getting philosophical over hooters girls on tiktok
it's so much deeper than the Sydney Sweeney Hooters SNL skit
A corner of TikTok that is part consumer behavior and part unintentional brand connotation, an evergreen content trend has emerged… Hooters Girls counting how much they make in a shift. Yes. These videos are shot in a selfie cam style, where women transparently count the cash tips they’ve made during their shifts, whether in a single shift or throughout a week. Many of these women are candid about the realities of the crowd which impacts their earnings. Sometimes, it’s a slow shift, which, according to some, are “Broke days,” and others, the girls make it rain.
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When these videos pop up on my feed, I can’t help but think about the enduring nature of places like Hooters since they cater to the male gaze despite our evolving performative gender expectations. But then I think, "YES, GURL, GET YOUR BAG!" As a woman who does not represent the archetype of a Hooters Girl, I always felt they were larger than life and lived outside of my reach. I always thought, what is it like to be them? Do they feel as pretty as they are? Well, these videos offer such a real glimpse.
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The comment section is another seated area of an arena of the Hooters Girls. Full of many walks of life from all over. People question their own career choices upon seeing the lucrative nature that some of the tips can bring in. People not from the States ask what Hooters is (How do you even begin to explain within the character counts of a TikTok reply comment?!) Some comments humorously poke fun at the seemingly unobtainable beauty standards one must meet to work there. Other Hooters Girls comment with supportive affirmations. Some men echo the energy of the establishments by unsolicitedly calling the women beautiful, again pouring their flattery into the void as they do when the Hooters Girls are serving them IRL.
Opened in Florida (of course) in 1983, Hooters is a sports, food, and bar establishment dependent on female sex appeal, as provided by Hooters Girls. According to a 2006 handbook, Hooters offers its customers the look of the “All American Cheerleader, Surfer, Girl Next Door.”
Women were required to sign that they "acknowledge and affirm" the following:
My job duties require I wear the designated Hooters Girl uniform.
My job duties require that I interact with and entertain the customers.
The Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and entertaining conversations are commonplace.
Although that was 18 years ago, the legal age for a woman to start working there, we can assume that the teetering the line language above may have changed, but that places such as Hooters are bound to stay true to their roots.
For instance, in 2021, TikTok became outraged by the new uniform that the restaurant required Hooters Girls to wear, with many, including the employees, likening the new shorts to underwear.
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After the internet’s pissed off response, Hooters released an “Image Policy Statement” detailing that they will let the Girls choose which shorts to wear, the original ones or the new ones. They also said that they’ll now allow women to express themselves with tattoos, jewelry, nails, hairstyles, new top styles, and crew socks. That in itself caused many new applicants to throw their hat into the ring of the Hooters Girl lifestyle, including a creator on TikTok named @Alaskaglow.
Since late February of 2024, @Alaskaglow has been documenting her journey of aspiring to work at Hooters, giving all the deets about the application process, her dreams, and what motivated her to take this path, stating that the sisterhood and companionship is a huge factor for her while simultaneously recognizing the idea of walking alone to your car after a shift there would be scary because #men.
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She talks about the fact that Hooters takes photos of you in full glam makeup and hair while wearing the uniform, submits the images to corporate, and then you get a yes or no for the job. She also respectfully tells people that it’s her life when they put her ambitions into question. Notably, she mentioned that a viral TikTok creator known as @Alispice was her biggest inspiration for applying to Hooters.
@Alispice became highly known for her dance videos and "Get Ready With Me for “Hooties” videos, amassing over 1 million followers. A blonde and petite Florida girl, beaming with personality and the perfect 2020s sex appeal yet girl next door vibe for Hooters.
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@Alaskaglow said that @Alispice made working at Hooters look amazing, that she was having fun and making money all while looking cute! However, @Alispice died in a head-on collision car accident at the age of 21… For whatever reason, TikTok has since deactivated her account. Still, her fandom was so widespread that there are endless fan edits of her online, archiving her life and personality, preserving what it’s like to be a Central Florida girl full of hope, beauty, spunk, and youth—a taste of the Hooters dream. And like a guest at the restaurant, the check gets slammed on your table, and the fantasy ends as fast as the busboy wipes your table for the next patron.
@Alispice's death reminds us that life is just as ephemeral as the hopes and dreams many women in the tip-counting trend videos may have. And I hope they reach every single one of those dreams. Because despite the haters in the comments of these videos, this trend signals something powerful about the state of womanhood today. Especially in a post #MeToo and #GirlBoss era. That women can be self-aware about their performative nature in places like Hooters without shame and without stigma. That they can feel empowered for being sexy and hardworking. That they're multifaceted and savvy, just carrying on to make an honest day's work. And that should resonate with us all, no matter where our place of occupation is or what gender we are.