Sometimes on Medium, you stumble on a rare gem of an essay the reaches out and powerfully pulls you into a world you didn’t know about. That increases your understanding and empathy.

This is absolutely one such piece, maybe one of the best personal essays I’ve read in weeks.

Thank you so much for sharing, and for sharing so well, that part of your life with us.

I’m a gay man, and institutions like Hooters have always sort of bemused me, though the gay world is not immune from similar treatment of young men.

But when I was in my forties, I used to occasionally go to a Hooters in Michigan with my father, then in his sixties.

I didn’t like the idea of going, but he was a lonely, harmless flirt and the women who worked there treated him very kindly.

I often wondered how they felt about their jobs. I’d watch them being objectified and see them smiling about it. And I’d want to ask them what that sort of thing did to them.

You may have answered some of my questions.

Thank you.