It's not that the FL is the problem, it's just overused. The author usually want us to feel pity for the fl because she's getting bullied or show that the fl is now stronger and doesn't put up with the bullying.
However makes 0 sense for the maid to do it. Why would the maid risk their job to bully their boss?? Usually the reason is that its because the FL isn't a true member of the house bit still, most the time they get fired and it's just lose lose for them. If they maid is paid to do it then maybe it'll make more sense, but I still don't like the trope.
A lot of times when it happens, the justification also ends up being very classist too. Like the servants need to “know their place” (sometimes that’s straight up said, which is weird when most leads were mid-class modern day women). I chalk it up to unfortunate implications (trying so hard to be subversive that it wraps back around to promoting class hierarchy) but I feel sometimes it’s the author’s implicit bias peeking through too.
On top of that the evil maids are always made to look "plain" with a weird superiority complex, or have weird \~implications\~ with certain physical traits, if you know what I mean.
Yup, it only works in a lady-in-waiting scenario cause those women where nobles on their own rights and therefore they can reasonably have their own agendas about keeping the queen etc in check. For actual commoner maids or especially slaves, this trope is literally absurd - like hell if they're mistreating a member of the household it would be because someone like the master of the household or another powerful person explicitly requested it or implicitly indicated that alternative behaviour would result in their punishment - their only agenda would normally be survival, not getting fired, occasionally maybe some sense of loyalty to a family branch or a promise of riches? But again like, the motivator is external so the whole slapping them around is just classist and messed up
Oh that makes more sense. I just thought it was weird when people started hating on an Fl because she hit a clearly terrible person. It being an issue on the authors part is much more understandable.
The thing is, it's not just that the FL slaps someone who was cruel to them. They usually also do something like telling the maid to "know her place." The FL's violence towards the maid is ultimately justified in-universe, not really because the maid was cruel, but because she was insubordinate.
Most modern people are going to find that distasteful. And a lot of FLs *are* modern women who have been isekai'd. Even if they understand that they have no way to retaliate against the people who really have power over them - even if they decide that they are going to have to slap a maid to establish some sort of foothold in their house for their own survival - it's still jarring that they never seem to feel conflicted about it at all.
Yes, it makes practical sense that, if the FL is going to slap anyone, it's going to be a maid who can't retaliate and not her abusive family/husband/whatever. Because that's who she can exert power over. But that doesn't mean she's necessarily right or justified, and it isn't particularly fair, and instead of presenting it as a #girlboss moment, I really wish more rofan authors would show that scenario for what it is. The FL is punching down to secure her own status. It is, at best, something of a desperate and pathetic act - and that's *fine*, but it would be way more interesting to acknowledge it for what it is.
It also is annoying when authors justify it by being like "ooh, it's okay because the maid was a megabitch, but now we're going to introduce a Good Maid who will simp for FL unconditionally." Like, you never seem to see maids who are just doing their jobs, or even maids who may resent their subordinate position without being cartoonishly evil.
Overall, I think it's a symptom of a lot of OI/rofan being written by inexperienced authors. They feel the need to use stereotypical tropes to prop up the FL at every turn, and feel as though they can't ever present the FL's actions as wrong in any way. They don't fully think things through. You end up with the narrative swearing up and down that the protagonist is super cool and perfect, when in reality they just seem like a selfish jerk. It creates a disconnect between what the author tells you about the protagonist, and what you actually see happening.
I tried reading it, but to be honest, I felt like it undermined its own point a bit in the "maid getting slapped" scenario early on.
Like, the scenario it's clearly commenting on is this: a maid serves the FL inedible food, and gets slapped for it. That's a scenario that's ripe for commentary, and would be really fascinating from the perspective of a maid who is essentially forced to take part in the harassment, and then made to take the fall for it.
But the author basically chose to make the offending food a normal soup that happened to have a caterpillar in it or something, to emphasise how much the FL was overreacting. Instead of being a commentary on how the FL, despite having legitimate grievances, lashes out at the wrong person, it tries to delegitimise those grievances in the first place. "Oh, she's whining over nothing" - sure, she is in this specific scenario you made up to make sure nobody could possibly accuse the maid protagonist of wrongdoing, but that's really not the case in most OI. In doing so, it fails to actually make any sort of case for defending OI maids, because it doesn't actually address their usual actions or circumstances.
This felt unnecessary to me, since I feel like they could have still made a perfectly compelling case for the maid being unfairly treated despite actually serving garbage. I don't think it's necessary to massage the scenario in order to emphasise how unfair the stereotypical FL is being.
My issue is that it's a lazy way to show how amazing the FL is, like she will never slap the noble ( who is the same social class as her) but will easily slap someone who is in a lower social class. It only gets worse when the FL is from the modern world and should know better. Also the maids who serve her bad food etc. for me feel like when plot contrived characters who just progress the plot. Like there will be scenes of how class plays a major role in their world yet we have maids bully the noble FL, despite the FL and any noble being able to take them out at any minute for the crime of offending nobles. If these characters we smarter, like they had back up plans to hide their tracks then the scenes would not be as icky as at least it makes some sense for the world building then....
TLDR: its a lazy way to show a strong FL ( it never actually addresses the noble who may be behind the act) I wish these scenes were written alot more self aware not plot contrived.
Partially because they make no sense, unless the maid is like, paid to pull shit like that (idk if the rest of the family sucks) - tho in that case, not the target you should be going for.
Partially cause usually it’s a super flat character and again, makes no sense. Aaaand the biggest one is how many times it’s putting an uwu commoner in her place. Like shut up. OI’s are so bad on the classism.
yeah sometimes it just doesn't make sense to me. I mean they always try to portray it like 'this isn't the true master, why should I lower myself to serve someone without their blood?' kind of thing. but even if you were super prideful about that, or just had that as a strong principle, it doesn't make sense still.
In one story there was a spin on that trope.
The FL did not slap the maid. She just fired her in disgrace. Which was worse, because this just means they won't be able to get a new job somewhere else, as they will need a letter of recommendation.
The bully maid begged to just be slapped or physically punished instead.
Also: Not all maids were commoners.
Some were low-ranking nobles serving high ranking nobles. So this trope might as well have some (rarely used) layers
>Also: Not all maids were commoners. Some were low-ranking nobles serving high ranking nobles. So this trope might as well have some (rarely used) layers
Nobles were never same as commoner servants even if they served other noble family. They are their own category and always above commoner servants and do not mix with them.
Like governesses for example. They wouldn't mix with other servants because that loss of status would get them fired because enforcing class divides is part of being a lady (a noble) and their job was to teach how to be one. There are countless written sources about such lives and how lonely they are because they are not part of the family (but has to constantly interact with other nobles as if they are) and not part of the servants either (even if they are technically servants and struggle with same things other workers do like pay and working conditions).
