In opinions appearing on these pages over the last week or so, Hooters has been unfairly singled out for alleged sexist business practices. I suspect that many of the women expressing these views have never been in a Hooters restaurant.

There are many misconceptions about what goes on in Hooters, so let's get a couple things straight. Hooters is neither a whorehouse nor a strip club. It is just a restaurant that caters to the tastes of its predominantly male customers. This is manifest in everything from the food selections to the multiple televisions tuned to various sports contests. Believe it or not, people really do go there for the food. Tips are left on tables, not stuffed down waitresses' shorts. In fact, every time I've been there, customers were just as polite as presumably they would be at any restaurant.

Yes, the waitresses are chosen for, among other things, their appearance. But do you honestly think that doesn't happen at other restaurants? The waiters and waitresses at Chili's and Outback Steakhouse, for example, generally seem like attractive people. And I'm sure that many of them have found that if they wear revealing clothing and flirt with their customers, they get bigger tips. It's just a fact of life: Sex sells, and the extent to which it does so will probably more than make up for the people they alienate in the process.