Marks and Spencer support new 'Hooters' in Bristol

[JessinAvalon]

Dear all
(I've posted this under the feminism list but it's been suggested that I post it here as well.)

I live in Bristol and, last week, 'Hooters' was granted a licence to open in the city centre. The site is virtually opposite 3 apartment blocks, the lower floors of which are social housing and children are living in them.

What's most disappointing is that Marks and Spencer are leasing the site to 'Hooters'. They have been e-mailed by many concerned people to ask if they will reconsider leasing the building but they have just replied saying it is a "commercial decision" (as if that makes it ok!). In Sheffield, a 'Hooters' didn't even make it to application stage because the developer (Ask Pizza) realised that it would be better not to be associated with a company like 'Hooters'.

Marks and Spencer don't seem that concerned, however. Although they have signed up to the "Let Girls Be Girls" Mumsnet campaign they are not concerned about a company which sells merchandise including babygros which say "Future Hooters Girl" and "Does my butt look big in this?"

I have written to Marks and Spencer telling them that I won't be shopping in their stores again. If you feel strongly about this, please e-mail:

[email protected].

'Hooters' tries to sell itself as a family friendly restaurant but it is anything but. The Hooters in Nottingham attracts mainly stag parties and football fans. Hooters Girls take part in bikini contests and iced wet t-shirt competitions (the t-shirts are put in the freezers before the girls wear them). 'Hooters' has links to Playboy magazine....I could go on.....

I think Marks and Spencer should be shamed for facilitating this company's expansion into Bristol. They are selling women and girls down the river by leasing to this company and all just to make a "quick buck". As one former customer said to them, being a hitman is a "commercial decision" but it doesn't make it right!

Thanks everyone.

We have a petition here which we set up and a blog here which is recording articles etc and news on the Bristol Hooters.

i dont think as women we need to defend our right to be judged on more than how hot we are to posters like banana whoever.

my q is would you like to walk past with your kdis adn say what it is/>no ccoursenot

Am confused. Has it received planning permission or license approval?

Think the area would be Cabot, so Stephen Williams would be the MP.

Absolutely, meringue

Um, that email address doesn't seem to work, and the Bristol Evening Post says they've already been given planning permission (or whatever it's called) to open.
No mention of M&S on the article either.

'Yes and it clearly states its the older version. Find a current one and we'll talk.'

You're rather scraping the bottom of the barrel there aren't you Banana87 - or are you trying to tell us that Hooters has changed completely since 2006? Why on earth is it relevant otherwise that this handbook was valid only until 2006?

Good to know that Hooters is marginally less sexist.

A bit like saying the Black and White Minstrel Show wasn't really that racist and everyone should just lighten up.

banana87 - I find it very very sad that you see hooters as just, well, fun.

I would loathe for dd to get the message that it is OK for a restaurant to operate on the premise that the staff are there to be ogled at (regardless of weight). i just don't see the "joke".

I would LOVE to know how they work round the employment laws wrt equal opportunities.

I would be horrified if somewhere like this were to open nearby. It's weird - I have no problem really with porn or with sex shops. But I find it very disturbing that the chain is packaging itself as a family venue, and that the sexual kicks element of the restaurant is so casual. At least with strip clubs and porn shops, special licenses are required and no one would ever possibly suggest that they would be appropriate places for children to be.

The Black and White Minstrel Show was seen then good, clean family 'fun' - I remember sitting in my nylon nightie as a child watching it on a Saturday night.

I'd like to think that we've now moved on and left these sexist, racist attitudes behind (along with the nylon) - it's not 'empowerment' or a bit of fun, it's called being a dinosaur.

Ew how chavvy.

Banana my friend ate in the one in Toronto and was served by a girl in a bikini at lunch time.

Hi all
No planning permission needed apparently so it was just a licence application which was granted on 1st September.

Bubo = latin for owl - very clever!

If you want to apply for jobs, as many of us have been doing to check on their employment opportunities, then you can do so here:

online application form

However, get in quick, as they only want applications in person once it's opened!

