The uniformed, those who were not interested in anime, manga, otaku, or Japan had judged it harshly. Even those who were into the hobby, but came from very conservative beliefs had brutal comments and criticism towards maid cafes. This created a long list of troublesome complaints that plagued the maid cafe industry through the public lense.
The keyboard warriors, would jump on the band wagon of stereotyped assumption and attack maids who might have volunteered for an event on social media to the point of bullying. Instead of wanting to learn about what an otaku maid was they would just base all their judgement from the stereotype from the uniformed. If they let their guess work flame on they end up assuming maids work for a pimp, some say being a maid will make you more likely to get pregnant, and a multitude of scenarios that are based on decisions outside of work. This would lead to people pointing at Otaku as generalized asian fetishists who if they are not asian have yellow fever. They also point at maids for pretending to be Japanese when maids are from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds. They reinforce their arguments by blaming maid cafes for fulfilling a fetish by existing and see hand gestures and serving food and singing with dance as a form of sexualized performance. Lastly they criticize the colorful look with slut shaming and the attitude of positive actions and the establishment itself as demeaning. This made the argument nothing but a lens of an erotically dressed french maid which has no relationship to the otaku maid profession. Some ridiculous arguments when comparing other ideas floating around. Nudes at the gentle mans club and pole dancers at the strip club, but mention otaku maids and its outrageous! Casual Restaurants lead you to the table and Fast food asks you what your order is, but have a giggle or two with hand gestures while pulling out a seat and its completely outrageous! Working the tables for that money at any restaurant is okay, but put on a cute outfit and sell memorabilia that is also within an otakus hobbies it is once again outrageous! Preconceived expectations of maid cafes through bad word of mouth. If people keep on saying that maids do sexual deeds and have sexual tendencies, regardless of it being a lie the bad word of mouth spreads. So, those who don’t know what they are talking about by getting into the scene and understanding it are only being destructive and ruining their own reputation when people find out that the gossip was not true. It hurts the person spreading the false information, it hurts the business, and it hurts the personal life of those who attend the establishment. Its easy to talk about all the bad when larger companies have their operations and employee training to a science. Its no wonder most smaller shops have it hard when being compared that way as well as the maids and butlers who serve in them. However, knowing many maid cafes are local operations should allow people to respect they are trying hard, regardless of their being a lot to be desired and improved on. Taking that into account opinions shouldn’t only have the negative views to shoot businesses down, but what was good with the experience as well. Stereotypes always exist, but only relying on stereotypes by making judgement with negative assumptions is what makes them damaging to both people involved. The stereotype may give some foggy idea to socially call something as a labeled box. But if the person is never given the chance to talk to, be understood, and gotten known for who they are they become devalued socially by the words the other person is saying to them. It really goes on to hurt them for the long term when the other person doesn't get to know who they are and assumes their whole being through just a label. This is not limited to maids, but to all things stereotype of race, gender, profession, hobby, and more. When stereotyping without knowing the maids side of the story there is unrelenting feelings of a maid being wrong and that their position should not exist. It just makes the person who is taking this sort of action to seem incompetent to otaku maid profession and the otaku culture in general. It paints them to be completely ignorant and seem like a very bad person who is using the justification of sexually objectifying women. When anyone who even knows anything about otaku maids knows that can't be farther from the truth, since there is the Manor Rules to ward off creepers. The Manor Rules, were a set of protective guidelines for establishments that have butlers and maids to use as a way to protect their front of the house staff. These are: Do not touch a servers body, do not ask server for personal information, do not infringe on a servers privacy, do not follow server, do not bring outside food or drink into the facility. we reserve the right to remove any patron from the area if rules are violated. Gender neutrality is a big issue with the feminists online, so the title of a maid cafe has many assumed implications. It first can be assumed by the title of maid that people could think of house maid services, erotic french maid fantasies, but the new comer of otaku maid not so much. The second implication could be assuming that the maid cafe is selling the maids appearance as the primary draw over the features of the venue or food. The third would be from the mannerisms of introduction that state customers as master or mistress play into the assumed and implied stereotype the person has come up with in their mind. Pointing at Japanese society in its differences to American society in the customer types that enter the door at maid cafes is a hot topic of debate. Japanese society has a conservative, traditional, strict disciplines of uniform, etiquette, and gender specific speech. While American society may have some conservatives not all are, traditions are not strict, and uniforms are usually found in large companies or ambitious smaller ones with plain old american english. A Maid Cafe maid brings in the fantasy, but Japan’s replicated model would be seen as Maid worshiping unless a few changes were done. The main elements of fantasy in the maid cafe that makes it unique is a place of positive attitude, attentive eager service, cuteness everywhere, and a feeling of an otaku home. Subtle differences in maid specific services that may take less time and even less cost might benefit the social benefits of a customer having a conversation with someone instead of only the maid or butler. The mannerisms would have to be modified to consider societies political correctness with saying Madam & Mister, instead of Master & Mistress for the sake of not sounding really weird. The establishment name would need to be titled feature first or gender neutral like a Drafting Cafe instead of a Maid Cafe or Butler Cafe. The staff would need both genders participating with a sense of professionalism with both Butlers & Maids. And the foods would have to compete with other food establishments in taste and build an identity with otaku foods.
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June 2019
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