Forum - View topicMaids in Anime.
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CyberViper
Posts: 218 Location: Matsumoto, Nagano Japan |
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I just had to ask this question, as it's been bothering me for some time now. What is with the trend of maids in anime? Is this just a thing in Japan; a fascination with maids? There seem to be quite a lot of maid oriented shows and also shows where one character will dress up in a maid outfit and all the guys will go crazy. If you've seen shows like Hanaukyo Maids and Futari Ecchi (just to name a few) you'll know what I mean. It is somewhat explained in Futari Ecchi, but I still don't understand the fascination with it.
Can anyone provide some insight on this? Is this just something that's big in Japan? Or am I just really missing something? |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Wait until someone comes back from his vacation with families. 
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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What am I, Godot? 
All right... maids. In anime. メードさん (meido-san, "maid") or お手伝いさん (o-tetsudai-san, "helper, servant").
What interests us here are definitions nos. 3 & 4. Maids (their costumes, their rôles, their social limitations, and indeed every little aspect of their existences) are a fetish object. The Japanese, despite the obvious fact that they are nowadays one of the most maid-fascinated nations in the world, weren't the first to come up with this fetish. That honour belongs to either the French, the Germans or the English. Each of these nations, in their own way, developed the maid into an object of literary and cultural fascination. The French and the English, in particular, lavished enormous attention on the creation of costumes to mark the maid's special rôle in society. Later, as this ceased to be a genuine form of employment, the costumes were fetishized. Today, the maid belongs somewhere in the realm of Dominance-Submission fetishism. A maid is a person devoted to service to a master. She wears a special costume (often of a cut specifically designed to titillate and to evoke/provoke the prurient interest), and she spends her time providing loyal, discreet, courteous and above all submissive service to her master. It is the fetish to end all fetishes - if you're the dominant type, what more can you want than a bevy of maids devoted to serving you in every possible way? If you're submissive, how can you help but identify with loving service to your master? And for the romantics, what can be more Romeo-and-Juliet-esque than the story of two star-crossed lovers from different levels of society - one a maid, and one a member of the gentry? Does that answer your question? There'll be a pop quiz next semester. In costume. - abunai Last edited by abunai on Mon Dec 26, 2005 11:07 am; edited 1 time in total |
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angel_lover
 Posts: 645 Location: UK |
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Well, you do seem to be at everyone's Beck(ett) and call... or maybe it's just a case of 神魂合体ゴードッター!! |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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Why do you say that being a maid is no longer a "genuine form of employment?" I've seen maids in the US and in every other country I've ever visited, including Japan. If you spot me US$50 I'll even have a maid come over to my house so I can take some pictures of her cleaning it.  Just don't expect to see some sexy young thing in a skimpy "French Maid" outfit, because while I've seen 100's of maids over the years, I've never seen any that looked like the sexy fetish version. Well, at least not any who were actual maids at the time. I understand that in South East Asia maids might only make US$300 a year in some cases, but in other parts of the world (such as Las Vegas) they can make up to US$80,000 for their services. So, the job is real and in some cases it even pays well.
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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I don't think being a maid is generally a "good" form of employment, and maybe that's what abunai was trying to say. I see maids pretty often in other peoples houses, but all of the ones I've seen are hispanic women (Not to be racist, but it's true that most of the low income jobs in Southern CA are taken by hispanics). Anyway, I don't think they're seen nearly as much as they were in the past.
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Point taken -- of course, there are still maids in employment today (probably rather a lot in the supposedly "egalitarian" U.S.A., where they have the advantage of a large class of "illegal immigrant" peons to draw from for cheap labor). What I meant to refer to, but failed to make clear, was the maid as a liveried servant. The liveried servant classes are no longer a common form of employment these days. Until the Great War, domestic service constituted "the largest single employment for English women" (John Burnett, The Annals of Labour: Autobiographies of British Working-class People, 1820-1920). Over the course of the 20th century, the rôle of the maid has been in decline -- much of the work associated with maids being replaced by "maintenance staff" and "cleaning women" and the like. Certainly, the idea of having maids in costume employed and living in the house would today be viewed as eccentric, to say the least. Having a butler or a liveried chauffeur is pretty much in the same category -- only the rich and/or eccentric do it. As for being a "good" form of employment... I think any job that one can carry out with conscientiousness and courtesy towards others, no matter whether menial or intellectual, is a "good" job. A job is only "bad" when it involves some form of abuse of oneself or others. Honest work is honest work. - abunai |
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daxomni
Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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Maybe I'm getting maids confused with "cleaning ladies". I just thought anybody who cleans your hotel room or comes over to your house to clean up for you was a maid, but perhaps that isn't quite the right term. In any case, when it comes time for me to retire I will probably consider going some place where actual maids are still common and don't cost too much money. I find the prospect of living on my own with a maid to be far preferable to living in some old folks home here in the states. Would I expect the maid to dress inappropriately? Certainly I would not. However, I wouldn't exactly kick her out if she chose to anyway.
I may not be Japanese, but I still understand the 'maid thing.' Also, despite my previous post I was eventually able to remember a couple maids who almost fit the sexy stereotype. One was here in the US and the other worked at some hotel in Thailand. They still wore dull conventional uniforms, but if they were in the right clothes I think they would have been able to pull it off (no pun intended).
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Azathrael
 Posts: 745 |
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Let me reply that with a question: Like, what's with the trend of reality shows in the US? Why are they all up about TV shows about pseudo-realism of couples going at it with each other for made-up problems and ex-models and wannabe big-hitters kissing every other gigolo and whore? I really don't get why people watch reality shows at all. On the other hand, I like to watch kawaii anime maid characters fawn over some guy. |
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CyberViper
Posts: 218 Location: Matsumoto, Nagano Japan |
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I guess a lot of people find them entertaining. I have no idea why, but I'm sure that there are a lot of people who have no idea why we find anime entertaining.
We don't understand them, they don't understand us. But I'm sure there are some people who watch reality shows AND anime. I'm defintely not one of them. But to each their own. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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In short, they are just another sexual vehicle of fantasy. The idea of a beautiful, voluptuous, young girl who only lives to service a persons every wish is as old as the concept of servitude itself.
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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if thats the case though why are prostitutes considered to be such low people?
what are they if not a person who will do as you wish for money? but they tend to be treated poorly. |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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You're attempting to apply logic to sex? Way to go, Einstein! - abunai |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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shirokiryuu
Posts: 714 Location: Northern California (SF Bay Area) |
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prostitution is illegal in many countries and it's looked down on because it's like giving away your dignity and body to someone else for means outside of love (or at least i reason this) |
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