In terms of it being tame, the Hooters in Nottingham has bikini contests for the staff, wet t-shirt competitions where, for an added frisson, the t-shirts are put in the freezer first, they produce a calendar every year and there are links to Playboy magazine. There was a pistol whipping incident there in 2008 when someone tried to grope a waitress (you don't say!) and there is a strong police presence there most Saturdays when it's full of football fans. When it's not full of football fans, it's full of stag parties.

So if you want to organise your children's birthday parties there, get in quick before all the stag parties book it out!

Anyone who wants to know more about action we're taking in Bristol, if you pm me I'll send you some more details.

Interesting application form for "host" vacancy.

Basic minimum wage? There's a surprise.

Amongst job requirements: "To manage and extinguish any potential conflict". Bouncer eh? Thought this was a "family friendly" restaurant.

Well it's a shame women will go for minimum wage jobs here, slaving over men and accepting their perviness which would usually warrant short shrift, but it's in their contract

They didn't seriously market this as family friendly did they? What brain dead moron would associate family friendly with hooters, let alone take their kids there?

Hooters is harmless. Its a bar/restaurant. Its is NOT a titty bar.

This thread is a storm in a teacup. Hope the petiton falls on its poe-face.

BTW - 'does my butt look big in this' babygro. Think about it FFS.

fun, hmm
ah yes take the whole family to ogle young women in skimpy outfits, what fun that sounds

gosh, I'll take dd1 and 2 there as soon as it opens, sounds like just the thing

sheesh

ha ha, you don't know what you're talking about ccpccp.
Normal restaurants do not have wet t-shirt contests among the staff.
Normal restaurants do not get their female staff to sign disclaimers saying they don't mind being sexually harassed.
Normal restaurants aren't named after slang terms for breasts with pictures of breasts in their logo.

I could go on but there's not much point since you're clearly determined to deny the obvious.

They don't have wet t-shirt competitions they have iced t shirt competitions...they are looking for a particular profile.

Hooters is like 'The Star' in bar form.

I agree with what Pooka has said earlier - if this was sold as adult entertainment (e.g. not the same, but aimed at the same age group as, say Stringfellows), then I would have less of a problem with it. At least the adult nature of it would have been taken into account when permission given on the location.

Not that I'd ever set foot in a place like that, but I acknowledge that people differ and not everyone has problems with the things that I find horrific. However, it is never, ever right to try and sell this to children.

Because yes, you can say how differently the staff and customers would behave during daytime hours etc etc - but I fear it is exactly this kind of thing that blurs the lines.

Oh, btw, on their (current) website there is a picture of staff dressed up as school girls - "sexy" school girls with short skirts, unbuttoned shirts, etc etc. It's beyond me how anyone can not have a problem with this.

"We must remember though ladies, that only in Bristol could Disney Store be next door to Anne Summers..." Here Anne Summers is opposite the Disney store (but they do have a tame window display).

I lived in the US and Hooters made my skin crawl, similar to Benny Hill as a child in the 70s. The US also gently introduces boys to porn (or used to in the good old days) via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, lots of girls in swim suits, for your son to start masturbating over, which is an annual American institution.

I can remember coming back to the UK and thinking at least Hooters couldn't happen here. Never mind the fact that in the present drinking culture of the UK it will be even more obviously tacky.

M and S, along with every other clothing company hire women (and men) on the basis of their sex appeal for their modelling campaigns.

This isn't very different IMO.

Abercromby and Fitch only hire shop assistants that are thin and gorgeous regardless of their skills don't they?

Been to hooters before sethstarkaddersmum / catissleepy?

Nah you just read the sh1t on this thread didnt you.

Its a family restaurant/nightclub setup. This means during the DAY its a restaurant/bar like any other. At NIGHT it becomes a bar/nightclub with a door policy to match.

Take DD1 and DD2 there CatIsSleepy - after all its a restaurant about owls. They'll love it.

YABU.

Nope ccpccp, it has the same staff during the day and serving lunch in bikinis.

Not saying lighten up.
Have signed the petition.

Hooters on fb has three likes, waterbabies bikini, some bikini clad woman and international hooters babe.

Hooters magazine.