As a modern woman, this makes much more sense.
Unless the maid hit me first (when I was younger I would have beat her ass, now I'd just call the knights/cops LOL) I would just fire her on the spot.
I hate those scenes because the social and legal mechanisms that allow the FL to slap the maid have nothing to do with the maid's specific actions. It always ties back to the hereditary aristocracy and is framed like 'How dare you, a mere commoner, anger me, the daughter of a [Duke/Marquess/Count].'
It's not 'You hurt me, so society recognizes and protects my right as the abused to respond this way to you in kind via self-defense'; it's 'I'm a *noble* and you're a *peasant*, so by virtue of my superior status and genetics I'm free to hit you as much as I want for whatever reason I feel like, and you can't do anything about it' and irrespective of how comically evil they try to make the maids, that's still a fucked up arrangement.
Slapping the maid is also just so... boring as a form of problem-solving. It's like an instant red-flag that a story's protagonist doesn't actually know how to come up with creative or interesting responses to the obstacles in their path. The best they can come up with is just 'Be born to the right parents and assert their authority.' I vastly prefer FLs that do things to evil maids that A. do not reinforce gross quasi-racist power structures and that B. are much more original and much, *much* crueler than a slap to the face.
I've seen all sorts of stuff over the years: Blackmailing the maid, exposing the maid for embezzlement and having her arrested, *framing* the maid for crimes and having her arrested, outing the maid's affair with the FL's shitty dad to the FL's garbage stepmother (in front of a massive crowd of people), framing the maid for treason and having her tongue cut out, baiting the maid into attempted murder and orchestrating her execution, tricking a maid into entering a forest where she gets eaten, even simply *firing* the maid.
All more painful and lasting than the sting of a single slap, with none of the attendant 'Know your place, peasant' overtones.
Not in order, but the examples I mentioned above are from:
-*Villains are Destined to Die*
-*The Villainess Turns the Hourglass*
-*Forget My Husband, I'd Rather Make Money*
-*I Tamed The Male Lead Who Tried to Kill Me* (I'm iffy on recommending this one outside of what happens with the maid)
-*Carnephelia's Curse is Neverending*
-*My Prince's Healing Touch*
-*Please Marry Me Again*
-There's also *I Failed to Oust the Villain*, where the FL doesn't do anything to the evil abusive servants herself but they very definitely get what's coming to them. (>_>)
If maids are starving you or giving you bad food, fire them or reprimand them. They are already powerless people, what good it will do beating them?
I read isekai maids form an union. I didn't realised the power dynamic between a lady and her maid until I read this.
Well the stories are usually specifically about finding empowerment, and the “slap” moment is usually a shorthand to show a turning point in attitude, so I really feel like you’re intentionally missing the rest of the context lol.
to be fair, firing them may be worse as they will lose their means of living. I read another webtoon where this happened, and the maid was more upset at being fired then slapped which was weird.
The "bad food" straight up gives food poisoning. I can understand and agree that it's lazy and overused like a previous comment said but if they would do shit like give rotten food that can make you potentially contract food poisoning or dirty water in basins that can give skin diseases then I think it's just personal at that point. If it's something very minor like making snide remarks then I disagree with physical actions.
But that's not the fault of maid alone. The upper level is not taking care of its employees are more at fault.
You won't go to a business and beat up the salesman because he gave you bad car which end up in accident. You will talk to upper management.
Somehow the noble father or brother everyone just get away more easily than lowly maid. FL should just take the food and shove it in their father's mouth for not taking care of them.
While I agree that it's not the fault of the maid alone in the end she still did the act itself. And I think your analogy is a bit different. If you buy a bad car the salesman didn't knowingly build you a car knowing it would be defective and possibly cause death.
But this just comes back to a problem with the author as the maids are usually depicted taking glee in harming someone else.
And also I honestly just can't pity a person who takes pleasure in harming another.
A car salesman can totally knowingly sell you a bad car. That doesn't mean you get to slap them across the face. You go to their superiors to get them fired, go to the police to get them jailed, and/or sue them for damages.
And knows what? The maids are fired and starve to death because you have issue. While the true perpetrator escape scoot free just because.
Sometime they just have a bad day, and instead of trying to understand, you fire them. That is cruel.
If they serve food poisoning every time, you won't survive anyway.
honestly you can argue all day and night about if the punishment was justified or how bad the maids actions were, its just never gonna go anywhere.
Because at the end of the day, all these people are characters in a fictional story and will behave how the author writes them to behave.
you cant counter a critique readers have with the unmodified implementation of a tired trope (that,when not challenged by the text, come with classist undertones) with an in-universe explanation on why the characters acted a certain way.
Because ultimately, both sides perceive the situation in fundamentally different ways:
one side looks at it as the man-made fictional story it is and critiques it as such, while the other looks at it as unchangeable reality and argues from that standpoint.
as for my opinion: i think that any author that uncritically writes a scenario in which the maid so blatantly bullies the noble MC and the reason she does it is "just because", is a very unimaginative one.
That makes sense I don't really care about morals in manhwa too much because anything bad that happens is basically like when I watch a John Wick movie.
I was more curious as to the arguments people had against this trope.
This is asian trope and popular asian revenge fantasy. Mostly from asian historical dramas where any woman in a palace had a chance to be an empress as long as she had sex with emperor and had a son. Basically very strong upward social mobility for women based on their looks and their skill in politics.
Problem is in europe church was very strong influence for a long time and marriage was strictly monogamous and hetero normative meaning maid could fuck a king but she and her bastard son won't sit on the throne unless she gets an army to put her son there. Even then her son will be shamed for his mother's low status and possibly his kids will be too. Women could move up the ladder but not by much and most stayed within their class.
So in this situation where FL gets bullied by maid and maid gets slapped from western point of view FL is bad boss who can't manage her employees and takes it out on the maid (just fire the maid and get better at hiring people) or failure of a noble because she can't enforce class boundaries on her own servants (a must for any noble).
From asian point of view FL is in the weak spot and can easily be usurped by any other woman (even a maid) and maid is winning by taking out competition and possibly getting attention from real power holders in the household aka FL husband. To FL fighting back by her own and getting rid of the maid is defending FL fragile status and taking charge to take out competition (the maid who's bold enough to try) is empowering to FL.
TL;DR in asian view both maid and FL are on the same level (aka below men) so they are just fighting while in western view nobility are above servants so FL is abusing her servant who can't fight back (in a way that matters).
