Hooters Waitress Says She Was Forced Out Because of Her 'Unattractive' Brain Surgery Scar

[boston bean]

Sandra Lupo, a 27-year-old Hooters waitress putting herself through nursing school, took a leave during the summer of 2012 to have a mass removed from her brain. When she returned to Hooters a few weeks later, she looked different—her head had been shaved and she had a prominent cranial scar. Lupo's direct manager, whom Lupo describes as "supportive," suggested that she wear a wig or a chemo cap or "distracting jewelry" (0____0) or a length of diarrhea-colored pantyhose over her head while on shift. You know, so that that customers wouldn't have to deal with the uncomfortable fact that their chicken-delivery-object is actually a human being with a complicated life and a vulnerable brain. Or something.

Though Lupo couldn't afford a wig, she gamely borrowed one from a friend, but that soon proved a problem because of her still-healing wound:

After her manager approached her again regarding a wig, Lupo said she borrowed one and tried to wear it at work. But it "caused extreme stress to her body because of the surgery and the healing wound," according to court records.

Lupo said her manager then reduced her hours to the point where she was making so little income that she was forced to quit, which made her ineligible for unemployment benefits.

"[Lupo's] physical injury was an actual disability from her surgery which limited the major life activity of working when such work required a wig to be worn," court documents said.

According to Lupo, her customers weren't, in fact, uncomfortable with her scar—they were curious and supportive (you know, like human beings). The discomfort with Lupo's scar, it seems, came mainly from the Hooters regional management—who were more concerned with the potential loss of profits from customers who were not actually uncomfortable than they were with the actual well being of a perfectly competent employee who had just undergone brain surgery. Like...you guys couldn't just wait for her hair to go back?

http://jezebel.com/hooters-waitress-says-she-was-fired-her-because-of-her-471796885

[DetlefK]

1. What about a fedora or a baseball-cap or a bandanna?

Come on, she has a sensitive scalp. Why a wig?

[mercuryblues]

2. Wearing anything

over a surgical incision is painful for months.

I get the feeling that if she had breast implants, hooters would have been compassionate towards her reovery.

[boston bean]

3. yeah, keeping a incision site moist does not promote healing.

It needs to be kept dry.

[mercuryblues]

4. Also

A moist incision is an infection waiting to happen.

[redqueen]

5. I like the part where she expected the management at HOOTERS to be

understanding about her non-crowd-pleasing appearance.

I think it's fair to say that there are negative consequences to a culture that places attractiveness as the primary measure of female value.

Gee, ya think?

However, we should be thinking critically, as a society, about a restaurant that essentially functions as a misogyny theme park (sample Hooters decor: "Caution! Blondes thinking!&quot

Yes. Yes we should. (Same goes for all the other 'women as decorations' establishments.)

We should examine the ways in which our permissiveness and desire for consequence-free objectification hurts women, and we should seek out constructive ways in which sexual attraction and mutual respect can coexist.

Well first you'll have to convince the knuckle-draggers that objectification actually exists.... but yeah. This is way overdue.

You really can have it all, you know. You can appreciate women's bodies without devaluing women. You can think critically about the world, treat women like human beings, be nice to people who just had brain surgery, all while still enjoying boobs and chicken wings. No one's trying to take away your hot chicks—but if hot chicks become temporarily less hot, do you have to take away their jobs? I'm not sure you do. I think we can do better.

Ok seriously now. The whole point of the restaurant is 'hot chicks' and this person is wondering if the chicks have to lose their jobs if they become less hot?

Seriously?