Long answer: they cater to customers with a maid fetish. It is possible that some staff do not mind, or even enjoy, working there. It is possible that a maid cafe might put clear boundaries, and protect its staff. But in the real world, most of the time, yes it is quite degrading.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 41 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Local officials found that hundreds of cafés and e-sports venues in Yiwu were offering maid café-style services, with female servers forced to kneel to serve tea, massage male customers, and shout “Welcome home, my master!” to anyone entering.

The procuratorate brought a public interest lawsuit to a local court, arguing that such services “belittle and damage women’s rights to human dignity.” They also said that some local businesses had failed to take measures to protect their female staff from sexual harassment.

[...]

“Maid cafés have been a symbolic space where women are defaulted to being the subject of sexual exploitation,” Chen said. “The key to solving this problem should be educating the public to respect women.”

Sounds like banning this might not be such a bad thing? Stricter regulation and severe penalties for violators would maybe help instead, but I don't know enough about Chinese culture to really be able to comment on whether that would even be effective. At least taking steps to make sure this doesn't continue is a net benefit, I think.

[–] kbin_space_program@kbin.run 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

China has an Abysmal record on women's rights.

There is something else making this move on than the suffering of women. Probably because this way they get to shame Japanese maid cafes. Not that the idea of those isnt weird.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

You’d be kicked out of a dungeon for expecting that sort of shit around here. Wtf?

[–] blargerer@kbin.social 29 points 7 months ago

I went to one like 17 years ago or so when it had first opened in my area, and it was basically just a subpar restaurant where the waitresses were wearing maid costumes. None of the shit you might see in an anime.

[–] JDubbleu@programming.dev 22 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Not that they're the same, but this feels like not letting people be strippers because some people may feel degraded by it. I could understand having legislation that provides protections for employees through employer obligations to ensure a safe environment, but ultimately it's the choice of the individual if they're okay with the work or not. I don't have a dog in this fight, but this feels like Chinese conservatism forcing "modesty" on women.

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You mean Chinese conservatism? My take was as means of combating foreign cultural influence.

[–] JDubbleu@programming.dev 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Whoops, idk why I misread it as Japanese. Will fix thanks.

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Completely understandable you probably saw maid cafe and instantly thought Japan before reading the headline. We all have our moments.

[–] JDubbleu@programming.dev 4 points 7 months ago

This was almost definitely it lmao

[–] livus@kbin.social 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

forcing “modesty” on women.

I see what you're saying. A feminist from one of these countries explained to me once using the metaphor that it's all very well for western feminists to fight for the right to show their breasts but we need to respect that a lot of non-western feminists are still fighting for the right to choose not to show them.

In the west, feminists are interested in the right to sexual expression and agency so that's the lense we view this stuff through.

But at a grassroots level women in LICs focus on things like rape law reform, consent age reform, freedom from spousal abuse, mechanisms to protect domestic workers, FGM etc. So it's not realistic to expect everyone to be on the same page when conditions are so different.

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I remember when my aunt and uncle were going through a divorce, the government forced them through years of legal hoops. This seemed to be in the mistaken belief that couples should be forced back together. This is Switzerland. It might not be FGM or lack of marital rape laws, but sometimes it can be surprising where backwards laws and beliefs still hold sway.

[–] livus@kbin.social 2 points 7 months ago

Yes every country's struggles are specific, it was just a general trend.

I can't get my head around Switzerland. Women only got full suffrage there in 1971. It was 1893 where I live. You do have to be separated for 2 years to get a divorce here, too, though, which I think is stupid.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago

ultimately it's the choice of the individual if they're okay with the work or not

Ah, the free choice between degrading yourself and starving. I too would have preferred the path of regulation, but I can understand the courts being so disgusted that they just blanket ban it.

this feels like Chinese conservatism forcing "modesty" on women.

I don't know much about Chinese society, but in South Korea (and to a lesser extent, Japan), it is mainly feminists pushing against practises that objectify them, with furious opposition from certain men, and even the authorities dragging their feet.

[–] GrymEdm@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Thank you for responding to my question! I edited my original comment because I took a quick look into it and came to the same conclusion you did. I'm of the opinion that things like sex work can be done properly, and if they aren't "officially" done properly they will be done improperly illegally. Sort of a "Prohibition" vs. "regulated alcohol sales" scenario. People like other sexy people, and some adults legitimately consent to be those other sexy people. However, in order for it to be ethical there have to be robust protections.

It doesn't take much research to find out these maid cafes do not always feature said protections. So I edited my original comment because I found the answer and then you kindly backed it up very shortly afterwards.