(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 lot of the girls are obsessed with the way they look. I know with our society looks are so important. I care about how I look. And there’s not one girl in there who isn’t really pretty. But I walk in there and people are talking about losing weight and stuff. It’s too much based upon looks. I tell them, “I can tell you how to lose fat, and I can do it if I want, but I like eating what I eat…. ”
By being aware of pressures to be thin and pretty, and counseling [her] coworkers on resisting these pressures, Trina [was] actively redefining gender ideals in the workplace.
Counteracting and Co-opting Sexual Identities
Women who dress to get attention, to show off their bodies, to look or feel “sexy” in our society, often end up getting labeled “whore,’’ or “slut,” and may be seen as “asking for it.” Many of the Bazooms waitresses were concerned that their provocative outfits would force them into one of these sexualized roles. In response to a sexual slogan printed on the back of every T-shirt and tank, one Bazooms girl stated: My hair covers the slogan, and we’re not those kind of girls anyway. Nonetheless, Bazooms girls are associated with “those kind of girls,” that is, sex workers or prostitutes working in a sexually charged environment where sex appeal is part of the product commodified and sold in the marketplace to men. The girls I worked with became aware of these associations early on, and they spent much time sharing and reacting to these negative associations….
Some of the women who work at Bazooms attempt to counteract these negative associations. One Bazooms girl remarked: We need to educate men. Just because you are wearing this uniform doesn’t mean that you are asking for anything, doesn’t mean that you want anything more than a job. Several Bazooms girls made a point of telling customers that they were college students, or mothers, waitressing in order to save up money for education or family expenses. In this way the “girls” challenge the Bazooms girl (ditzy, sexual pawn) image most customers have and try to make the role more personal and respectable by sharing their own stories.
Some of the women, on the other hand, do not resist the negative associations but use them to achieve their own ends. In co-opting the “bad girl” role, some hope to appeal to customers by using sex appeal to their advantage, hoping to get bigger tips (or more attention) this way. To Katy, “learning to deal with people more sexually” is to be able to control the situation in order to avoid embarrassment. Although it is harder to get people to admit to using the sexualized image for their own ends, once in a while stories fly among customers and waitresses about “what some [Bazooms] girls will do for money.” Playing up the sexualized Bazooms girl role can be a serious money-making strategy:
I’ve seen girls hula-hoop and get money thrown at them. Then they lean over and give the cleavage shot to the men. And at the downtown store the girls do things with pitchers of beer to make it look like a wet T-shirt contest. These things just do not work for me at all….
There appears to be a split among these women: those who try to resist the Bazooms girl role, downplaying