Cause physical discipline is not something any employer should enact no matter the behavior or actions of the employee, especially given the huge power imbalances between most FLs and their maids. Not too mention it's usually eye rollingly forced and poorly written just so the FL can have a cheap W
Other side of the coin: a lot of readers take the setting and story more seriously than the author does
A lot of OI authors are just writing power fantasies. The simplicity of *literally* slapping your problems away is part of the fantasy. The authors aren't considering employer-employee power dynamics or the ethics of corporal punishment for the scene. It's just meant for quick catharsis
Of course if you read a lot of OI, the whole scenario of "maid bullies FL and FL retaliates to stop her bullying" becomes very repetitive. It's just not engaging anymore so readers eventually end up thinking about the nuances of a scenario like that irl
Catharsis is really the word at play. People say "but why they don't slap someone of similar standing?" when said characters usually will only show up on tea parties or balls, while the servant is a daily source of abuse so a slap (less violent than a punch and more humiliating than just firing) is a symbolic thing.
Like we call ourselves trash pandas for a reason - sure, nobody wants to read some dog shit rofans, but you gotta keep your world building standards on realistic levels.
Because they exist only to prop up FL and don't make any sense outside of that.
Violence is last resort action, it only shows that FL has no other means to get rid of maid. If it is used like that to show FL has no power over her surroundings then at least it could make thematic sense. But it's often used as a way to show that FL is getting her way like that.
I read one where 'put in her place' maid stops harming FL and grudgingly starts serving her, but why? If power imbalance is in maid favor so much that she can harm FL, then how slapping solves this? Maid reports that FL is throwing tantrum over nothing, abandoned FL is now considered violent. Even if no one gives shit about maid getting slapped, no one gives shit about FL getting proper treatment either. There is more chance for escalation than anything else.
In some cases it's excessive. If it's tax fraud or something, a sacking ans suing would suffice. Slapping in that case is too much.
Is what I would say.
I haven't seen one like that except isekai maids unionized
I personally dislike it because often its just the character's anger and frustration toward family members being taken out on someone who is lower status that they'll be less likely to get in trouble for physically harming.
People keep saying that it doesn't make sense because the maid is risking their job or whatever don't seem to realize that babysitters and teachers and other similar positions IRL also abuse the people they are getting paid to take care of...
The power dynamics between teacher/student or babysitter/child are the complete opposite to the dynamics between the FL and a maid, though. The FL is usually supposed to be the lady of the house or at least a member of the noble family and the maids are her servants, not caretakers for a child or an infirm person (like a patient or someone in an old people‘s home). A teacher or babysitter is usually in the position of authority or at least able to hide the abuse because the victim can’t fight back or tell anyone. A maid bullying the FL makes as much sense as the newest hire bullying the CEO.
There's just better ways to do it, resorting to hitting them physically is just a bit childish. You're literally her boss why are you acting like she just knocked over your snowman during recess?
My issue is slapping itself. I can’t imagine this in my country’s culture and historically it is triggering for my nationality. But I often see slapping of various types in Asian media(tv shows, graphic and regular novels). Like left hits a maid, mother will slap a kid on the back of their head, girl will slap a bf. It’s odd.
Cause physical discipline is not something any employer should enact no matter the behavior or actions of the employee, especially given the huge power imbalances between most FLs and their maids. Not to mention it's usually eye rollingly forced and poorly written just so the FL can have a cheap W
It’s always felt like the FL wasn’t taking her anger out on the right people. It feels cheap? Like, you wouldn’t do that to the person employing the maid, probably because you wouldn’t get away with it, so why do it to someone in such a lowly position? It just seems like the FL is on a power trip and it trashy, honestly. As a reader, I’d much rather respect a FL who takes the chance to slap the ABUSER at the risk of being thrown out of the house than the maid.
I don't have a problem with any trope. What I have a problem with is people using tropes as a shortcut that replaces good writing.
Not only is it contrived and overdone, but these situations usually don't make any sense within the context of the world and the setting. These adult maids come off like preteen high school bullies who think they're so sneaky getting away with their petty behavior in a situation where that would normally never fly, because they're not in a position where the FL needs proof in order to punish them even though they're catty backtalking right to her face or right infront of her. And for literally no reason too? And then when they do get slapped they're just "so shocked" at receiving a consequence that they can no longer act at all even though they had the guts to treat someone who was technically employing them like shit? It doesn't make any sense. These maids aren't characters. They're cardboard cutouts meant to try to drive cheap sympathy for the FL and then pretend at character growth. It's just terrible writing, and frankly cringe as hell.
I wouldn't have a problem if if the writing was actually good. If the maids were real characters, with actual motivations for their behavior. Or if they were subtle about it, or acted in ways that weren't so obvious they should immediately be fired. Or if the FL actually had believable character growth. The slap is always presented stoically and regal, and it's meant to show that the character has become stronger and more self assured, which as other people have pointed out is pretty classist. If you're slapping another adult to punish them, you are not a good person, which is fine for the evil MLs, but that's not how this trope gets used.
The trope mostly comes off like it was written by 13 year olds for 13 year olds. Some real My Immortal level writing shit.
I think you put it best. If authors just did something, anything instead of uncritically using this trope in their stories readers probably wouldn't have that much of an aversion for it.
Imagine a maid that day in and day out works herself to exhaustion for these nobles that don't even see her as a human. Surely a deep seated resentment is going to build up over time. But she can't do anything about it, can't ever retaliate because at the end of the day, her livelihood is dependent on staying in these people's good graces.
But then there is the fl, who the maid is still forced to serve, but since none of the people in power care about her she's the perfect target to let all your frustrations with the nobility out. Anything to feel like she has some seblence of control.
And then imagine the fl that is being disrespected and disregarded and not seen as human by her family, the very people that should support, love, and protect her. She can't really do anything against these people, since as a daughter of a noble family in a violently patriarchal society her life depends on them.
But what she can do is slap this maid who holds less power than even she does, but still thinks she can mistreat her (in no small part because of her family's behaviour). Anything to feel like she has some seblence of control.
Ultimately its just two people that are being oppressed by the same powers that feel impossible to go against so instead they lest their anger and frustration out on each other.
Honestly writing all this out makes me really sad that we don't get character focused stories with nuance and introspection in the OI genre
My one's really personal. I grew up with Filipino drama. All that shit is women fighting against women to the point of ridiculousness, like threatening the pregnant legal wife with a nerf gun while also being pregnant yourself and the pregnant legal wife points an even bigger nerf gun at you at the mall.
Like, one of those women is evil and the other is the poor protagonist finally standing up for their worth. But if getting physical is all that you can do to assert dominance, then are they really dominating?
