A friend of mine recently asked me to weigh in on the local Bikini Barista scandal. Yeah, I have a few things to say.....
The news story centers around some young women, ages 18-24, who have been charged with prostitution after a two-month investigation by Everett police detectives. Wow. Two months. That's a lot of opportunity to double check that when you drive through one particular stand for coffee, you get the mutual whipped cream licking extravaganza or a strip show. Maybe they were just being thorough, wanting to make sure that the girls were really doing this over and over and over again. One detective reportedly went once with a prosecuting attorney, and then went back on another occasion, where he witnessed more of the above behavior. Give the boys in blue a hand for their thoroughness. Boo-yah.
A dear friend told me last week that her daughter was just hired at a drive-through espresso stand near her town, where "the girls get more tips depending on what they wear, but it can't be 'skanky' or 'sleezy'." Talk about CYA. Wear what (or as little as) you want, but if you get in trouble, Mr. Boss-man will be able to say he warned you about not being "skanky" or "sleazy." The conversation came up when my friend found lingerie on the floor that her daughter was planning to wear to work.
Where's the equal opportunity employment here? While it's not against the law, obviously these private employers do discriminate on the basis of gender, age, and most likely, weight. I doubt I'd pass muster to be hired as a bikini barista, though the thought of a bunch of middle-aged mamas taking on this challenge does have a certain appeal.
I keep thinking about the blatant sexism involved in these cases. I mean, can you even imagine a coffee stand where male barista would stoop to this type of behavior? Actually, you don't have to imagine it. Check out this story from Silverdale, WA, where one male barsita did just that--donned pasties in an effort to poke fun at this craze of scantily clad female coffee makers in our state. But here's the rub. He did it as a joke. And in fact, this is no joke.
Imagine if a bunch of men were seriously hired to dress scantily on a regular basis to get more tips from predominantly female clients at a coffee stand. How long do you think it would take for someone to be up in arms about lewd and lascivious behavior toward young women in our midst? I doubt it would be anywhere near two months. And therein lies the irony. On the one hand, we have the "leave us alone" private enterprise folks saying it's no big deal, and on the other, we have a slap in the face of women's rights. Sex sells, and while some people may say it's the girls' prerogative to work somewhere like that, there is this--my friend's daughter is working where she does because "no one else is hiring right now." Since when is it ok to pimp out women in any sense of the word due to touch economic times?
Say what you may about first amendment rights and freedom of expression, but this is much deeper than that. If girls are feeling pressure to sexualize themselves for money in order to make a living, something is very wrong. We'd all frown if these were drug-addicted women on the street corners in our neighborhoods, so why isn't it the same outrage for the corner coffee stand? And where's the accountability for the owner for his employees' on-the-job conduct? Looking the other way is neither appropriate or excusable in this scenario.
Next time you or someone you know is told to wear a bikini to work by a male employer, think twice about the indirect impact on young girls and boys and other women and men in society. We need to band together as women and men to fight sexism, because the impact of it continuing is felt far beyond our neighborhoods, out cities, and even our country's borders. We are all worthy of dignity and respect, whether our bodies are judged bikini worthy or not.
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