Just as Gloria Steinem’s takeaway from her stint as a Bunny at the Playboy Club was that “all women are bunnies,” the truth is that most working millennial women, whether or not our jobs involve skimpy uniforms, represent members of an exploited, disposable underclass.
The solution to such exploitation is two-pronged. First, the long-overdue unionization of food service jobs, with the goal of demanding higher base wages and benefits. Second, the total decoupling of emotional labor from the service sector. From baristas to rideshare drivers to retail clerks, low-wage women workers shouldn’t be responsible for managing the unpredictable moods of strangers all day long, for flattering and mothering and psychoanalyzing customers—while smiling the whole time—in addition to our other myriad job duties.
I agree with the statement of the problem, and I have no opinion on the proposed first part of the solution (unionizing). The proposed second part of the solution I find laughable.
The problem is not that women are expected to be more caring than men. Put a bunch of 70+-yr-old grandmothers in place dressed like they're headed to church after their shift and saying things like, you poor boy, you must be stressed, have some chicken soup --- and you do not have a viable restaurant business model.
The problem is that women are expected to dress and flirt and let themselves be ogled (and in other job settings, not saying Hooters, let themselves be groped and fondled) and behave in ways men never would and use their bodies to appeal to men's sexual desires just to get a paycheck. We should stop treating teenage and adult women as sex objects and we should stop raising our daughters to think it is expected or even okay that behaving as sex objects is the way to get through life. And we should stop acting and talking as if we aren't all aware that's exactly what's going on.
"Your swimming suit matches your eyes, you hold your nose before diving, loving you has made me bananas!"