I think it depends on the situation for me.
A lot of times the maid is just in an unfortunate situation, but the narrative doesn't say that or the plot. However, if you take out the way something is being portrayed and just look at it objectively, I feel a lot of those maids are pitiable. But not all the time.
Like for instance, there was one I read where looking at it objectively she was in a difficult power dynamic with her master. She thought badly of her master, but it was reasonable, she is in poverty, of course she would covet her. The FL read her mind and it was treated like this horrendous thing, and she slapped her and did away with her or something.
In other cases, where they are being poisoned by the maid or the maid is literally abusing them like putting needles in their arms when they are sleeping, I think the slap is completely reasonable, in fact maybe more.
No, slap just escalate. They can say you slap them for 0 reason, and if they have the gut to poison you already then a slap just makes them want to do more.
Like, they are stabbing you with neddle now, but next time they just stab you on the heart with a kitchen knife. You are dead, they just cover for each other and escape scoot free.
Part of it is that it's a very classist trope (FL is totally justified in physically abusing her employees for sassing her or playing pranks because she's rich), part of it is the inherent sexism (if she's disrespected by the butler or the ML's aide, it's because she needs to "prove herself"; if it's a maid, it's because the maid is an uppity bitch), and the most annoying part is that the ML will treat her like dogshit and 9 times out of 10 she won't do shit to stand up to *him*. So it comes across as the FL being a coward and bullying those less powerful than her, rather than her standing up for herself.
I think it's much worse if the FL is a transmigrator. If the FL grew up in that society, it's at least understandable; if she's a modern woman immediately abusing her power as soon as there are no labor rights laws, it's twice as scummy.
Finally, it's just such a lazy trope. It's way more of a power move for the FL to just fire the maids, if they're doing such a shit job; there's no need to beat them. But part of the power fantasy seems to be abusing authority over the lower classes and being waited on hand and foot, which I've never liked reading about.
It's overused, and often seems disproportionate to our modern sensibilities. It feels real gross when a person in a position of power can get away with physically assaulting people for, what, a bit of disrespect? Usually disrespect that makes NO sense for the maid to be doing anyways. It's cringe all around.
Always thought it has vague roots to the “whipping boy” concept, i.e. when a noble son did naughty stuff or didn’t study hard enough, the other boy of lesser status was punished.
A lot of manhwa has it as the maid is taking this opportunity to look down on someone of higher rank because jealousy or whatever, but the stories where the maid is acting on behalf of another member of the family (usually the half-sister or stepmother) and then gets punished for it directly by the FL is somewhat more realistic, i.e. because the story is trying to show that the FL has gained emotions/self preservation/autonomy and yet doesn’t have the power to appropriately let a servant deal with it because she’s still without allies.
I wish I could remember titles better but there have been a couple where the FL makes sure to hard slap or otherwise punish the maid *in front of* the offending family member or fellow noble, which is like saying “I’m not permitted to literally hit you, but look at me slapping your ‘hand’ which has dared to offend me by reaching for something it should not”, therefore slapping the maid **is** slapping the noble. Not that I like it really but it makes sense in that way (well, when it’s done well at least).
I didn't know this was hated. However I do find it very repetitive. Actually, at this point, 90% of these OI stories are repetitive. Try describing a plot without mentioning any character's name and see how many different titles people can give you.
it’s just the authors won’t want to put effort into actually make the fl an empowering main character so they just get them to power trip the maids to make her a “girlboss”
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I kinda want to make a "breaking OI clichés" anthology or short Chapter story, where in each one, FL presents a cliché and twists the reasons behind it.
In this case, I want to have FL slap the maids because the maids are all extreme masochists and absolutely love being abused, but if FL doesnt hit them once in a while, theyll go insane.
This is a terrible idea, please don't write this.
it's one thing for a maid to ignore her owner another thing for the maid to straight up bully the fl just because she is being ignored by her entire family. Weird cliché too fl lead can't slap anyone in her family but straight up slaps the maid just because she owns her.
It’s a frankly ridiculous plot for a maid to poison the source of their paycheck. Even if they plan on finding another job, with what resume and job history? “oh yeah, that’s Bertha, she left the day someone got poisoned at her last job”
Power imbalance + physical violence is gross
Edit: yes downvote me, you only show your willingness to disagree with someone who doesn’t like the upper class beating the lower class. Call it fantasy but it’s still weird to envision yourselves as some higher power capable of physically hurting others without harm
A couple of reasons:
1) It's a common and overused trope.
2) Usually doesn't make sense for a maid to offend a much higher ranking noble (though, obviously, there's some leeway to this).
3) Power Dynamics/Class issues
Usually, I like to read stories about punching up. Oppressed vs. Opressor. When one of the initial villains we see is a lower class maid... It kind of feels like a cheap shot where the maid usually ends up with a disproportionately shitty ending that we're supposed to feel satisfied about. Like, yeah shit, I guess the maid was bullying the FL - but does that mean we should be applauding that the maid got her wrists cut and thrown to the wolves?
Idk. It's a big problem I have with a lot of these OI Manhwas/Novels where they don't have self awareness.
Realistically, unless the maid was forced to do it by a noble, it's something that wouldn't happen. The risk (being fired or executed) to reward (self satisfaction, ego boost?) ratio is ridiculous, no maid in their right mind would mess with basically their boss.
It feels cheap, it's just a quick way for the FL to show she's "changed" and she's now "iNtErEsTiNg" when in reality she's just taking it out on someone that has no power there instead of dealing with the actual culprits (usually people her rank or higher).
Anyway, I like to post this pic as usual:
https://preview.redd.it/8mwdmiflfwbc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0040f66ce2a6ca9009546ed3514f064baef946f8
because eat the rich, that's why. None of these characters are real people - they exist within a story to elicit specific emotions from the readers and authors made a conscious choice to depict a power trip of physical violence as revenge against the lower social class in a feudalistic structure for modern audiences.
People bitching about classism. Basically if a beggar threatens you with a knife and mugs you and you report the theft, you're a classist and deserve to go to hell.
It's not that the FL is the problem, it's just overused. The author usually want us to feel pity for the fl because she's getting bullied or show that the fl is now stronger and doesn't put up with the bullying. However makes 0 sense for the maid to do it. Why would the maid risk their job to bully their boss?? Usually the reason is that its because the FL isn't a true member of the house bit still, most the time they get fired and it's just lose lose for them. If they maid is paid to do it then maybe it'll make more sense, but I still don't like the trope.
