Hooters New Shorts Protest

Overview

Hooters New Shorts Protest refers to a number of TikTok videos posted by Hooters employees in October 2021 protesting the new shorts they had to wear as part of a uniform change, claiming that they're too short and basically underwear and a way of oversexualizing their employees. Numerous videos protesting the shorts and employees threatening to quit gained millions of views as they were picked up by the mainstream media, causing Hooters to backtrack and make the new short-shorts optional.

History

Sometime around early October 2021, Hooters instituted uniform changes including new, more revealing booty shorts. On October 8th, 2021, TikTokers^[1][2] @gracie.herrick and @ggnguyen, Hooters employees, posted videos criticizing the new Hooters shorts for being too short, gaining over 23.8 million views and 18.7 million views respectively (shown below, left and right). The former video uses the Wackus Bonkus sound to say she's considering quitting because of the uniform.

Hooters girls continued to upload videos protesting the shorts over the following weeks, often gaining millions of views. On October 11th, TikToker^[3] @sick.abt.it posted a video claiming the shorts are why girls are quitting, gaining over 15.2 million views in just over a week (shown below, left). On the same day, TikToker @theflathootersgirl posted a video protesting them, gaining over 9 million views in the same span of time (shown below, right). On October 12th, Twitter^[10] user @morgan_sung shared a protest video from TikTok and said "this is like the fourth tiktok i’ve seen of hooters employees expressing their SparklesdiscomfortSparkles over the new uniform shorts," gaining over 4,800 likes in a week.

On October 15th, NBC News^[4] published a story on the TikTok protests. Over the course of the week, numerous other news outlets picked up on it, including the National Post^[5] and TMZ.^[6] On October 16th, TikToker and Hooters Gir @kay.phillips posted a video supporting the new shorts, saying she's obsessed with them, gaining over 1.1 million views in four days (shown below). The comments were turned off for the video.

Hooters Response

On October 18th, 2021, Hooters released a response to the protests about the shorts on their website^[7] and Twitter^[8] account, announcing that the shorts would now be optional. They also state that the shorts were made "in collaboration with Hooters Girls and have been worn for months in several Texas markets with overwhelmingly positive feedback." The full statement reads:

Hooters of America, franchisor and operator of Hooters restaurants, appreciates the feedback, both positive and negative, regarding a more accommodating and inclusive image policy on tattoos, jewelry, nails, hairstyles as well as new uniform options – to include new top styles, shorts and the addition of crew socks.

As we continue to listen and update the image of the Hooters Girls, we are clarifying that they have the option to choose from traditional uniforms or the new ones. They can determine which style of shorts best fits their body style and personal image.

We’re excited to see a national trend toward self-expression and inclusivity that bodes well for our marketplace. We work continuously with our Hooters Girls to refresh and update the image of our brand ambassadors and to empower them to feel their best while at work. In fact, new uniform styles were the result of a collaboration with Hooters Girls and have been worn for months in several Texas markets with overwhelmingly positive feedback. Our Hooters Girls are providing input at every stage including future clothing items and accessories.

We remain committed to empowering our most valuable asset, the Hooters Girls, and working together to provide the best Hooters experience for our guests and employees.

Online Reactions

On October 19th, Ben Shapiro's Facebook^[9] page posted a video offering a conservative opinion on the outfits, defending Hooters new shorts. In the video, the host says the Hooters Girls "knew what they were getting into" applying to work at Hooters and that while he's torn about promoting sexually revealing clothing in a restaurant, he sees the whole situation as people getting offended for Hooters Girls about the uniforms despite the majority of the girls protesting the shorts claiming to be Hooters Girls (shown below). The video gained over 491,000 views and 3,900 reactions in under 24 hours.

On the same day, Mashable posted a video to YouTube^[10] about the protests, gaining over 29,000 views in a day (shown below).

Search Interest

External References