The World According To Chris Brewer

I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m going to base my response on two separate parts. First will be the personal opinion since that is how you based your post and then second will be religiously because that is where the topic originated.

Dignity is defined as ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

At no point do I believe that by signing those forms, which I myself have signed, is anyone signing away their dignity. I think that the problem with dignity is that it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s the quality of being worthy of respect but that doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t mean the respect will be rightfully shown. The main argument I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m seeing against Hooters is being against the uniform. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve heard that issue since before I started working there so lets put it to rest here and now. Nothing that a woman wears gives any man the right to disrespect her. Short shorts do not validate a male or even another female to base whom the woman is on what she is wearing. Because I wore stiletto boots, did that give you the right to refer to me as ?¢‚Ǩ?ìhot?¢‚Ǩ¬ù or for your brother to refer to me as ?¢‚Ǩ?ìfirey hot?¢‚Ǩ¬ù?? Or how about the top I wore to a party that was quite low cut but still covered absolutely everything and someone (we both know who I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m speaking of) just had to see those pictures over and over again? Those are degrading comments and I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t even have to be at Hooters to hear them. The point I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m making is that words like ?¢‚Ǩ?ìpretty?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and ?¢‚Ǩ?ìbeautiful?¢‚Ǩ¬ù refer to a woman?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s face and words like ?¢‚Ǩ?ìhot?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and ?¢‚Ǩ?ìsexy?¢‚Ǩ¬ù (which I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m not saying you said) refer to a woman?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s body and therefore, those comments add to the objectifying of women. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve had guys shout at me in the Wal-Mart parking lot because of how I look. But you said it yourself in the post about the guy that wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t stop staring at me at Hooters that one time, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìMelissa is a beautiful girl. But that by no means warrants a rotund individual staring you down like a hawk no matter where you go.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù I, speaking for Hooters Girls, believe that I should be able to dress how I please without having to worry about which gentleman are going to have a problem controlling their hormones while looking at me. Every Hooters girl is still worthy of respect, just as anyone including those poor lifeguard?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s wearing less than Hooters girls are.

The 4 points that I signed to:
1. My job duties require I wear the designated Hooters Girl uniform… yes, a uniform is part of most jobs.
2. My job duties require that I interact with and entertain the customers.?¢‚Ǩ¬®.. waitressing jobs typically consist of human interaction.
3. The Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and sexual innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace… good for Hooters for acknowledging the beauty of women and not trying to cover it up.
4. I do not find my job duties, uniform requirements, or work environment to be offensive, intimidating, hostile, or unwelcome… if I did find these things offensive, intimidating, hostile, or unwelcome then this would not be the job for me and I would not be signing this paper.

Dignity is not signed away on those papers. Any Hooters girl without dignity, was without it before the job not as a result of the job. So to answer your question, no there are not girls signing away their dignity to work at Hooters.

The second argument is Youth groups going to Hooters for an outing. Why not? God works everywhere, not just in churches. If these girls were really as far off as you think they are, wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t it be good for them to be around these youth group members? True, somebody not strong enough in their Christian faith might not survive the short shorts but let?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s also hope that they?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re not venturing out to beaches either. Remember Mike? In a previous post you said, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìAfter church, Mike (another new guy at church, praise God!), Joe, Jake and Nick all joined me at Cici?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Pizza in Hampton. Good eats?¢‚Ǩ¬¶we discussed some church issues, what we like about church, what they notice while they are still new to the church, etc. Also we shared some stories from our personal lives?¢‚Ǩ¬¶good ?¢‚Ǩ?ìget to know each other?¢‚Ǩ¬ù time. (And that?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s what ministry is all about, too.)?¢‚Ǩ¬ù You wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t have known Mike if God hadn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t put me at Hooters speaking to Mike about our church. Hooters isn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t bad because of the females working there, if anything, the sin that?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s in there is the men who have a misconstrued view on how to treat a woman (which comes through comments such as ?¢‚Ǩ?ìhot?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and sexy). Hooters is filled with great employee?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s, wonderful customers, and awesome food. I do not believe it should be overlooked as a place to witness and ultimately do not believe all the focus should be on the uniform. We?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re all Christians here, shouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t we be the ones out there loving those people and not sitting here just assuming what sin is there?

