think is available. They’ve learned how to control and manipulate men with their body and sexual energy. It’s not that they enjoy this…it’s just that they think that is where all of their personal, feminine power is. And it later makes them (and their husbands) miserable. I get to deal with the aftermath – men who also feel weak and powerless. Guys love… Read more »