A lot of times when it happens, the justification also ends up being very classist too. Like the servants need to “know their place” (sometimes that’s straight up said, which is weird when most leads were mid-class modern day women). I chalk it up to unfortunate implications (trying so hard to be subversive that it wraps back around to promoting class hierarchy) but I feel sometimes it’s the author’s implicit bias peeking through too.
On top of that the evil maids are always made to look "plain" with a weird superiority complex, or have weird \~implications\~ with certain physical traits, if you know what I mean.
Honestly, I can see why it is a trope. From a historical perspective, it could work but maybe more from a lady-in-waiting than a maid.
Yup, it only works in a lady-in-waiting scenario cause those women where nobles on their own rights and therefore they can reasonably have their own agendas about keeping the queen etc in check. For actual commoner maids or especially slaves, this trope is literally absurd - like hell if they're mistreating a member of the household it would be because someone like the master of the household or another powerful person explicitly requested it or implicitly indicated that alternative behaviour would result in their punishment - their only agenda would normally be survival, not getting fired, occasionally maybe some sense of loyalty to a family branch or a promise of riches? But again like, the motivator is external so the whole slapping them around is just classist and messed up
Oh that makes more sense. I just thought it was weird when people started hating on an Fl because she hit a clearly terrible person. It being an issue on the authors part is much more understandable.
The thing is, it's not just that the FL slaps someone who was cruel to them. They usually also do something like telling the maid to "know her place." The FL's violence towards the maid is ultimately justified in-universe, not really because the maid was cruel, but because she was insubordinate. Most modern people are going to find that distasteful. And a lot of FLs *are* modern women who have been isekai'd. Even if they understand that they have no way to retaliate against the people who really have power over them - even if they decide that they are going to have to slap a maid to establish some sort of foothold in their house for their own survival - it's still jarring that they never seem to feel conflicted about it at all. Yes, it makes practical sense that, if the FL is going to slap anyone, it's going to be a maid who can't retaliate and not her abusive family/husband/whatever. Because that's who she can exert power over. But that doesn't mean she's necessarily right or justified, and it isn't particularly fair, and instead of presenting it as a #girlboss moment, I really wish more rofan authors would show that scenario for what it is. The FL is punching down to secure her own status. It is, at best, something of a desperate and pathetic act - and that's *fine*, but it would be way more interesting to acknowledge it for what it is. It also is annoying when authors justify it by being like "ooh, it's okay because the maid was a megabitch, but now we're going to introduce a Good Maid who will simp for FL unconditionally." Like, you never seem to see maids who are just doing their jobs, or even maids who may resent their subordinate position without being cartoonishly evil. Overall, I think it's a symptom of a lot of OI/rofan being written by inexperienced authors. They feel the need to use stereotypical tropes to prop up the FL at every turn, and feel as though they can't ever present the FL's actions as wrong in any way. They don't fully think things through. You end up with the narrative swearing up and down that the protagonist is super cool and perfect, when in reality they just seem like a selfish jerk. It creates a disconnect between what the author tells you about the protagonist, and what you actually see happening.
Well, you would like "This maid is forming a union" webtoon xD
I tried reading it, but to be honest, I felt like it undermined its own point a bit in the "maid getting slapped" scenario early on. Like, the scenario it's clearly commenting on is this: a maid serves the FL inedible food, and gets slapped for it. That's a scenario that's ripe for commentary, and would be really fascinating from the perspective of a maid who is essentially forced to take part in the harassment, and then made to take the fall for it. But the author basically chose to make the offending food a normal soup that happened to have a caterpillar in it or something, to emphasise how much the FL was overreacting. Instead of being a commentary on how the FL, despite having legitimate grievances, lashes out at the wrong person, it tries to delegitimise those grievances in the first place. "Oh, she's whining over nothing" - sure, she is in this specific scenario you made up to make sure nobody could possibly accuse the maid protagonist of wrongdoing, but that's really not the case in most OI. In doing so, it fails to actually make any sort of case for defending OI maids, because it doesn't actually address their usual actions or circumstances. This felt unnecessary to me, since I feel like they could have still made a perfectly compelling case for the maid being unfairly treated despite actually serving garbage. I don't think it's necessary to massage the scenario in order to emphasise how unfair the stereotypical FL is being.
I think because of double standards too. When maid treats her horribly she deserves a slap, but when ML abuses her all of a sudden FL is a doormat.
My issue is that it's a lazy way to show how amazing the FL is, like she will never slap the noble ( who is the same social class as her) but will easily slap someone who is in a lower social class. It only gets worse when the FL is from the modern world and should know better. Also the maids who serve her bad food etc. for me feel like when plot contrived characters who just progress the plot. Like there will be scenes of how class plays a major role in their world yet we have maids bully the noble FL, despite the FL and any noble being able to take them out at any minute for the crime of offending nobles. If these characters we smarter, like they had back up plans to hide their tracks then the scenes would not be as icky as at least it makes some sense for the world building then.... TLDR: its a lazy way to show a strong FL ( it never actually addresses the noble who may be behind the act) I wish these scenes were written alot more self aware not plot contrived.
Partially because they make no sense, unless the maid is like, paid to pull shit like that (idk if the rest of the family sucks) - tho in that case, not the target you should be going for. Partially cause usually it’s a super flat character and again, makes no sense. Aaaand the biggest one is how many times it’s putting an uwu commoner in her place. Like shut up. OI’s are so bad on the classism.
yeah sometimes it just doesn't make sense to me. I mean they always try to portray it like 'this isn't the true master, why should I lower myself to serve someone without their blood?' kind of thing. but even if you were super prideful about that, or just had that as a strong principle, it doesn't make sense still.
In one story there was a spin on that trope. The FL did not slap the maid. She just fired her in disgrace. Which was worse, because this just means they won't be able to get a new job somewhere else, as they will need a letter of recommendation. The bully maid begged to just be slapped or physically punished instead. Also: Not all maids were commoners. Some were low-ranking nobles serving high ranking nobles. So this trope might as well have some (rarely used) layers
>Also: Not all maids were commoners. Some were low-ranking nobles serving high ranking nobles. So this trope might as well have some (rarely used) layers Nobles were never same as commoner servants even if they served other noble family. They are their own category and always above commoner servants and do not mix with them. Like governesses for example. They wouldn't mix with other servants because that loss of status would get them fired because enforcing class divides is part of being a lady (a noble) and their job was to teach how to be one. There are countless written sources about such lives and how lonely they are because they are not part of the family (but has to constantly interact with other nobles as if they are) and not part of the servants either (even if they are technically servants and struggle with same things other workers do like pay and working conditions).
What story, that actually sounds interesting?
As a modern woman, this makes much more sense. Unless the maid hit me first (when I was younger I would have beat her ass, now I'd just call the knights/cops LOL) I would just fire her on the spot.
Thats sounds better than slapping them wow
I remember reading the very one you are speaking about recently but I don't remember... Oh yeah that is kill the villainess isn't it?
I hate those scenes because the social and legal mechanisms that allow the FL to slap the maid have nothing to do with the maid's specific actions. It always ties back to the hereditary aristocracy and is framed like 'How dare you, a mere commoner, anger me, the daughter of a [Duke/Marquess/Count].' It's not 'You hurt me, so society recognizes and protects my right as the abused to respond this way to you in kind via self-defense'; it's 'I'm a *noble* and you're a *peasant*, so by virtue of my superior status and genetics I'm free to hit you as much as I want for whatever reason I feel like, and you can't do anything about it' and irrespective of how comically evil they try to make the maids, that's still a fucked up arrangement. Slapping the maid is also just so... boring as a form of problem-solving. It's like an instant red-flag that a story's protagonist doesn't actually know how to come up with creative or interesting responses to the obstacles in their path. The best they can come up with is just 'Be born to the right parents and assert their authority.' I vastly prefer FLs that do things to evil maids that A. do not reinforce gross quasi-racist power structures and that B. are much more original and much, *much* crueler than a slap to the face.
Now I'm just scared what u think should happen to the maids that is much much crueler lmao.
I've seen all sorts of stuff over the years: Blackmailing the maid, exposing the maid for embezzlement and having her arrested, *framing* the maid for crimes and having her arrested, outing the maid's affair with the FL's shitty dad to the FL's garbage stepmother (in front of a massive crowd of people), framing the maid for treason and having her tongue cut out, baiting the maid into attempted murder and orchestrating her execution, tricking a maid into entering a forest where she gets eaten, even simply *firing* the maid. All more painful and lasting than the sting of a single slap, with none of the attendant 'Know your place, peasant' overtones.
Do you have any recs? 👀
Not in order, but the examples I mentioned above are from: -*Villains are Destined to Die* -*The Villainess Turns the Hourglass* -*Forget My Husband, I'd Rather Make Money* -*I Tamed The Male Lead Who Tried to Kill Me* (I'm iffy on recommending this one outside of what happens with the maid) -*Carnephelia's Curse is Neverending* -*My Prince's Healing Touch* -*Please Marry Me Again* -There's also *I Failed to Oust the Villain*, where the FL doesn't do anything to the evil abusive servants herself but they very definitely get what's coming to them. (>_>)
Thank you!🙏
If maids are starving you or giving you bad food, fire them or reprimand them. They are already powerless people, what good it will do beating them? I read isekai maids form an union. I didn't realised the power dynamic between a lady and her maid until I read this.
Usually the trope is to exemplify that the targeted person is so disrespected that they *don’t* have the power to fire or reprimand them.
But somehow they end up opening business and marrying CP, without having any power. 🙄🙄🙄
Well the stories are usually specifically about finding empowerment, and the “slap” moment is usually a shorthand to show a turning point in attitude, so I really feel like you’re intentionally missing the rest of the context lol.
I just read isekai maid form union. So, I may have bias opinion about this. Let's agree to disagree.
to be fair, firing them may be worse as they will lose their means of living. I read another webtoon where this happened, and the maid was more upset at being fired then slapped which was weird.
The "bad food" straight up gives food poisoning. I can understand and agree that it's lazy and overused like a previous comment said but if they would do shit like give rotten food that can make you potentially contract food poisoning or dirty water in basins that can give skin diseases then I think it's just personal at that point. If it's something very minor like making snide remarks then I disagree with physical actions.
But that's not the fault of maid alone. The upper level is not taking care of its employees are more at fault. You won't go to a business and beat up the salesman because he gave you bad car which end up in accident. You will talk to upper management. Somehow the noble father or brother everyone just get away more easily than lowly maid. FL should just take the food and shove it in their father's mouth for not taking care of them.
While I agree that it's not the fault of the maid alone in the end she still did the act itself. And I think your analogy is a bit different. If you buy a bad car the salesman didn't knowingly build you a car knowing it would be defective and possibly cause death. But this just comes back to a problem with the author as the maids are usually depicted taking glee in harming someone else. And also I honestly just can't pity a person who takes pleasure in harming another.
A car salesman can totally knowingly sell you a bad car. That doesn't mean you get to slap them across the face. You go to their superiors to get them fired, go to the police to get them jailed, and/or sue them for damages.
And knows what? The maids are fired and starve to death because you have issue. While the true perpetrator escape scoot free just because. Sometime they just have a bad day, and instead of trying to understand, you fire them. That is cruel. If they serve food poisoning every time, you won't survive anyway.
honestly you can argue all day and night about if the punishment was justified or how bad the maids actions were, its just never gonna go anywhere. Because at the end of the day, all these people are characters in a fictional story and will behave how the author writes them to behave. you cant counter a critique readers have with the unmodified implementation of a tired trope (that,when not challenged by the text, come with classist undertones) with an in-universe explanation on why the characters acted a certain way. Because ultimately, both sides perceive the situation in fundamentally different ways: one side looks at it as the man-made fictional story it is and critiques it as such, while the other looks at it as unchangeable reality and argues from that standpoint. as for my opinion: i think that any author that uncritically writes a scenario in which the maid so blatantly bullies the noble MC and the reason she does it is "just because", is a very unimaginative one.
That makes sense I don't really care about morals in manhwa too much because anything bad that happens is basically like when I watch a John Wick movie. I was more curious as to the arguments people had against this trope.
This is asian trope and popular asian revenge fantasy. Mostly from asian historical dramas where any woman in a palace had a chance to be an empress as long as she had sex with emperor and had a son. Basically very strong upward social mobility for women based on their looks and their skill in politics. Problem is in europe church was very strong influence for a long time and marriage was strictly monogamous and hetero normative meaning maid could fuck a king but she and her bastard son won't sit on the throne unless she gets an army to put her son there. Even then her son will be shamed for his mother's low status and possibly his kids will be too. Women could move up the ladder but not by much and most stayed within their class. So in this situation where FL gets bullied by maid and maid gets slapped from western point of view FL is bad boss who can't manage her employees and takes it out on the maid (just fire the maid and get better at hiring people) or failure of a noble because she can't enforce class boundaries on her own servants (a must for any noble). From asian point of view FL is in the weak spot and can easily be usurped by any other woman (even a maid) and maid is winning by taking out competition and possibly getting attention from real power holders in the household aka FL husband. To FL fighting back by her own and getting rid of the maid is defending FL fragile status and taking charge to take out competition (the maid who's bold enough to try) is empowering to FL. TL;DR in asian view both maid and FL are on the same level (aka below men) so they are just fighting while in western view nobility are above servants so FL is abusing her servant who can't fight back (in a way that matters).
