"Everybody ought to have a maid
Daintily collecting bits of paper and strings
Appealing in her apron strings
Beguiling in her blouse"
Daintily collecting bits of paper and strings
Appealing in her apron strings
Beguiling in her blouse"
— "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
While the French Maid costume has some basis in the black and white uniforms once worn by actual maids (though not the original "French maids"
) in the 19th century, the original costumes were almost never as fan servicy as those found in modern times. The attitude is also part of the package, inasmuch as she is essentially the soubrette of old French comedies and operas (the original character type didn't necessarily have to be a maid — though she often was - but was always pretty and seductively flirtatious, and dressed in a fancy, abbreviated outfit; Gaby Deslys was one early 20th-century actress and dancer who became famous by playing soubrettes): she will be extremely flirty, often with a feather duster. She also acts snippy, pert and cheeky to everyone who isn't her employer (and sometimes him too) and superior to any of the other servants except the butler and maybe the cook. The French Maid will speak with an over-exaggerated French accent and use Gratuitous French.
Contrast to Meido, which is a Japanese concept developed from this one. The key difference being that a Meido is intended to be Moe and subservient, while a French Maid is sexy and saucy. Contrast even further to the Scullery Maid, who is decidedly less sexy, but has much more power in the plot.
For the costume rather than the character, see French Maid Outfit.
Examples
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Advertising
- Booktrack, an online bookseller, created this ad featuring Petra Nemcova as a French maid. Bonus points for referencing the classic Maxell ad.
Comic Books
- The Catwoman Elseworlds comic Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham was set in an alternate reality were Catwoman filled Batman's role as protector of Gotham. Where Batman has Alfred, a loyal Battle Butler who acts as Mission Control and patches his wounds, Catwoman had Brooks, a maid whose main purpose seems to be sexing up the story by wearing a skimpy French Maid Outfit, vaguely dusting the mansion while in suggestive poses, and encouraging Selina to get laid.
- Archie Comics: The Lodge family have some of these in their mansion. Once Archie was too attentive to Veronica's new French maid.
Comic Strips
- Lucy dressed in a G-rated version in one Peanuts strip where Snoopy wanted a "pretty serving girl" to bring his dinner.
Fan Works
- In the Slash Fic The Killer Dame (a parody of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Killing Game") which is set in a holodeck program of a French village during World War 2, Captain Janeway discovers to her shock that Ice Queen Seven of Nine has been turned into a sexy French maid.
Films — Animated
- The maid from Beauty and the Beast, who was transformed into a feather duster. Even moreso in the stage show, where her role is greatly expanded. She was named Babette in the stage adaptation, and named Fifi in the midquel Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World.
Films — Live-Action
- "Yvette, The French Maid" (pictured above) in the movie Clue. She also wore a relatively modest version of the sexy French Maid's outfit. Although she apparently wasn't REALLY French, or a maid...
- Louise from 8 Women fits here as well, though she's not as blatantly sexual (usually).
- The Maids, who take the whole Perverse Sexual Lust thing too far.
- The 1943 movie Heaven Can Wait (1943), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, features a prime example of this trope, with the character of "Madame". She lacks the classic black and white maid uniform, but acts very flirtatiously with the main character, and has one of the most over the top (fake) french accents you're ever likely to hear.
- You'd expect this trope a lot in porn, and there is, although it's more common in softcore erotica. The mainstream, tame soft-core Young Lady Chatterley from the 1980s includes two examples of this type, slightly averted since the maids are Cockney, not French. But the trope is definitely played up for its erotic appeal, as the maids flirt, flounce, and repeatedly lose their uniforms.
- In Ninotchka we get to see three, sexy French maids.
- Babbette in Scavenger Hunt (1979), who dresses in the requisite French Maid Outfit, and combines this trope with Brainless Beauty.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show gave usnote Magenta, a cross between this trope and the Creepy Housekeeper.
- While the three maids in Ready or Not (2019) don't wear the exact outfit, they are dressed in slinky, low-cut black dresses that are designed to show off their figures and call this trope to mind. One of them, Dora, even claims to not be a real maid, simply a dancer who Tony Le Domas hired to wear that costume for the event.
- Please Turn Over has Beryl's Naked Revolt counterpart, the glamorous Madeline.
Literature
- In Aaron Allston's Galatea in 2-D, Kevin's paintings include one of an extremely cliched French Maid.
