Dawn Szymanski, professor of psychology, and Chandra Feltman, a graduate teaching associate in psychology, examined the emotional toll of working in what they dub “breastaurants”–restaurants that feature scantily clad waitresses–in an article in Raw Story.
The story featured their research, which sought to determine how working in a “breastaurant” affects one’s psychological well-being.
“Consistent with the results of our first study, we found that waitresses working in restaurants that sexually objectified their employees were more likely to experience a host of negative interactions with customers, ranging from unwanted advances to lewd comments,” according to their findings. “They were also far more likely to internalize cultural standards of beauty, experience symptoms of depression and were more likely to be dissatisfied with their job. Our findings also support classic objectification theory. That is, our data were consistent with the notion that women who waitress in these types of sexually objectifying environments will soon amplify their habitual appearance and body monitoring. This, in turn, increases their body shame. And as body shame rises, so do their levels of depression.”