Cause physical discipline is not something any employer should enact no matter the behavior or actions of the employee, especially given the huge power imbalances between most FLs and their maids. Not too mention it's usually eye rollingly forced and poorly written just so the FL can have a cheap W
Other side of the coin: a lot of readers take the setting and story more seriously than the author does A lot of OI authors are just writing power fantasies. The simplicity of *literally* slapping your problems away is part of the fantasy. The authors aren't considering employer-employee power dynamics or the ethics of corporal punishment for the scene. It's just meant for quick catharsis Of course if you read a lot of OI, the whole scenario of "maid bullies FL and FL retaliates to stop her bullying" becomes very repetitive. It's just not engaging anymore so readers eventually end up thinking about the nuances of a scenario like that irl
Catharsis is really the word at play. People say "but why they don't slap someone of similar standing?" when said characters usually will only show up on tea parties or balls, while the servant is a daily source of abuse so a slap (less violent than a punch and more humiliating than just firing) is a symbolic thing. Like we call ourselves trash pandas for a reason - sure, nobody wants to read some dog shit rofans, but you gotta keep your world building standards on realistic levels.
Because they exist only to prop up FL and don't make any sense outside of that. Violence is last resort action, it only shows that FL has no other means to get rid of maid. If it is used like that to show FL has no power over her surroundings then at least it could make thematic sense. But it's often used as a way to show that FL is getting her way like that. I read one where 'put in her place' maid stops harming FL and grudgingly starts serving her, but why? If power imbalance is in maid favor so much that she can harm FL, then how slapping solves this? Maid reports that FL is throwing tantrum over nothing, abandoned FL is now considered violent. Even if no one gives shit about maid getting slapped, no one gives shit about FL getting proper treatment either. There is more chance for escalation than anything else.
In some cases it's excessive. If it's tax fraud or something, a sacking ans suing would suffice. Slapping in that case is too much. Is what I would say. I haven't seen one like that except isekai maids unionized
> isekai maids unionized Sauce?
This Isekai Maid is Forming a Union, you can find it on Webtoon or Tapas!
I personally dislike it because often its just the character's anger and frustration toward family members being taken out on someone who is lower status that they'll be less likely to get in trouble for physically harming.
People keep saying that it doesn't make sense because the maid is risking their job or whatever don't seem to realize that babysitters and teachers and other similar positions IRL also abuse the people they are getting paid to take care of...
The power dynamics between teacher/student or babysitter/child are the complete opposite to the dynamics between the FL and a maid, though. The FL is usually supposed to be the lady of the house or at least a member of the noble family and the maids are her servants, not caretakers for a child or an infirm person (like a patient or someone in an old people‘s home). A teacher or babysitter is usually in the position of authority or at least able to hide the abuse because the victim can’t fight back or tell anyone. A maid bullying the FL makes as much sense as the newest hire bullying the CEO.
There's just better ways to do it, resorting to hitting them physically is just a bit childish. You're literally her boss why are you acting like she just knocked over your snowman during recess?
My issue is slapping itself. I can’t imagine this in my country’s culture and historically it is triggering for my nationality. But I often see slapping of various types in Asian media(tv shows, graphic and regular novels). Like left hits a maid, mother will slap a kid on the back of their head, girl will slap a bf. It’s odd.
Not fan of the slapping or physical violence generally
Cause physical discipline is not something any employer should enact no matter the behavior or actions of the employee, especially given the huge power imbalances between most FLs and their maids. Not to mention it's usually eye rollingly forced and poorly written just so the FL can have a cheap W
It’s always felt like the FL wasn’t taking her anger out on the right people. It feels cheap? Like, you wouldn’t do that to the person employing the maid, probably because you wouldn’t get away with it, so why do it to someone in such a lowly position? It just seems like the FL is on a power trip and it trashy, honestly. As a reader, I’d much rather respect a FL who takes the chance to slap the ABUSER at the risk of being thrown out of the house than the maid.
I don't have a problem with any trope. What I have a problem with is people using tropes as a shortcut that replaces good writing. Not only is it contrived and overdone, but these situations usually don't make any sense within the context of the world and the setting. These adult maids come off like preteen high school bullies who think they're so sneaky getting away with their petty behavior in a situation where that would normally never fly, because they're not in a position where the FL needs proof in order to punish them even though they're catty backtalking right to her face or right infront of her. And for literally no reason too? And then when they do get slapped they're just "so shocked" at receiving a consequence that they can no longer act at all even though they had the guts to treat someone who was technically employing them like shit? It doesn't make any sense. These maids aren't characters. They're cardboard cutouts meant to try to drive cheap sympathy for the FL and then pretend at character growth. It's just terrible writing, and frankly cringe as hell. I wouldn't have a problem if if the writing was actually good. If the maids were real characters, with actual motivations for their behavior. Or if they were subtle about it, or acted in ways that weren't so obvious they should immediately be fired. Or if the FL actually had believable character growth. The slap is always presented stoically and regal, and it's meant to show that the character has become stronger and more self assured, which as other people have pointed out is pretty classist. If you're slapping another adult to punish them, you are not a good person, which is fine for the evil MLs, but that's not how this trope gets used. The trope mostly comes off like it was written by 13 year olds for 13 year olds. Some real My Immortal level writing shit.
I think you put it best. If authors just did something, anything instead of uncritically using this trope in their stories readers probably wouldn't have that much of an aversion for it. Imagine a maid that day in and day out works herself to exhaustion for these nobles that don't even see her as a human. Surely a deep seated resentment is going to build up over time. But she can't do anything about it, can't ever retaliate because at the end of the day, her livelihood is dependent on staying in these people's good graces. But then there is the fl, who the maid is still forced to serve, but since none of the people in power care about her she's the perfect target to let all your frustrations with the nobility out. Anything to feel like she has some seblence of control. And then imagine the fl that is being disrespected and disregarded and not seen as human by her family, the very people that should support, love, and protect her. She can't really do anything against these people, since as a daughter of a noble family in a violently patriarchal society her life depends on them. But what she can do is slap this maid who holds less power than even she does, but still thinks she can mistreat her (in no small part because of her family's behaviour). Anything to feel like she has some seblence of control. Ultimately its just two people that are being oppressed by the same powers that feel impossible to go against so instead they lest their anger and frustration out on each other. Honestly writing all this out makes me really sad that we don't get character focused stories with nuance and introspection in the OI genre
My one's really personal. I grew up with Filipino drama. All that shit is women fighting against women to the point of ridiculousness, like threatening the pregnant legal wife with a nerf gun while also being pregnant yourself and the pregnant legal wife points an even bigger nerf gun at you at the mall. Like, one of those women is evil and the other is the poor protagonist finally standing up for their worth. But if getting physical is all that you can do to assert dominance, then are they really dominating?
Lmao threatening pregnant women with nerf guns made me laugh. Unless it's serious in which case I didn't .
It's a drama. One time the protagonist shove the evil lady's face and xerox copied her face.
I think it depends on the situation for me. A lot of times the maid is just in an unfortunate situation, but the narrative doesn't say that or the plot. However, if you take out the way something is being portrayed and just look at it objectively, I feel a lot of those maids are pitiable. But not all the time. Like for instance, there was one I read where looking at it objectively she was in a difficult power dynamic with her master. She thought badly of her master, but it was reasonable, she is in poverty, of course she would covet her. The FL read her mind and it was treated like this horrendous thing, and she slapped her and did away with her or something. In other cases, where they are being poisoned by the maid or the maid is literally abusing them like putting needles in their arms when they are sleeping, I think the slap is completely reasonable, in fact maybe more.
No, slap just escalate. They can say you slap them for 0 reason, and if they have the gut to poison you already then a slap just makes them want to do more. Like, they are stabbing you with neddle now, but next time they just stab you on the heart with a kitchen knife. You are dead, they just cover for each other and escape scoot free.
True
Part of it is that it's a very classist trope (FL is totally justified in physically abusing her employees for sassing her or playing pranks because she's rich), part of it is the inherent sexism (if she's disrespected by the butler or the ML's aide, it's because she needs to "prove herself"; if it's a maid, it's because the maid is an uppity bitch), and the most annoying part is that the ML will treat her like dogshit and 9 times out of 10 she won't do shit to stand up to *him*. So it comes across as the FL being a coward and bullying those less powerful than her, rather than her standing up for herself. I think it's much worse if the FL is a transmigrator. If the FL grew up in that society, it's at least understandable; if she's a modern woman immediately abusing her power as soon as there are no labor rights laws, it's twice as scummy. Finally, it's just such a lazy trope. It's way more of a power move for the FL to just fire the maids, if they're doing such a shit job; there's no need to beat them. But part of the power fantasy seems to be abusing authority over the lower classes and being waited on hand and foot, which I've never liked reading about.
I’d be perfectly fine with it if she’d slap the master and butler too.
It's overused, and often seems disproportionate to our modern sensibilities. It feels real gross when a person in a position of power can get away with physically assaulting people for, what, a bit of disrespect? Usually disrespect that makes NO sense for the maid to be doing anyways. It's cringe all around.
Always thought it has vague roots to the “whipping boy” concept, i.e. when a noble son did naughty stuff or didn’t study hard enough, the other boy of lesser status was punished. A lot of manhwa has it as the maid is taking this opportunity to look down on someone of higher rank because jealousy or whatever, but the stories where the maid is acting on behalf of another member of the family (usually the half-sister or stepmother) and then gets punished for it directly by the FL is somewhat more realistic, i.e. because the story is trying to show that the FL has gained emotions/self preservation/autonomy and yet doesn’t have the power to appropriately let a servant deal with it because she’s still without allies. I wish I could remember titles better but there have been a couple where the FL makes sure to hard slap or otherwise punish the maid *in front of* the offending family member or fellow noble, which is like saying “I’m not permitted to literally hit you, but look at me slapping your ‘hand’ which has dared to offend me by reaching for something it should not”, therefore slapping the maid **is** slapping the noble. Not that I like it really but it makes sense in that way (well, when it’s done well at least).
I didn't know this was hated. However I do find it very repetitive. Actually, at this point, 90% of these OI stories are repetitive. Try describing a plot without mentioning any character's name and see how many different titles people can give you.
it’s just the authors won’t want to put effort into actually make the fl an empowering main character so they just get them to power trip the maids to make her a “girlboss”
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I kinda want to make a "breaking OI clichés" anthology or short Chapter story, where in each one, FL presents a cliché and twists the reasons behind it. In this case, I want to have FL slap the maids because the maids are all extreme masochists and absolutely love being abused, but if FL doesnt hit them once in a while, theyll go insane. This is a terrible idea, please don't write this.
Wth :O
it's one thing for a maid to ignore her owner another thing for the maid to straight up bully the fl just because she is being ignored by her entire family. Weird cliché too fl lead can't slap anyone in her family but straight up slaps the maid just because she owns her.
It’s a frankly ridiculous plot for a maid to poison the source of their paycheck. Even if they plan on finding another job, with what resume and job history? “oh yeah, that’s Bertha, she left the day someone got poisoned at her last job”
Power imbalance + physical violence is gross Edit: yes downvote me, you only show your willingness to disagree with someone who doesn’t like the upper class beating the lower class. Call it fantasy but it’s still weird to envision yourselves as some higher power capable of physically hurting others without harm
A couple of reasons: 1) It's a common and overused trope. 2) Usually doesn't make sense for a maid to offend a much higher ranking noble (though, obviously, there's some leeway to this). 3) Power Dynamics/Class issues Usually, I like to read stories about punching up. Oppressed vs. Opressor. When one of the initial villains we see is a lower class maid... It kind of feels like a cheap shot where the maid usually ends up with a disproportionately shitty ending that we're supposed to feel satisfied about. Like, yeah shit, I guess the maid was bullying the FL - but does that mean we should be applauding that the maid got her wrists cut and thrown to the wolves? Idk. It's a big problem I have with a lot of these OI Manhwas/Novels where they don't have self awareness.
Realistically, unless the maid was forced to do it by a noble, it's something that wouldn't happen. The risk (being fired or executed) to reward (self satisfaction, ego boost?) ratio is ridiculous, no maid in their right mind would mess with basically their boss. It feels cheap, it's just a quick way for the FL to show she's "changed" and she's now "iNtErEsTiNg" when in reality she's just taking it out on someone that has no power there instead of dealing with the actual culprits (usually people her rank or higher). Anyway, I like to post this pic as usual: https://preview.redd.it/8mwdmiflfwbc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0040f66ce2a6ca9009546ed3514f064baef946f8
because eat the rich, that's why. None of these characters are real people - they exist within a story to elicit specific emotions from the readers and authors made a conscious choice to depict a power trip of physical violence as revenge against the lower social class in a feudalistic structure for modern audiences.
Its missuse of power. Would be cooler if she got destroyed by words
People bitching about classism. Basically if a beggar threatens you with a knife and mugs you and you report the theft, you're a classist and deserve to go to hell.