I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m not sure if I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve ever told you guys this before but I also used to dislike Hooters. I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t like that girls were strutting their bodies out there like that. But I was wrong. Girls who are not ashamed of their bodies and who love people are out there just making a living like everyone else. They?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re not exploiting themselves and they?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re not being forced to degrade themselves. God threw me into the atmosphere and when He did, He sent you in there with me. It was His way of getting us off our butts criticizing something that we knew nothing about and sent us in there to spread His love. Good for those youth groups that are out there and able to do that also. Even those girls with their dignity could use the message of God in their lives.

I personally would never work in a place where I had to sign a consent form saying that I understand that my place of employment is based on sex appeal. That right there is giving the image and setting the tone. To me, by signing that paper it is the restaurants ‘insurance’ that you can’t file a complaint if something were to happen. By putting this in their handbook they are saying, ‘we condone this type of behavior and will not do anything to stop it’. Now, I know that this is all my opinion, but I have a strong feeling that this is how a guy would view it too. They know that they can walk in to a Hooter’s restaurant, and give the girls slack, and not get in trouble. You can’t blame that on the guys that walk in and do it when the restaurant, and society are the ones saying that it is ok. It is a very hard question to answer, and I honestly think it is a case by case basis. I personally, agree with Chris. Every female is different, I personally would never work in an environment such as Hooters, and would feel that if I did, I would be throwing away my dignity, and my pride. I would never want to take a job because of the way I look, or because that is what is going to give me the best income. I would never work in a place where I have to take that from a guy. I interpret it to be signing a paper saying it’s ok for guys to treat girls like that. I would also have to say that I don’t agree with taking a youth group on an outing to Hooters. It’s like giving them the ok to behave the way that others do in the restaurant. Why expose youth to an atmosphere where a type of behavior is said to be ok, when they see it on a day to day basis, and we are trying to teach them differently. Aren’t we suppose to lead by example?

I would just like to say, seeing as I’m the only one that can speak from an inside view.. you are not forced to take anything at Hooters. You have to sign the waiver because yes, it is a job that deals with how you look. By signing that paper it allows the boss to fire someone who gains a lot of weight or something like that. I know that’s horrible and it’s wrong but you never sign anything saying it’s okay to treat me in a negative manner because I look good in short shorts, it’s signing the understanding that if 2 years down the road you’ve gained 200 pounds, you can’t fuss when you’re fired for no longer fitting the requirement. The WB requires all of their actors to sign waivers agreeing to not drastically change their appearance, it’s the same kind of thing. I never took anything from a guy and anytime someone thought they were being slick and tried to fit in a sexual or degrading comment I let them know how wrong they were. I had one gentleman aplogizing to me the entire night because he said something to me as soon as I walked over and I instantly said, “Where in the world were you raised to where you think it’s okay to talk to a girl like that? That is not okay here.” His friend constantly apologized for him also. 2 gentleman moved to a different table and made their friend eat alone after I pointed out how rude his comment was. I’ve also had someone kicked out of the building for the way they spoke. The managers won’t settle for anyone making the girls uncomfortable either. That type of behavior is not accepted at Hooters. There are obviously many misrepresentations of Hooters but the problem isn’t in Hooters it’s outside of it. We’re single-ing out this one place when there’s a much bigger picture to be looked at. The Hooters girls are not the problem, Hooters using good-looking girls isn’t any different from television using good-looking people. So to break it down, Hooters girls are not agreeing to be disrespected in any way nor do they have to put up with it. And yes, we should lead by example and start stepping up the next time you hear some guy shout, “Yo shorty” at some girl as she walks by or correct someone talking about how sexy that outfit is… it’s everywhere and sitting around talking bad about one place won’t change anything.

I hate bathing suits, I hate dresses, I hate showing my legs, I hate wearing makeup, Hooters was torture for me sometimes. I don’t enjoy being hit on and I absolutely can’t stand wearing my hair down. I was constantly having to defend myself as a woman and Christian and that was difficult but I guarantee I made a change there. I stepped it up and proudly discussed the goodness in waiting til marriage for sex and I guarantee at least one person, if not many more, learned a thing or two about respect. I’m still learning in my walk but God definitely used the little light that is in me to shine on some of the darkness in that place.

You’ve got to be that change you want to see in the world.

I find this whole topic to be very interesting. I guess the thing that I want to add is what my Mom always taught me growing up. She always told me that you can wear a so-called sexy outfit and still be a lady. People will judge the way you act just as much as they will judge what you are wearing. So, I can walk around the beach in a revealing bikini and still look beautiful, classy, and a lady by the way that I act. However, a woman could be wearing a turtleneck and look like a hooker based on the way that she acts. In this case I think that actions definatly speak louder than words.

