God, Family, Lattes and Bikini's

It’s the same old sexism with a bold new flavor.

There is a new business in this sleepy little West Tx town, using the same old ways of commerce/capitalism, turning a buck at the expense of others. Ooo La Lattes owned by Joe and Bruce, two “God fearing” and “family loving” guys that just want to put their entrepreneurial skills “out on a limb”, have opened a new coffee house. This town (approx. pop. 200,000) now has, at my count; six independently owned coffee shops competing with Starbucks which has four locations, counting the campus and Barnes & Noble bookstore at the mall.

What’s the big deal? It’s just a coffee shop, right? What could possibly warrant a blog post spent talking about coffee? If you read S. Coleman with Talk Lubbock you'll know what the big deal is with "Hooter-like jugs hanging just right". Also, the facebook page of KLBK/KMAC news channel (scroll down to June 22nd) seemed to have some folks saying that there are those "jealous folks" that need to get hip with the times, as other big cities in Texas have already done and that progress is good, if we just open up another coffee shop with men dressing similarly, in place of women.

Hear what the all female staff thinks of their work environment and dress code, oh, and the coffee they sell.

How was this new business covered on the local news channel? Couldn't get the link to be embedded so you'll need to click on this to Lubbock Online to view the story: http://everythinglubbock.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=56395

Raising eyebrows! You don’t say! That’s an understatement. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy deconstructing some young women's argument that tell me “women have come so far, being independent from influences of main stream media” that “we” are in control of how we are exploited and it’s our choice to be in those type of situations, on and on I could go; BUT this story is not your typical run of the mill “call out sexism” type post. Instead this is a story of hypocrisy as the cherry (no pun intended) on top of the sexist cake.

In a conservative town that prides itself and it’s founding morals on being “the best place to raise a family”, I’m not sure Mom and Dad will take the kids to Ooo La Lattes on their way to church for a coffee or hot chocolate for the kids. Oh, that’s right they’re not open on Sunday’s. Just when all those good Christian folk need something for that hangover! Cue “Lubbock Or Leave It” by the Dixie Chicks.

Also, what’s the big deal? “It’s a nice little spin and you need a gimmick to make money today” and don’t forget “different strokes for different folks”.

It’s not new, right? “Hooters” has been doing it since 1983 and their Internationally known and have a Wikipedia page. If it's not new then what's the big deal?

The bid deal is this:

Using women’s bodies to sell a product is sexism. The hypocrisy is that the virtuous and morally principled owners have hit on something to sell their product at the profit of constructed women’s bodies as nothing more than commodities. A typical question that comes to mind with this discussion; does this mean I’m calling for equal treatment of men’s bodies as fragments to even the playing field? No, why would I want to call for men to experience the same issues of body image, self worth, stereotypes, etc.? No, no one gender, race, class, body, orientation, age group, etc should be constructed, fragmented, pieced apart in a manner that exploits their social, political and economic worth for profit.

I’ll admit I’ve only viewed the web site and seen the fan page on Facebook. Others have told me that they drove by with their teenage daughters in the car and immediately the daughters told their Mom; “Those women don’t have any clothes on!” You see; the drive thru window is much lower than traditional drive thru windows and seems to go as far down as midway down her thigh and the top of the window reaches as tall as just under the overhang. On this day, they must have been wearing their bikini "uniform". It did make for a great conversation on the drive home that day and the Mom was struck by how her daughters could distinguish sexism, "in the flesh" (pun intended).

I’m not sure I really need to drive by or even buy a cup of coffee to know sexism when I see it? Just like I don’t have to define sexism to those that have experienced it first hand. The hand, so to speak, comes on my television on the movie screen, even in my daily walk across campus as well as face-to-face acts.

Just in case; here is a reminder of the basic definition of sexism

-noun

attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles

If the images don’t convince you maybe the way you order that special cup of “Joe” might make you think otherwise.

• Cup sizes are "B" cup, "C" cup, and "D" cup
  
• Don’t forget the catchy names of some of the specials: “Tripple X”, “The Push-UP”, “The Wild Thing”, “The Commando”; all organically made. All in all these names can be used in most any restaurant or bar but when you hear them coming from the barista at the drive thru window, flashing you a little more skin than you are used to at a coffee house, you seem to get the pun and point to why Ooo La Lattes is the type of business standing out above the rest.

So, what is the bottom line for me? What should I learn from this new coffee establishment’s “gimmick”? That *hypocrisy is alive and well in this sleepy little town, out in the environment where cotton, oil, football and sexism are KING!

*Note: Hypocrisy in this case equals the context of using women, dressed in clothing attire that would be declined in a schoolhouse but acceptable at a strip club, as a gimmick to attract customers to sell them coffee; therefore exploiting another person based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles.

One last thought:

Why didn’t J&B Coffee, Day Break Coffee, Sugar Brown’s Coffee, Otto’s Granary and Grand Café do the same? Maybe they just didn’t have a sense of humor or a creative management team like Joe and Bruce

Resources on sexism by Media Education Foundation:

Dreamworlds 3

Killing Us Softly 3

Tough Guise

Women's Media Center:

"Sexism Sells But We're Not Buying It"