Tips for Tits?

I've come to realize I just might be the most honest person that works at Coyote Ugly.

Last night someone gave me their ATM card and asked me to help withdraw money, he then had me type in his pin number and take out 300 bucks from his checking account. Did I mention he was from New Zealand and I could hardly understand him as he swayed back and forth drunk out of his mind? Well I did now and he was!
He then precedes to give me 200 bucks and said he would give me more if I found him some coke. I, being the girl who still believes everyone is good until proven otherwise, said, "Um, like Coke-A- Cola... that's only two dollars not two hundred...?"

To step away from this story for a second, I realize I could of taken his money and avoided him and asked the bouncers to remove him, {he was so out of it, he wouldn't know what was going on.} or got the cops that were standing outside. I also know that I am constantly, constantly being told I need to upgrade drinks and push merchandise. I could have taken this money and bought bartenders shots, my friends were there and I could of bought them a round, buy myself a few shirts, anything with that two hundred bucks.
Yet, as I looked at him, in his blood shot eye's, I felt unbelievably sad. I had served him and his wife and son (or friend) drinks and he was the only one drunk. So I handed him the money back and said no, absolutely no.
Then he handed me a twenty dollar bill and said I had "nice tits." He said it in a degrading way, maybe to elevate himself after he groveled for some cocaine from a girl he didn't know who was serving him drinks at a bar. I handed him back that money too.
At the end of the night, I got lectured that my sales weren't too bad and not too great and I only made 150 bucks in tips and my friends that I tolled the story to were giving me hell for not taking the money but..... I felt okay with myself.
Yea I work for tips but I work hard for them, I know I dress....sexy and I am told how hot/gorgeous/sexy I am, yet when a man degrades me when I won't run along and find him some drugs, even when I'm working for tips, I can't do it. How many girls would have taken that money? Apparently, I am one of the few that didn't. What does that make me and everybody else?

Observations at Coyote Ugly

So in order to work at Coyotes one has to do "observation hours" I chose to do mine between 10pm-midnight last night since I had a class downtown Ft.Lauderdale and my two friends, Wendy and Milan were doing theirs as well.
So we get to the bar and b.s. for a while, drinking, talking to the bartenders, our regular customers buy Milan, Wendy and I a couple shots and we hang with our bouncers/bar backs. No big deal, until we spread out and do what we're there for, observe.
So I sit in the back of the bar, beer in hand, taking it all in. Another girl who works at Coyotes was there to hang out,{ and shall remain nameless because i didn't ask her if she would mind being written about} walks by to put money in the Jukebox in her cute outfit {not slutty/revealing in anyway} and I see these guys turn around and motion to one another. My Coyote friend is standing at the Jukebox and these guys are drooling, dry humping the air and such, pretending to smack her ass.

{***as a side note, these guys came over to me and asked why my "pretty self was sitting all alone" and proceeded to place a hand on my leg. I growled at them I was doing my observation hours for Coyotes and ripped their hand off my leg and told them if they touched me again I'd bite their balls off. Don't you love my language after working there?}

So they're doing this dry hump/ass smacking motions I've only see dumb frat guys do sober. So I call her over and point to those guys and call them out on their shit. She looks at them and spits in there direction. Those poor souls had no idea she was a Coyote too and is worse than I am when it comes to disrespectful guys. Long story short, they left shortly after I let her know.
As I sat and thought about it, I realized that these guys would NEVER do this if they knew we worked at Coyotes. I've never had a customer there do anything disrespectful and those that do are called out of the microphone in front of the entire bar and jeered and called "pussies" {or words I wont repeat on this blog} and sprayed in the face with God knows what until they leave.
This got me thinking, I know on top of the bar or working behind it, Coyotes have power other girls cant have for protection. Are we transformed into these girls that feel they can take on any guy or is it because guys respect us because of what we do and where we work or do they know we're smart ass tough girls?
These guys get whipped with belts and jeered and sprayed in the face with their own beer and love it. Yet when we are dressed normal, we are disrespected once again. I don't think this has anything to do with us being dressed "normal" or being at Coyote Ugly. This would have happened at any bar we were in because we are pretty girls. So I ask the question, when can normal women be respected and feel safe at a bar when we are indeed NOT dressed to impress?

Boyfriend Clinging Girls...

When did college girls find identity in their boyfriends?

I can't look through my Facebook, Myspace or any general website without girls clinging to their boyfriends in such forced poses of intimacy.

Looking at my friends pictures on their websites with titles of pictures that say, "his" or "I love my man" or "I love my boyfriend" along with pictures of them making out, looking at one another lovingly or holding one another in awkward poses. Icky!

When did girls become obsessed with talking about "their man?" Not only do these pictures look forced, they seem like the guys could care less, usually they're looking away or looking bored holding/kissing/gazing at their girlfriends. When i peruse guys website profiles that are in relationships, I rarely see pictures like that of their girlfriends. Usually it's them and their buddies drinking/smoking or giving the finger (how original) and the titles of their photo albums are "#1 Player/Pimp" {guess there are hundreds of #1 pimps}.

