Butler Cafe’s are Mainstream?
TIME’s editor: They have butlers?! In cafe’s?! Sauce now!
As I was perusing my most recent volume of TIME, the magazine, not the 4th dimension, there was a rather interesting article on Butler Cafe’s in Japan. My first thought was ” Why the hell is there an article on japanese fetish cafe’s next to predictions on the ‘08 election? “, but I read on. The article is on the Swallowtail cafe, apparently the first and most successful butler cafe, and it’s many female customers who follow anime/manga and are called Otome, and so on and so on. I love it when western media tries to describe this stuff. Even the most simple explanation would be confusing to any normal people. The article also describes goth-lolita cosplayers, who’s costumes apparently come from medieval times, not victorian, and maid cafe’s. If you don’t know what a butler cafe is, why would you know what a maid one is?
Anyways, the articled goes on to explain that the reason the cafe is so popular is because those hard-working corporate women of Japan need a place to relax and get their lazy asses served by members of the opposite sex. Maybe I’m wrong, but I disagree with that entirely. One, I hardly believe the clientele of butler cafe’s would be the corporate women of society. Instead, it’s those Otome who love bishounen and yaoi buttsechs, and have enough expendable income to go to a cafe everyday. I doubt they’d be any different from those same otaku who visit meido cafe’s day after day because they love moe. It has nothing to do with Japanese sexism, which apparently every western reporter believes Japan’s problems boils down to. It’s just another escapist niche that Japan happens to serve perfectly.
Of course, I’ve never met any self-proclaimed Otome, or seen much research about them. For all the talk of FYG, their japanese sisters seem to be neglected, at least in the english realm. Here’s the article if your interested, or just want to mock it. Interesting to note, it was written by a guy. I wonder if the perspective would be any different from a woman? Also, check out the article ” Yep, They’re Gay “. It’s about gay rams and is hilariously stupid. Only in America.
I’ve been to Swallowtail, and indeed the female clients lined up outside the door were dressed in professional clothes and looked very businesswomanlike. I saw no giggling otaku girls, just very nice looking 25-30 age range women. That article is probably right about that point.
Comment on February 4, 2007 @ 10:37 am