Working in the ‘Meido Kissa’: the Female Body and Performative Labor in Cross/ Subculture
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Lin, Ying-Meng
Abstract
Nowadays, most people have a complex image with ‘Maid’ in Taiwan: Maid dress is a public figure’s gimmick and sex appeal; Maid’s social status is not only a foreign female domestic, but also a more sexy femininity woman by mass media. They seem to be related with a pornography production including Japanese adult video and uniform club for heterosexual males; or the cute female body illusion of ‘Otaku’.
In fact, ‘Maid’ is a female domestic work originated from a contract system belonging to the European nobles and bourgeoisie’s household in the 18th and 19th century; such phenomenon was also reflected in the novel text of European society. However, after transferring into the ACG (Anime, comic, game) area of the popular culture in Japan, this subject matter combines with Japan’s local culture and becomes a new text called ‘Meido,’ which differs from that of Europe, and offers a field of desire, imagination and recreation to the ACG fans group. After 2000, ‘Meido Kissa (Maid Café)’ is the production of this context in Tokyo, which was a kind of café/ tea shop with real females who costumed in the ‘Meido’ dress to serve the ‘Master’. It is popular in Japan’s ACG commercial center - Akihabara.
Because of the political, historical and economic conditions in Taiwan, the globalization of the Japanese ACG industry has accelerated its imports to Taiwan in the 90s, and formed the Taiwanese ACG subculture with this Japanese cross-culture. Thus, ‘Taiwan Meido Kissa’ was borned on this way.
Now it is often called ‘Meido club’, viewed by the mainstream culture as ‘something-strange place,’ a fantastic wonderland where one wishes to visit for sightseeing, being the ‘Master,’ and experiencing excitement and adventures.The phenomenon of “Medido and Meido Kissa” arouses disputation between two positions. One regards it as the Gender Work under the discourses of Labor, associating with the idea of materialized women, pornography, femininity and women trafficking originated from Feminism. The other is from the Taiwanese ACG hobbyists, who on the contrary, consider the ‘Meido’ excluding from the real world, and is a pure “fans’ practice” in the subculture and Cosplay.
This paper tries to communicate with the two positions. Firstly, it explains the phenomenon of Japanese cross-culture in the Taiwanese ACG hobbyists’ activities. Further, it digs into the ‘Meido Kissa’ through the author’s working experience as a ‘Meido,’ analyzing its material space, the body of working mechanism, and the reflexive and agency practiced by the (‘Master’) customers and the (‘Meido’) waitress within the interlacing gender social context, dominant culture, and subculture; and finally, it explores the Performativity of labor in ‘Meido Kissa’, to clarify relations among Cross/ Subculture, Female Body and Labor.
Subjects
Maid
Cross-culture
ACG subculture
Body
Performance
Labor
SDGs
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-100-R95325004-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):a4f3aa10a7bb120894dc2cdcba8ffbc5