I also see this at FAU, girls leaning on their man like there's no tomorrow, dry humping before class where I feel like I'm watching HBO soft core porn stepping over them to get to class.

When did strong minded college girls care so much about broadcasting who they were through a man? College is all about finding "oneself." I cant help but compare myself with these girls, my boyfriend goes to graduate school 6 hours away, he left me for three months to backpack through Europe alone and never once did I stop and think, "oh no my life is over blah blah bliddy blah" if anything, I was like, "hell yea time to cheat!"

I kid I kid!
Yet I do wonder how many "true love couples" really are anything but pretty pictures and false identities .

Coyote Ugly

So, I'm a feminist, that just so happens to work at Coyote Ugly...does this make me a hypocrite?

I used to think so until I actually went into the bar and saw that it was women dominating men, whipping them, spraying beer in their faces and heckling them from the bar. I see these women I work with, how pretty they are and how perhaps....... I can see the other side to this bar.

I love working there but are we exploiting ourselves for money? If not ourselves then our beauty? I am constantly told I don't hustle enough with guys, or "work them" enough. I'm also told if I dress more provocatively I'd get more tips {I dress more conservatively then most}. Sure I still make great tips and drinks bought for me but I cant play the game the other girls I work with play. I can't play that "tickle their dick game" that other girls can, I can only be me, so when they ask for my number or ask for a hug, I sneer.
One night I worked, a guy was talking to me and said, "You must hate guys after working here," and I thought, I don't hate men, thats not what Feminism is about, its about equality. Though I do understand why he said it, guys hitting on you, looking at you as if you are naked, making comments.

Am I any different then other girls at FAU? I mean how many girls use guys for drinks and free stuff at FAU, {or "sugar daddy's" as they're called}.

Is that any excuse?

We have to pay for women's safety now. After the shooting at Columbine High School and Virgina Tech one would think that safety is a right, especially at a University. Yet the Florida Atlantic Police department held a RAD{Rape Aggression Defense} course, charging students $10 and $20 for all alumni and staff.

This women only course is “a program of realistic self-defense tactics and techniques for women, with awareness, prevention, risk reduction and risk avoidance.” The police department further explains they are simply charging for the class due to, “the rising costs of reprinting student manuals and replacing equipment, a nominal fee is charged for the course.”

For a school that has so much money that they can afford to completely redesign the cafeteria off the Breezeway and constantly expand and construct new buildings, I would think they could throw a little money towards violence awareness among students. Why not make it mandatory, for BOTH sexes?

Looking past the fees, I ask myself, what is FAU doing to protect all of their students? I cant help but think that the police department offering an anti-rape class for men to take is the best “risk reduction” and “risk avoidance. ” Yet the pressure and responsibility is put on the women to take the classes and be responsible around men, not the other way around. Some students disagree, senior and N.O.W. (National Organization of Woman) member Nondance Garrett stated;

“I know the idea that the course is only offered to women can make a feminist feel queasy, but not all women think alike.” .

Perhaps it’s because we have Mr.Brogan’s perspective about whats important (President of the University} and not a womans. I think a female University President might have a better understanding, that a woman should yes, be prepared but why should we be the only ones to work towards a common goal of safety?

Just this week in my “Women, Violence, Resistance” class taught by Dr. Jane Caputi, she raised the question would rape and violence occur as much or at all in a matriarchal society? Would the world be as violent if women were in charge, would men be in an anti-rape class?

“Rapes occur at a much higher rate amongst women than men and why is that?” Continues Nondance Garrett. “ Isn't it because women typically grow up in a world dominated by men, where they're afraid to stand up for themselves and say no? If that wasn't the case, what would feminists be fighting for?”

To elaborate even further, when a women who has done nothing wrong but prepare for the worst as well as paying for safety and the opposite sex have not been tolled to take a class on rape prevention one cant help but stop and think how unfair it is. As well as the fact it means enforcing the stereotype women should be in fear of men.

Women shouldn’t have to pay for their safety but in a male dominated society, one cant help but sigh and sign the check.

American Apparel

Yes, the uber-indie clothing store famous for its "sweatshop free clothing" that many pseudo intellectual emo kids wear are {of course} oblivious to the numerous sexual assault cases based on the company, mainly female workers. As the links below show

http://www.blacktable.com/graham050720.htm

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2005/07/dov_charney_of_.html

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30913F638550C7A8DDDAB0994DE404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fS%2fSexual%20Harassment



So why do they still get the indie press they don't deserve? I cant pick up a hip underground magazine without one of their androgynous models staring back at me.

Are these the choices we have to now? A piece of sweat shop made clothing or one from places where women aren't safe in the work place?

1st Entry

This blog is an assignment for my Multimedia Studies class, so yes, it is for a grade.
So welcome to my world of ranting and bitching ...just kidding...?...

I'm a senior at Florida Atlantic University, a double major in Journalism and World Politics/Humanities {Human Rights} with a minor in Women's Studies. I try and take at least one or two womens studies classes a semester, so hopefully anyone who reads this will think I'm slightly informed....and funny.

Besides, I talk everyones ears off about womens issues anyways, now at least I have a bigger audience.