Monday 17 March 2008

Strong independent women getting them out for the lads

Via Mr Eugenides, news that may break the tentative alliance with Iran: popular breast-themed restaurant chain Hooters is coming to Scotland.

Some have suggested, much to Mr E's wrath, that this is not, all in all, something to be encouraged. That somehow, hiring women ostensibly to bring customers food but actually to let men ogle their boobs is a bit sexist and may even, just possibly, encourage the idea that women are there to be ogled. Predictably, Hooters will have none of this: it isn't doing this for men, but to empower women:
"To Hooters, the women's rights movement is important because it guarantees women have the right to choose their own careers, be it a supreme court justice or Hooters girl."
Why not both? But speaking as a guy, this "empowering independent women" thing is amazing. Somehow, women are queuing up to jiggle their boobs as they bring us steak, learn strip-tease to please us and even get them out in national magazines. (By no means is this last link safe for work. Also, you should be working.) Not because we make them. No, because they think it's doing them some good. Check out this justification for learning "burlesque"
The course is extremely empowering making you feel sexy and capable of anything, and learning how to lap dance will certainly make your partner look at you with new eyes…!
Seriously, who comes out on top here? The woman who pays £100 for four weeks of lap dance classes, or the guy(s) she'll use that hard-earned knowledge on? A thought experiment: if women hadn't been "empowered" to take control of their sexuality but instead had been reduced by men to the status of sexual playthings, what would they be doing differently? I don't know how we did it, but somehow they're dancing for us. And are we learning to dance for them? Are we hell as like. I suppose we're just not empowered enough.

No comments: