From the Stop Patriarchy blog

Protesting Hooters: A Place that Feasts on the Humanity of Women

August 4, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a member of Stop Patriarchy:

In the hours before going into Hooters, people were feeling nervous jitters and bursts of excitement. We were going to confront this business that not only prides itself on, but sells the degradation and objectification of women to the masses. We didn’t know what would go down, but we knew that this was something of great importance: to disrupt what is ordinarily so incredibly normalized, a business that exploits women yet hosts entire families as if exploitation was perfectly acceptable. We were excited to go into this place and expose it for what it really is: a place that feasts on the humanity of women.

Dressed in Abortion on Demand and Without Apology shirts, members of Stop Patriarchy rolled into the Hooters of Jackson, Mississippi. Holding signs that read, “Women are NOT bitches, hoes, sex objects, punching bags, breeders or incubators, women ARE full human beings!” and “Stop objectifying women, start fighting patriarchy”, we circled up in the center of the Hooters. A member of the team shouted “this is a public service announcement” and began stating boldly why an establishment such as Hooters is aiding and abetting in the domination of men over women. We all began shouting, “women aren’t objects, women aren’t toys, women aren’t play things for the boys” over and over again.

Many people whipped out their phones to take video of us. There was a group of young men, chanting “tits and ass,” heckling us. In the face of them heckling, we were yelling back at them and to everyone, “women aren’t objects, women aren’t toys, women aren’t play things for the boys!” That shit was amazing! To feel, for the first time for some of us, that we weren’t going to just sit back and swallow this bullshit hurled at us like so many women do, that we stood up and said hell no!, that was so liberating. And to know that it isn’t just you feeling this way, that you have a whole crew to back you up, who know that you aren’t crazy or too much and that you need to calm down like many people say. We don’t need to calm down! We need to rise up, stand together and fight for a world where women aren’t seen as just tits and ass that exist to serve you.

At the same time these men were heckling us, there were several people who were just staring at what was going down. One older gentlemen had his mouth open, eyes wide, just staring at us like “What in the hell is going on!?” They had never seen anything like this before. That is exactly why we NEED to be out doing pop up protests in places like Hooters, porn stores and strip clubs, because we are confronting this patriarchal bullshit right in the belly of the beast, taking these places on head first, taking patriarchy by storm and letting people know that as long as these places exist, they will have to face people like us who are bringing them the reality of what they are doing to women.

We were in the Hooters for 2 minutes and 17 seconds before being physically removed by the managers. These men were dragging us out by our signs, ripping them in the process and pulling us by our waists or arms. Mostly everyone who was grabbed managed to get back to the center of the room before officially getting thrown out. It was 2 minutes and 17 seconds that we were in there but it was the most liberating 2 minutes and 17 seconds anyone could ever feel in a place like Hooters. We all came out excited and smiling from ear to ear. Many of us shouted, “let’s go to another” when the manager followed us out and proceeded to step to one of our comrades who was leading. He was angrily grumbling about how we were fucking up HIS business and how Hooters will stay in business when our comrade replied, “well they made money off of slavery too man.” He didn’t know what to say. In the face of wildly disgusting cultural views, which are learned and not human nature, Stop Patriarchy confronts the bullshit that is served to the masses. And we will continue to do so, until it is wiped off the face of this earth, for women in this country and around the globe.

 

Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution

Send us your comments.

If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.