‘Why are Hooters sexualising kids?’: Nottingham bar sponsor a local Under-10s boys football team – and send their ‘Girls’ to pose for photos with them – enraging parents online (as others joke the dads will be delighted!)
- Hooters is a notorious American-owned bar with only one franchise in the UK
- Franchise is based in Nottingham with the bar sponsoring a children’s team
- Various people on social media have expressed outrage after the news emerged
Notorious bar Hooters has caused outrage after it announced that it was sponsoring a children’s under-10s team for the forthcoming season.
The American-owned bar is infamous for the outfits its female staff members wear while working, with critics dubbing the bar ‘degrading’ to women.
Many in the past have suggested that the bar is objectifying of women and have called for its franchises to either change their outfit regulations or close.
The bar has caused great controversy after it announced that it had begun sponsoring the under-10s team of local Nottinghamshire club Burton Joyce.
Burton Joyce was founded in 1990 and has male and female youth, senior and disability sides.
Hooters only has one franchise in the UK – in Nottingham – and announced the sponsorship deal with one of the club’s youth sides late on Wednesday evening.
Hooters has been criticised after it announced it was sponsoring a junior football team
The news has led to an outcry online, with many declaring the news outrageous and suggesting a bar that is notorious for the outfits its employees wear during service not suitable to be associated with a children’s football team.
Outraged by the news, one user queried why Hooters was being ‘allowed’ to ‘sexualise kids’.
Why are Hooters sexualising kids and who on earth allowed them?’ they asked.
One user, responding to a tweet that went viral publicising the news, said that it was ‘not funny’.
The American owned bar, controversial for the outfits its employees wear, sent some of their ‘girls’ down to Burton Joyce to meet the boys aged 10 and under
‘This isn’t funny. Girls are playing for this team too,’ they said.
Before adding: ‘Also these lads are under 10, which makes the implication they’re going “phwoarrr” at Hooters girls JUST a little bit creepy.’
Another social media user labelled the sponsorship deal ‘very weird’.
Meanwhile another pointed to the age of the boys pictured alongside the women promoting the deal, saying that it was ‘wrong on so many levels’.
‘These lads are under 10. I very much doubt they are aware of the sexual attraction of woman,’ they wrote. ‘Wrong on so many levels.’
Users on social media criticised the company for sexualising women alongside young children
‘In all seriousness. How can this be allowed or even tolerated?’ another user queried.
Despite the controversy, some social media users took it upon themselves to make light of the sponsorship deal – with one user telling those critical of the move that it was ‘only a sports bar’.
‘This is quality! I’m having words with my sons club as to why they didn’t secure this deal,’ one individual tweeted.
Another joked: ‘You can’t see how many Dad’s are there for the photo shoot!’
Having originally opened their Nottingham site in 1999, Hooters has attempted to open other franchises in the UK but has run into a number of problems, not least from individuals protesting against their opening of a bar in their city.
Other users made joke of the fact that the boys had been photographed alongside the bar’s employees saying their ‘dads’ would enjoy the fact
Maria Toolan, a Labour councillor for Liverpool, started a petition against the chain opening a franchise in the city earlier this year.
‘Hooters is an archaic and chauvinistic brand and this kind type of venue is no longer reflective of today’s society,’ her petition read.
‘Hooters employs women to promote its business activities in an exploitative manner, It demeans and degrades women and undermines female equality.’
However, others have dismissed the concerns of the likes of Toolan saying that individuals who work at the restaurant do out of their own volition and are not forced to do so.
‘I don’t see any issues. None of the girls are forced to dress that way. A lot of people who work for Hooters want to work for Hooters so it’s not like anyone has forced them to do it,’ one person, supportive of the bar, told Nottingham Live in February.
The Football Association has regulations on sponsors that are permissible on youth teams’ kits.
‘In the case of a team comprising players all under the age of 18 years on 31 August in the current season, the appearance on or incorporation in any item of clothing of any reference whatsoever to a product, service or other activity which is considered by The Association as detrimental to the welfare, health or general interest of young persons, or is otherwise considered inappropriate, having regard to the age of the players, is prohibited,’ their regulations read.
MailOnline has contacted Hooters for comment.
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