Hooters – A clear exploitation of women

A clear exploitation of women. That’s the conclusion we can deduce from restaurants which use women in revealing outfit as their waitresses. One such concept is the breastaurant, where waitresses have to wear outfit that reveals most of their breasts to attract the customers. This is such an unhealthy competition besides degrading the dignity of women.

Thus, the plan of Hooters chain of restaurants, a restaurant which embrace such concept, to open 30 outlets in Southeast Asia that include Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in its 6 year plan, should be rejected.

This is a clear exploitation of women in the form of sexual objectifications.

The presence of such restaurants definitely contradicts the tenets of Islam, the federal religion of Malaysia which holds great respect for women. It also contradicts our Perlembagaan Negara which states that our country is built on ‘Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan’ and ‘Kesopanan dan Kesusilaan’.

Apart from that, it’s ironic that objectifying and fetishism of women bodies are slowly being rejected by the Western countries. In UK for example, campaigns by feminists and researchers for No More Page 3, referring to the UK based newspaper the Sun which portrays topless female models, that had begun in 2012 had attracted 217,000 signatures. One of the argument is that the link between the sexualisation in the papers and violence against women is really clear, said Holly Dustin, the director of Evaw (End Violence Against Women) organisation.

We should be aware that for capitalism purposes, the awareness that women should not be subjected objectifications elsewhere, has prompted companies like Hooters to find the new market in South East Asia.

Malaysia must reject this kind of economy venture for the sake of our future generation.

Prof Madya Dr Rafidah Hanim Mokhtar
Chief of Information, Wanita ISMA