SO I do find it very intersting how someone thinks that they can still be a classy, ladylike, respectable person while working at a place where they signed on the dotted like to show “sex appeal” as Melissa put it. How is that glorifying God? How is that making you a lady and beautiful. It is unattractive, and frankly in my opinion skanky. I am not attacking any one person by that comment, it is just my personal opinion on the establishment as a whole. I want to make that clear.

Bottom line though. If you were walking up to Jesus on judgement day wearing a hooters uniform, acting the way that you are contractually obligated to act (showing sex appeal and flirting with men as a job etc.) would you be able to look Him in the eye and tell Him that you are proud of who you are. This life is given to you to learn what you need in preparation for your eternal life with Him….I am confused as to how working at Hooters gets you closer to what should be every Christians purpose. So I guess that goes hand in hand with a youth group…why would you want to expose young Christians to a place where “sex appeal”, revealing “uniforms” and whatever else draws thousands of men there each day. I gaurentee it isnt just the hot wings. Someone who says that their Christian walk isnt in jeapordy while entering or working at an establishment such as Hooters needs to step back, say a major prayer, and re-evaluate the situation. Kind of like WWJD….I cant see Jesus working at Hooters or going there for the food so why should you, as a Christian, justify that action?

You’re right… leave it to God to judge us, that’s His job so don’t take it away from Him.

Chris… I’d like to point out that I have already explained that contract many times and there’s no point in doing it again. Please just reread what I’ve already said. And in response to your apology, I would like to point out that you did not just look at how I looked because I was working at Hooters. You focussed on how I looked in instances when I was not at Hooters so it was not the Hooters atmosphere that brought that out of you. And I probably said something, if not flashed you a dirty look and walked away any time a comment that I did not appreciate was said. What saddens me Chris is that you were there… you allow yourself and other’s to speak of Hooters girls as a whole while knowing that that’s the same as talking about all college girls as a whole. But you’ve been there and you’ve seen me work numerous times and I don’t think you can tell me an instance in which I walked around Hooters disrespecting myself, or God. I never flirted with a customer, I don’t think I even know how to flirt, I never tried to make my a-cups appear any bigger than they are, I never had anyone ask me to, nobody got away speaking to me disrespectfully, and my bible was always there on my breaks. Working at Hooters actually allowed me to stand up for the disrespect I get on a daily basis. I still hear worse things said to me while wearing a giant apron and a hair net working for campus dining services. I had a gentleman stalk me around the building when I was just a 16 year old wearing jeans, a tshirt, and a big red apron when I worked for Michaels. The girls that work are Hooters are not saying anything is “OK” by signing anything. And yes you are right Aftan, you weren’t attacking any one person by your comment, you attacked the “whole.” And also, yes Aftan… acting the way I act in my uniform… Jesus already knows I’m proud of who I am… he doesn’t need to wait for judgment day to be aware of that. Basically, I think this is a topic that nobody is familiar enough with to be passing such strong opinions. If you were passing these opinions amogst yourselves then that would at least not be as attacking, but you are very aware that you are passing your negative opinions of a Hooters girl to a Hooters girl and you’re doing through a public post as opposed to doing it directly. I welcome you to e-mail me directly and let me know your opinion if you would like to learn a little more about the topic. I’m sure everyone else is probably sick of reading me write so much. Sorry guys!! I’m an english major!! It comes naturally!!!!

Hey Chris… I love you. There’s nothing more to say on this topic.

I said it once and I will say it again. I was not attacking anyone. Opinions were asked for and I gave mine. My aunt used to work at hooters and I told her the same thing that I wrote on this blog…that it is not the place for a Christian to work. Yes, I do say that to every person that works there or thinks that it is ok. I am also the type of person that forgives. Big deal if chris used to oggle Melissa while she was working. He realized how wrong it was, and apologized. What judgement should I pass in that situation…it is in the past and he realized how wrong it is. End of story. It is really sad how others past have gotten brought up in what was supposed to be a generalized discussion. Melissa-I would like to extend an apology to you if you think this was in any way personally attacking you. I know that Chris did not mean it to be that way…it was just a thing that he had saw on another Christian website and thought he would get some opinions on. Nor do I think that anyone invloved in this discussion is personally attacking you. like I said…I dont think anyone is writing this with their claws out attacking you personally.

