Katherine Ryan has praised her time working at Hooters in a new interview, defending herself from possible criticism.
The comedian was employed at the sports bar after moving to Toronto for university.
In a new interview with The Observer, Ryan said she “thought it was fascinating to hold that position as a young woman”.
“I know in retrospect it’s maybe not the most aspirational thing that you can do, because it is positioning yourself as being for decoration, which is not ideal,” she said, referencing the tight-fitting uniforms required for female employee. “But I was always a student of what I was doing,” she said.
While working there, Ryan said she made “lots of money” and “had a great, fun life”, winning the Miss Hooters Toronto pageant and visiting the Playboy Mansion. She eventually moved to the corporate team, where she represented the establishment around the world.
The comedian stated that she “wanted to exploit that reverence given to delicate innocent youth”.
In response to young people, including her daughter, Violet, who might say that working at Hooters is “not very feminist”, Ryan said: “Well, I was just living in the world that I was in, and it was different. And we didn’t have smartphones and this was still acceptable.
“It’s not like I was misbehaving – that’s what the world was,” she said.
Earlier this week, Ryan expressed “regret” over sharing a rare photo with her family due to comments she received about her daughter, who was wearing an eye mask as part of her Halloween costume.
She revealed that many of her followers repeatedly asked her why she was covering up her daughter’s “two black eyes”.
Ryan said: “I don’t put many pictures of her on social media but she’s at the age now where she’s asking why that is. She thinks it’s quite weird. I did share this photo, and I regretted it almost immediately. I had so many messages.”
