Breasts, Gender, Women's Issues

Hooters and the Heavy Consequences of Having Boobs

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We apologize again for yesterday’s technical difficulties, but if you thought we weren’t going to weigh in on the Hooters anti-fatty policy you haven’t been paying a whole lot of attention. Yesterday, a Michigan judge ruled that a weight discrimination case brought against Hooters restaurants could go forward.

When the suit was filed, back in May, I sarcastically quipped about fat people being a protected class in Michigan. Apparently, that’s exactly what’s happening. The WSJ Law Blog reports:

According to this story from the Grand Rapids Press, the suit cites Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by employers based on a number of factors. Height and weight discrimination were added in a 1976 amendment by then-state Rep. Thomas Mathieu.

Mathieu originally introduced the height and weight amendment because he was “flabbergasted” by the number of cases of unfairness involving women seeking office jobs who possessed the necessary skills and personality, but were overweight.

Let’s all take a moment to reflect on the necessary skills and personality needed to be a Hooter’s waitress…

This is one of those wonderful cases where both the plaintiffs and the defendant are arguing terrible positions.

Re Hooters: where do they think breasts come from? We know that Hooters wants to maintain a Barbie image of the feminine form where women have size-two waists, D-cups, and an anti-graviton machine in their bras to prevent them for tipping over. But real women with real “hooters” tend to have a little bit of weight on them. Fantasy is great, but there’s nothing wrong with natural physics.

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Re plaintiffs: for the love of God, you’re working at a place that’s a slang term for your chest. You’re strutting around in skimpy outfits and push-up bras. At what point in this process did you think your looks wouldn’t be critically important? Do you really think people go there for the wings? Newsflash, the wings are s**tty; they just seem to taste good because everything tastes good when you’re ogling cleavage while you eat. You think babies like breast milk? No! It’s just that everything tastes better when it comes out of a nipple.

Given that both parties are behaving stupidly, I still have hope that they will come together to find a peaceful settlement to their ridiculous disagreement. Maybe they should open a spin-off restaurant called “Hooters Desserts” featuring only the so-called overweight waitresses. They’d corner the chubby chaser market, and men would claim they go for the “sweet pies.”

Weight Discrimination Suit at Hooters Proceeds [WSJ Law Blog]

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