Originally uploaded by mo pie

Allow me to introduce you to the Chubby Maid Café, an establishment in Japan, started by a woman who worked at a “regular maid café” until she realized all the other women who worked there were much thinner than she was.

In researching what a “maid café” is, I discovered that it’s a “cosplay” (costume play) café, and that there are also “butler cafés.” According to Wikipedia, “The butlers in these cafés are well-dressed male employees and may wear either a typical waiter’s uniform or even a tuxedo or tails.”

Well, you learn something new every day! Of the chubby maid café, which is called Pomeranian, Jezebel says:

On the one hand, this restaurant basically caters to a fetish, like a Hooters with a weight minimum, and its entire point is to focus attention on the physical appearance of the female employees. Is it just another example of women being treated as objects? On the other hand, all of the waitresses interviewed seem to have a great relationship with their bodies in a culture that’s extremely diet-obsessed and where a woman is “supposed” to be tiny and slender. Should we be accepting of a place like Pomeranian?

Ichigo says: “I wish [girls] wouldn’t take their chubbiness as a negative thing. There are tons of girls out there who are chubby and attractive, so they should regard them as role models. Also, even if you notice that someone’s chubby, you shouldn’t comment on their weight so much [laughs]. It’s a unique trait of theirs, and that’s an important thing to have.”

Vice has the full interview, where you can also enjoy some delightful pictures and ponder the question: are these girls really all that “chubby”? You can also read full interviews with several of the maids who work there, like head maid Tsukasa:

[E]ven around here I’m on the larger side, so in that way I’m in keeping with the whole idea of the café itself. Being this size kind of suits me, so I guess customers who like chubby girls are attracted to me. But I’m not saying I love myself because of it.

That last line makes me wonder if Jezebel’s statement that the women universally seem to have “great relationships” with their bodies goes a little too far. You can also see Kozue (who, the interviewer points out, is the skinniest of the bunch):

I think the word “chubby” means different things to different people. For example, some people see Kanako Yanagihara [an overweight entertainer in Japan] as being “chubby,” but I personally think that “chubby” is just when you don’t fit into the clothes sold at normal clothing stores, which I don’t. So when I meet customers who have someone bigger like Kanako in mind, they often say that I’m pretty average-looking, slender even. It upsets me when they say that.

A fascinating glimpse into another culture and its attitudes toward and definitions of chubbyness. Thanks to Shannon for the link! (And after I wrote this, but before I posted it, Rachel also picked up the story! Check out her take.)

Posted by mo pie

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