Matthew was dead on!!!! I absolutely love the scripture reference used in the gospel of St. Luke. God is calling us to get outside the box! Let’s breakthrough and start reaching people for the Lord Jesus Christ. His love is unconditional and thank God for that or we would all be lost! Matthew, I’ve been working on some things that will do exactly that I hope you’ll be a part. You know there are so many hurting/sick people out there that need a doctor and I know no one better than the Lord Jesus Christ!! The “holier than thee attitude is dead!!! Let’s be done with religion and start walking in the Spirit! God is raising up an army that will not fear man, and will go out among the unchurched. His army will make a difference! After all it is about Him and not about us. So I edify,and encourage all to join the Father’s side and to prove it by how we live from day to day!

I think that everyone makes a good arguement…but should we be going out of the box and joining them, or going out of the box to teach and minister to them? You can certainly go ‘out of the box’ to minister, as all should, but why join them? You don’t have to join in someone else’s actions to share the word of God or try to make them understand that it isn’t right. If I were trying to witness to an alcoholic, I might go to the bar to witness to him, but I certainly wouldn’t join him. But it also isn’t a place that I would take a youth group. The same standard applies. Youth are pliable, they are still in a state of being molded, you do in a sense have to shelter them from things such as this…they don’t always have the experience or wisdom yet to be able to see the difference.

Am I the only one that likes their food?

Paully… I LOVE the food there!!!! The hot chicken strips there beat out any other restaurant I’ve ever been to!!!! There is no Hooters in Harrisonburg and it kills me to be away from those strips!!! And Makal… Your argument isn’t sloppy… sounds very well thought out. I really do appreciate that everyone is putting so much thought into their remarks on this issue. I’m hearing a lot of good coming out of it.

dude,

what the problem? you so bored that you are picking on the people who love and pry for your safety everyday. Don’t we are your family

You know opinions were simply asked for here, not attacks. It was a question, and many have differing opinions on the subject but there is no need to attack others if they disagree with your opinion. It is okay to disagree but do it agreeably, respect each other.
I haven’t put my two cents in on this for several reasons. But I will say we need to give ourselves totally to God. He calls us to be different from those who don’t believe in Him. The Word tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Many are love this verse, but do not live out the fear and trembling part of it. When we do that, we live for Him, and He changes us to His image. We are made to give glory to God, and I ask Him alot to show me areas of my life where I need to change. I ask Him to help me to die, decrease, so He can fully live in me and increase.
Christ went about doing good. He went to the sinners because they needed Salvation. He didn’t sin nor participate in sin but He called them out of darkness into His marvelous Light. Wherever He went He gave and brought glory to God. We need to be like Christ and bring glory to Him in every area of our lives.
So whether you agree with Hooters or not, seek God on the matter. And if He tells you to change your thinking do it for His glory.
And one final note, my son was asking a question, not picking on the ones he loves. He stated this was a question that came up on another forum, and he decided to voice that question here. He has not attacked anyone, he is simply admitting to a change of mind. It is very easy to misunderstand people in debating issues, again I admonish all of us to do so in a way that brings unity and glory to God.

Chris…so you have many thoughts, from many different people. I have to say I agree with Momma Sybil. Pray about it. God works in each and every one of us in different ways, and God places different convictions on each of us as well. God uses each and everyone of us in His own unique way to reach out to others. Even when we think we are right, pray. God may tell us differently if we are willing to listen. That is a lesson that I know I learn on a daily basis…even more lately.

No Paully, I don’t like their food!

No, I do not think that this blog post has built any unity in our Christian family. It did not edify anyone. It was controversal, argumentative, upsetting to some, & hurtful to our becoming a closer family of God in unity.
And we wonder, as it was pointed out to us in class last night, why the greater majority of our churches are not growing.
Chris, you increased your blog participation as you so desired but, was this worth it brother?

I see this going no where. Both sides have their firm points of view and will not give up an inch. Both sides have their main points and they will not be accepted by the other. (such as i don’t see how going to Hooters would be joining “the lustful/sinners” unless you go there looking for it or cannot control yourself once you’re there. I admit that some people probably should not go there if that is the case and they want to keep their christian walk strong without “temptation”)
So, if as a parent you do not want your teenager to go there, don’t let them. If you feel you are mature enough to go there, then go ahead. And if you are worried about friends going and/or working there, pray that God will let that person know whether they should be there or not… I’m pretty sure if God were to tell some to leave the place, they wouldn’t try to be stubborn and stick to what they believed before.
I don’t believe this is attacking anyone, but if it is, then by all means delete it.
On another note, is HTML not allowed to be used in these? I tried above (and am again) and it wouldn’t let me seperate my paragraphs.