Comparing The Short Story 'Kneel Down And Lick My Feet'

For many years and in many patriarchal cultures, women have been seen as less than men, limiting the women to housework, obedience to their fathers, then to their husbands and finally, to their own male children. The short story “Kneel Down and Lick My Feet” by Amy Yamada is situated in Japan, a patriarchal society a couple of decades ago. The story is about a group of woman working at an S&M club. Some might argue that this short story is about the immoral downside of the Japanese sex trade, from women, but I will refute this argument. What women do in this story is give a service to men who need and enjoy it. However, the queens in “Kneel Down” do not just offer the sexual pleasure some men get from their services, but also stabilize their

They don’t do it to abuse men, although some of them appreciate the opportunity of being in charge of men. Shinobu noted: “Show me another place where women have slaves in this day and age! Show me another job where you can abuse men and have them thank you for it”(….189). The main incentive for queens to work here at the Queen’s Palace is not to help men getting better with some of their social problems, nor to satisfy them, but the money they were earning for working in this place. Shinobu mentions that to her a job is a job, no matter if done by men or women, she explains the reason why she thinks that selling your body, or using your body to make a living is not a way of degrading yourself as a person. She actually compares her line of work to others of which we consider normal under the standards given by society, like for example working for some else. She noted: “I might raise a frown or two when I say this, but I think that selling your body and working for a company are pretty much the same thing. Just ways to make money. People who need a lot of money have to pick the job that’ll get it for them.”

Mama the most professional and experienced of all the queens is the woman in charge of club, even when in the story the narrator doesn’t describe the physical appearance of Mama, one can conclude that she was an old woman who was not as beautiful as the other queens because of her age, but she was still very attractive. “I thought Mama was fabulous. In this world, being young and cute doesn’t mean a thing. I still have a lot to learn” (…203) She was a woman capable of overcoming situations that other queens couldn’t handle. Shinobu at a moment in which she couldn’t do the work by herself because of the unusual request for the client said, “Mama began to speak in a loving voice, in that dim room oozing with insanity. It was enough to make me shiver, in spite of myself. Times like this, I really admire Mama. She’s a real pro.” (….200) Mama is a professional woman who knows how to satisfy her clients, and give them what they are looking for. Even is a situation with an unusual request she asked the customer, “You get an erection that way?”(….200). After she got the answer from the customer she did the job, like the real queen she was. At the end of Mama’s performance with this client, he said, “Mama, you were truly just like my mother”(…203) She pleased the customer the way they should, and the customer