as a Bazooms girl because I wanted to know more about how the women who worked there experienced and responded to a highly sexualized workplace. I worked there for six months, during which I “became the phenomenon” (Mehan and Wood 1975).4
During my six months of participant observation and interviews with coworkers, I explained that I was interviewing people in my place of work as part of a class research project.5 I made no attempt to construct a random sample of Bazooms girls to interview; rather, I interviewed those whom I felt closest to, and worked regularly with, and who I thought would feel comfortable responding honestly to my questions. The waitresses I interviewed for the most part were very committed to their jobs. Some were upset with their conditions of employment, and their voices may stand out for the reader. But I should emphasize that others, whose voices may not attract notice, expressed general contentment with the job. In the pages that follow I will present their views and my observations about the ways in which power, gender, and sexuality are constructed and negotiated in the sexualized workplace of a Bazooms restaurant.
Job-Based Power
Formal Power
Gender and power at Bazooms are reflected in its management structure. In this restaurant, four men manage more than 100 employees working various shifts: 60 Bazooms girls and 40 kitchen guys. In addition, both the franchise owners and the founders are all male. This is not rare. According to Catherine MacKinnon (1980:60), countless studies have shown that “women are overwhelmingly in positions that other people manage, supervise, or administer. Even in ‘women’s jobs’ the managers are men.” As in most workplace environments, formal authority and power are concentrated in management positions at Bazooms. In everything from scheduling to paychecks, floor assignments, and breaks, managers have the last word. In this way, Bazooms girls are placed in a subordinate position. This is not an unusual finding. MacKinnon contends that as “low-prestige” workers, women are often placed in positions of dependence upon men for economic security, hiring, retention, and advancement.
In these dependent situations, a woman’s job is literally on the line all the time. One waitress whom I interviewed described management procedures for getting a worker fired at a Colorado Bazooms as follows:
All of a sudden, we would have menu tests and we were told that if we missed too many we would be fired. Now, I know I missed about twenty. These girls they wanted to fire missed less than that, I’m sure. They were fired right away because they missed some … but they didn’t say a thing to me. Or, if they really wanted to get rid of certain people, they would put up one schedule, then put a different copy up with different hours (the “real” one) after the girls left. The girls wouldn’t know, so they were fired for not showing up to their shifts.
Disciplinary action based upon “company rules” is one of management’s most common exertions of power. Before every shift, managers hold “jump start” which, in theory, is supposed to motivate the workers to “get out there and have fun.” Instead, it becomes an ideal time for management to assert authority. Each waitress is quickly checked for uniform cleanliness, “natural” yet “styled” hair, make-up, and so forth. Then the group is counseled on “proper” Bazooms girl behavior and attitude. Sometimes “pop quizzes” are given to each woman, with questions about proper Bazooms girl service and responsibilities. At other times, lectures are given reiterating rules that have been ignored or broken earlier in the week. The practice of “jump start,” at the beginning of each shift, operates in a way that makes power relations explicit….
In short, male management’s right to exercise veto power over each worker’s appearance, attitude, and so forth reflects gendered power relations at Bazooms.
Informal Power
Besides having the ultimate say in formal matters such as scheduling, hiring, and firing, male managers sustain dominance at Bazooms in other, more subtle, ways. Eleanor LaPointe (1992:382) identifies a number of “interactional techniques” often used by men to sustain dominance and maintain the inferior status of women. At Bazooms such power was exercised by the use of derogatory terms of address, disciplinary actions, direct orders, threats, general avoidance of waitresses’ concerns, cynicism, and even humiliation. For instance, the fact that female employees between the ages of eighteen and thirty are called girls by Bazooms managers and customers alike is an example of such an “interactional technique” used to sustain dominance. Everyone knows that the managers (all men in their twenties and thirties) are not to be called boys (neither are the “kitchen guys” to be called boys). Yet, by seeing and addressing the “low-status” employees as girls (based upon the “Bazooms girl” concept), one can retain dominance as a manager or customer (since waitresses are referred to by all as Bazooms girls) and maintain the subordinate status of female employees. Humiliating comments during the work shift about personal appearance from managers is another example of an interactional technique causing Bazooms girls to feel that they aren’t respected or that they are treated poorly. In the words of one (Trina): [The management] has no respect for any of us waitresses. No respect.
Gender
It has already been established that Bazooms is a “gendered workplace,” where, according to MacKinnon (1980), women “tend to be employed in occupations that are considered ‘for women,’ to be men’s subordinates on the job and to be paid less than men both on the average and for the same work.”
Behavior Rules
Management codes and guidelines shape gendered identities in work environments. At Bazooms, women work as “girls.” According to one Bazooms manager: What differentiates us from every other restaurant in the marketplace are the Bazooms girls. That’s the reason that there’s a Bazooms concept, that’s the reason that we’re successful….
The following are Bazooms girl guidelines selected from the employee handbook:
Wholesome-looking, All American cheerleading types (the kind you would be proud to take home to mother). Prom-like appearance.
Hair should always be styled. The girls are always “on stage” and should be camera ready at all times.
Make-up needs to be worn. It should not be excessive, and at the same time it needs to highlight her natural features.
Always smiling, extremely friendly and courteous.
Always should appear to be having a great time.
Extremely attentive to all customers….
Simultaneously she is “the girl next door,” the “cheerleader,” the “actress” (always camera ready), the “good daughter” (attentive, subservient), the “prom queen,” and the shining, happy personality. One waitress said matter-of-factly: It’s like they [managers] have an ideal image in their heads of us (Katy). With all of these demands placed upon her, the Bazooms girl is constantly in the process of learning how to adapt to the company’s expectations, and acting out her gender (according to men’s rules).
Appearance Rules
It is clear from these guidelines that the “Bazooms girl” role embodies what are seen as traditionally “feminine” (in this case, many “girlish”) qualities. One way gender is symbolized is through uniform style, which, according to LaPointe (1992), “incorporates a gendered meaning into the work” (p. 382).6 The uniforms, short shorts, and choice
