Mapping the Social Landscape. Группа авторов
had real or fake boobs. The last question was whether I had real or fake boobs. I just sat there silent, I was so upset. And then they started asking bra sizes at one of the tables. That just makes me so mad.
In restaurants subtle yet pervasive forms of sex joking and sexual harassment are used as social distancing techniques that reinforce a waitress’s vulnerable position and maintain her inferiority (LaPointe 1992:388; MacKinnon 1980:60). The joking relationship is asymmetrical; so, while women may “marginally participate,” they must be careful not to say things that would appear coarse or crude. Thus, insults operate mostly one-way, initiated and followed up on by men (Spradley and Mann 1975:97).
Some Bazooms girls mentioned that they wished they knew how to “manage” better when it came to uncomfortable comments, sex joking, and innuendo….
While Bazooms’ management espouses an open-door policy for all workers, Bazooms girl Jeni describes management’s ideal Bazooms girl:
What they want is the ones who can deal with people and shit and don’t complain. They don’t want you there if you are going to stick up for yourself.
Gutek found that women working in female-dominated occupations (i.e., “traditionally female jobs”) are less likely to report and view sexual harassment as a problem, because it is “part of the job” (1985:136). The idea that sexual harassment is part of the job at Bazooms came up constantly in subtle ways during my interviews. The fact that these women expected to have to learn to deal with sex joking and sexist behaviors from customers or managers is a commentary on what women are willing to put up with in the nineties workplace…. Bazooms’ sexual harassment policy states specifically: “Sexual harassment does not refer to occasional compliments of a socially acceptable nature. It does not refer to mutually acceptable joking or teasing. It refers to behavior which is unwelcome, that is personally offensive, that debilitates morale, and that, therefore, interferes with work effectiveness” (Bazooms Employee Handbook).
The part that managers play in the “elimination” of sexual harassment at Bazooms has been criticized severely in sexual discrimination and harassment lawsuits in at least three states. A leading law journal charged recently that Bazooms’ managers are breaking their own sexual harassment policies, and “promoting misogyny and inflicting it on their own employees and inviting the public to come in and inflict it on the employees….”
Agency
What is missing so far in this analysis is women’s responses to these dynamics. There is no question that by following workplace rules of dress and demeanor, Bazooms girls were participants in the interplay of power, gender, and sexuality in the Bazooms workplace. Some waitresses dressed and behaved in ways that emphasized their sexuality and encouraged male patrons’ attention—strategies that were seen to result in bigger tips. The financial bottom line no doubt underlay most Bazooms girls’ calculations about the trade-off between sometimes demeaning dress and behavior expectations and the wages and tips they could expect to receive. There were limits, however, to how much unwelcome attention or harassment the waitresses would tolerate. When these limits were reached, Bazooms girls resisted and manipulated their gendered and sexualized workplace role in a variety of ways….
At Bazooms, waitresses work within and against the constraints imposed by these factors in at least three ways: (1) They attempt to undermine or otherwise challenge the power structure, (2) they manipulate gender to preserve self-image, and (3) they both co-opt and counteract sexualized identities.
Undermining and Challenging the Power Structure
At Bazooms, formal power can be undermined by informal means. Challenges to the established power structure at Bazooms mainly take the form of gossip. Waitresses often expressed negative sentiments and shared complaints about management’s constant exercise of authority.9 During any given shift, one may overhear comments made by waitresses such as: They always pick out the bad instead of rewarding or encouraging us on the good stuff (Lori), or You know we aren’t respected at all (Trina), or I’ve never been in a restaurant where the workers are so badly treated (Kelly), or They are on a total power trip. Especially since they are in control of a lot of girls, and because they are men, they are taking that authority a bit too far (Teri). Thus, by coming together and sharing grievances, gossip can be a form of resistance.
In some cases at Bazooms, waitresses have been known to challenge managers directly on their policies. One waitress, after being denied a break for eight hours, let one of the managers know how she was feeling: I was so mad I was pretty much crying and he said, “Get in the office. What’s wrong with you?” I said, “You know, you have no respect for any of us waitresses.” He said, “You know, I should just send you home for good.” Then I shut up (Trina). This was a clear use of the interactional technique of threatening a waitress with the loss of her job to sustain the established power structure at Bazooms (classical management dominance and waitress subordination)….
Another waitress became defensive and upset when she was told that her hair wasn’t styled enough. In talking back, this waitress challenged authority and used informal power to get her way. (The manager on that particular day decided it was not worth arguing about and let her keep her hair the way it was.) In both of these cases, established power boundaries were consciously tested by management and waitress alike.
It is clear that even after indirect and direct challenges to the established power hierarchy by waitresses, management retains its ultimate power over workers. Direct challenges to authority generally are squelched, as reflected in Teri’s statement: You can’t talk back or you will get fired or written up. It’s a power play. Bazooms wouldn’t be Bazooms without the established power hierarchy (males on top). Nonetheless it is important to note that the women who work at Bazooms do not simply accept these power relations. They struggle to create solidarity and actively resist the passivity management wants from them.
Gender-Based Strategies
Just as waitresses attempt to resist the power structure at Bazooms, they also resist and manipulate gender roles to fit their needs. As one would expect, not all of the women hired at Bazooms were comfortable with the Bazooms girl role they were supposed to embody on the job. Much of the controversy about taking a job at Bazooms centers around the uniforms. About half of my interviewees described initial nervousness and insecurity about the uniforms. But at the time of most of the interviews (two to three months after the interviewees had started work), these thoughts had changed….
The only thing I hate about the Bazooms uniform is that they tie the knots [on the back of the tank top] so tight that I can’t breathe. And the nylons, they are always running and I have to buy new ones. They tried to get me to wear XX small shorts and I minded that. They made me try it on and I’m, like, “I’m not wearing this!” But the X small isn’t bad….
Each waitress went through a socializing process that often began with feeling nervous, even opposing the uniform. Waitresses then went through a period of adjustment based upon the fact that each wore the same thing as her coworkers did. Thus, as the definition of normal was revised, the nervous comments and complaints tended to subside. Yet, not everyone wears the same thing in the same ways. As their comments suggest, waitresses make choices about what to wear, and how to wear their outfits. The women made these choices based upon how comfortable they felt with the Bazooms girl image and their calculations about the financial utility of various style choices. Choices about whether to show cleavage, to wear a T-shirt (seen as more conservative by not highlighting the breasts) or a tank, to hike up the shorts, and so forth are also examples of negotiating the Bazooms girl’s sexualized image. In other words, through manipulation of uniforms, these women manipulated the Bazooms girl concept to fit their own self-images and goals….
But dress codes aren’t the only thing that waitresses actively negotiate. Along with the dress codes come other pressures associated with “femaleness,” especially in terms of appearance. [Trina] stated that appearance-based insecurities often became obsessions:
A