Few things in this world are more misogynistic than the restaurant chain Hooters. The chain is better known for its thighs and breasts than its wings and it is generally proud of that fact. Its Facebook page also makes no apologies for its business strategy, with the company consistently featuring aforementioned breast and thighs in its picture posts.
But there is at least one thing that is too misogynistic for even Hooters to want to associate itself with: Rape jokes. On Saturday morning an image was posted onto the Hooters Facebook account that made light of sexual assault. The picture, like millions of other unoriginal memes on the internet, was designed to look like a motivational poster. The image showed a girl wearing shorts and spreading her legs while pointing to her crotch. The tagline stated “EXHIBIT A: The Proof that she was asking for it your honour.”
Understandably, people got a little upset. Hooters eventually took down the picture and claimed that their account had been hacked. They said they needed to contact Facebook in order to restore access to their account, an excuse some have doubted.
The image has appeared on the internet at least as far back as 2010, without the tagline, and could be found with the tagline from at least weeks before the picture was posted on Hooter’s account. Interestingly enough, the “Honour” indicates that whoever first posted the image first seems to prefer either U.K. or Australian English, Hooters is based in the United States.
Many have been quick to doubt Hooters claims that it was hacked, it is a tactic used by everyone from sports stars to politicians when their social media antics have gotten them in trouble. It is certainly not unreasonable for Hooters to claim that their Facebook page has been hacked, but it’s their claim that they couldn’t access the Facebook account for over five hours that has some doubting them.
The meme does seem out of character for the Hooters account. The account does post images, mostly professional-looking pictures of their staff and food, that would make your average feminist a little uncomfortable. However, the rape joke picture, in addition to being an amatur photo posted in the popular “meme” format, seems far beyond what the company that, while always flirting dangerously close to “the line” is generally careful of not crossing over it.
The image, of course, has been taken down and Hooters has apologized. We will have to wait and see if the truth about who posted the offending image will ever come out. Facebook has not commented on whether they are “working closely” with Hooters on the issue, as Hooters claims.
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