Live Action TV
- In a long ago Tonight Show with Johnny Carson skit, Juliet Prowse portrayed a spy pretending to be a French Maid.
- In 'Allo 'Allo! Yvette and Mimi might technically have been waitresses, but they were the incarnation of this trope in everything except name.
- In an episode of Scrubs, Turk fantasizes about being married to Elliot. Carla (Turk's wife) is portrayed in the same fantasy as being the maid, complete with uniform, with whom Turk is having an affair.
- The French TV show Palace averts this. Since it is set in a five-star hotel, there are of course a whole bunch of French maids around, but every time (Once per Episode) characters comment that the shows need a Ms. Fanservice or the viewers will stop watching, the girl they bring in is not wearing a maid outfit. Actually, she only wears a thong most of the time.
- An episode of CSI: NY involved an expensive New York maid service that supplied maids who met the requirements of this trope.
- In American Horror Story: Murder House, the maid seems to be this trope. She is indeed Ms. Fanservice, to all of the males in the house. The women see her as a much older, more matronly maid. There turns out to be a very good reason for this later in the season. She also is depicted as a (relatively) normal person and is quick to point out her independence despite her job and unique predicament.
- Jeanette the maid in the murder mystery episode of Saved by the Bell. Turns out she's also a Clingy Jealous Girl and is a brief suspect in the game.
- Used for the obligatory Double Entendre in The Goodies.
- "This car has parts from all over the world. British made, German made..." (Bill removes girl in a French Maid Outfit from the car) "French maid."
- Butler enters with two hot maids bearing tea trays. "While you are waiting sir, I thought you'd like tea and crumpets."
- Invoked in the Decoy episode "Night Light" by a maid who speaks with a heavy French accent despite not actually knowing the language so her employer will think she's classy.
- Parodied in Cold Case "The Pledge", where a frat pledge is dressed as french maid as form of hazing.
Vera: He's cute. French maids do it for me too.
- A Whammy on the Press Your Luck revival was a French maid using a feather duster to erase the contestant's score.
- In the French TV comedy show Vous Les Femmes, Judith Siboni seeks to spice up her sex life by donning the classic French Maid's outfit. Unfortunately for her husband, she gets rather too much into character as a maid and begins to spot little cleaning imperfections around the house; she impatiently bats him away as she has become too intent in eliminating a stubborn stain in the carpet.
Music
- Give me a Rap Music Video and when discussing the man's influence, he may or may not have playboy french maids cleaning his house or servicing the guests.
- The music video for Joe Jackson's "Stepping Out" features a French maid acting out a Cinderella fantasy.
- Deborah Harry's "French Kissing in the USA" depicts a number of French maids as extras.
Theater
- Magda in Tanz Der Vampire doesn't wear the traditional frilly maid uniform, but she's put into an equally objectifying tavern-wench costume that suits her role as the inn's girl of all trades.
- Jacob (pronounced "jaw-kobe"), the Camp Gay, crossdressing butler in La Cage aux folles is an amusing, rare, technically male example flaunting a French Maid Outfit in many productions.
- Some productions of Così Fan Tutte make Despina one of these.
Video Games
- In Laura Bow: The Colonel's Bequest, there is a stereotypical French maid named Fifi who exemplifies all of these traits.
- BeTrapped! has Juliette, a maid very similar to Yvette.
- All female maids in The Sims are dressed like this. (The male maids are dressed in a Fanservice way as well, with an unbuttoned shirt, exposing the chest.)
Webcomics
- In PvP, Robbie hires a French maid called Suitecannes (pronounced Sweet Can) to staff his mansion. It turns out she was a call girl who dressed as a maid because she thought it was his fetish.
- In Held Within Strip #27 Susie accidentally wishes that her genie girlfriend Jenny summon a teacher that has been giving Susie a hard time, and turn her into a French Maid. Jenny, of course, does so. When the teacher admits to blackmailing students into having sex with her for passing grades, Susie also makes her speak only (bad) French.
Western Animation
- In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Invasion of the Ferb Snatchers", Major Monogram hired two French Maids to clean the secret lair.
- Parodied in The Flintstones, where Wilma had Betty pretend to be a French maid to impress Stony Curtis.
- The Jetsons: When Jane goes shopping for a robot, in the first episode ("Rosey the Robot"), one of the models is a French maid robot in a metallic French maid outfit.
- A Snooper and Blabber cartoon had the detectives dress as a butler and French maid respectively in order to guard the jewels of a matron whose birthday was being celebrated.
