Chinese Foot Binding

Published by admin May 19th, 2007 in Stuff

Foot binding was practiced in China for 1000 years. Young girls would have their feet wrapped, thus limiting the normal development and essentially crippling them. Today, it is a prominent cause of disability among elderly Chinese women. Read more about it here

Share and Enjoy:

182 Responses to “Chinese Foot Binding”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 hp May 19th, 2007 at 1:18 pm

No Responses to â€œChinese Foot Bindingâ€ - and you ask why? 1000 years of stupidness
2 Cynthia May 19th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

We laugh at the foolishness of this fashion, but women in the West wear high-heels; a lesser evil, but still part of the distortion of the body for fashion, and one which causes injury.
3 anthonyberet May 19th, 2007 at 3:04 pm

@ Cynthis - ummm, I wasn’t laughing.
4 mike May 19th, 2007 at 3:05 pm

cynthia, noone wants to hear your feminist venom. Evil propaganda is all of your kind ever spews.
5 riz May 19th, 2007 at 3:09 pm

does anyone know hoe her foot is almost cut in half?
6 shutupmike May 19th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

Moron.
7 PennyShwartz May 19th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

I’d like to give that a try. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!
8 Othello May 19th, 2007 at 4:12 pm

It’s not cut in half, it’s bent in half.
9 Jim May 19th, 2007 at 4:15 pm

Hey Mike, you seem to be the one with the evil propaganda here. No one wants to hear your mindless attempt to stifle the opinions of others. If you disagree why don’t you argue like a man instead of whiny little boy.

Cynthia is right. High heels come from the same intention as foot binding, just not taken to the same extreme. My mum wore high heels through the 40s, 50s and 60s and her feet were disfigured and somewhat hobbled as well. Of course not anything like these freakish pictures but it’s all a matter of degree. All in the name of following a fashion that she felt it was necessary to conform to.
10 jebus May 19th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

It’s not cut in half, it’s how the foot is rolled over. Basically the binding method brings your outside toe (opposite of big toe) in towards your heel. And as it does that it pulls the top of the foot in closer to make that sort of slide profile for the foot.
11 Cynthia May 19th, 2007 at 4:54 pm

Sorry, Anthony; not the best choice of words; I was trying to be brief. But some people do point and giggle, even if in a horrified way.
12 Sara May 19th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

Cynthia, you have nothing to be sorry about. Some of things women do today in the name of “fashion” or “beauty” are very dangerous, i.e. plastic surgery. And feminist isn’t a bad word, Mike.
Those pictures are amazing, however. It’s good to have a visual record of such a horrible thing.
13 darkesnow May 19th, 2007 at 6:15 pm

Riz, that’s not her foot cut in half, that’s a hyper-enhanced arch. Basically to do this, they fold your foot in half and tie it that way until it sticks and you’re deformed.

That crevice has uses, which is why this was done to begin with. Think about it.
14 mel May 19th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

Mike, what is your problem with pointing out the foolishness of
fashion for women that still exists today? Why do you think that is
feminist venom?
15 Spider May 19th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

Cynthia’s right, and it’s not feminist propaganda to point out that fashion intended to be attractive to men can be harmful to women. Just because you enjoy watching all of the women in your life suffer, “mike”, it does not mean that the rest of us do.
16 Rich May 19th, 2007 at 7:56 pm

The sad part .. was .. it was not stupidity .. but ignorance..
layers and layers of ignorance
no one asked too many questions back then..
they just showed up, shut up.. and did not ask any questions..
too bad
17 Adam May 19th, 2007 at 8:04 pm

I can’t help but feel that there’s a difference between forced foot binding, and modern women’s choice to wear uncomfortable shoes.

But maybe that’s just my chauvinistic male viewpoint.
18 yes May 19th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

Looks comfortable.
19 Anonymous Sam May 19th, 2007 at 8:15 pm

She looks pretty happy.
20 W. May 19th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

riz, it isn’t cut in half - if you can visualise her full-grown foot, you would see that where you think it is ‘cut in half’, it would actually stretch out and straighten itself. Essentially, it is *bent* in half!
21 Kasey May 19th, 2007 at 8:32 pm

riz - I don’t think that her foot is almost cut in half, rather I believe it is where her foot is basically doubled over, i.e. what used to be the sole of her foot is making up either side of the ‘cut’.
22 gil May 19th, 2007 at 8:40 pm

mike, your response is random and unprovoked. What the hell does feminism have to do with an observation of western footwear? High heels do cause injury, it’s just a fact. However, so do a lot of material choices we indulge in, in order to maintain an attractive or youthful look. Take cosmetic surgery, for example, or dieting. My main question, though, in response to the Chinese foot binding, is still why? Culturally and pragmatically, what is the point? I could look it up, but I just wanted to pose the question.
23 Miss Cellania May 19th, 2007 at 8:51 pm

This is very sad. It took a strong government effort to stamp out the practice of foot-binding, beginning almost 100 years ago. Some say it was done because women with bound feet had a dainty feminine walk, but really it was a status symbol. Only a wealthy man could afford to have a wife who couldn’t work. Bonus -she can’t run away, either.

riz -her foot isn’t cut, just bent that way. The bones grow in grotesque ways because the foot-binding began in infancy. The heelbone started to point down instead of to the back, and the arch was pulled back toward the heel. A lifetime of pain.
24 J. L. May 19th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

does anyone know hoe her foot is almost cut in half?

The procedure for footbinding involves breaking it in the middle and folding it in half. Then, over time, having it bound tightly with cloth strips presses the two halves together.

– J.
25 t May 19th, 2007 at 10:59 pm

You can see how the foot was broken and repositioned… *shudder* Amazing that she can still walk at her age.

and, @mike:
You sound like an A-hole

@Cynthia:
I apologize on behalf of civilized guys everywhere.
26 Kevin May 19th, 2007 at 11:00 pm

The process of foot binding causes the arch of the foot to be folded, bringing the toes near to the heel. That is the cause of the split down the middle of the foot.
27 Rick May 20th, 2007 at 12:15 am

This is nothing about laughter. Please show some consciousness.
28 fish May 20th, 2007 at 12:19 am

riz, I believe that the foot is not cut. Rather, it has been broken in half and bound to grow into the smaller shoe, likely many, many times.
29 Jim May 20th, 2007 at 12:32 am

Cynthia, you’re missing the point.

These Chinese women were subjected to this as children. They did not have a choice in the matter.

Women in westernized civilizations wear high heels of their own free will.
30 The Pandora Effect May 20th, 2007 at 6:21 am

i think feet binding is pure cruelty to the women. whatever happened to freedom of choice? oh wait, maybe they themselves chose to be bound.

regards.
31 Sibbi May 20th, 2007 at 6:38 am

But it does not change the fact tha christmas may seem far away but is not, really:)
32 tech May 20th, 2007 at 8:00 am

culture is culture …
33 Cynthia May 20th, 2007 at 9:09 am

Okay, I see your point. It’s true that women weren’t forced to wear high heels or tortured from age 5 to enable their use.

I guess I was only engaging in frivolous relativism. Apologies.
34 Louise M May 26th, 2007 at 9:20 pm

Please consider that this practice controlled women and poor people in general. This cruel, cruel practice is economically-based to keep women inside four walls and subservient to an overall cultural that kept classes of people “in their place”… slavery of its time. Most of the world has been built on slavery of one sort or another - I don’t agree with the idea this is a “sex” practice at all. It is about POWER, over women, but, primarily power that maintains poverty and mental / physical abuse to never be able to “step” outside ones sphere - no pun intended.

This goes on today. Women rarely choose to adhere to cultural norms, they just do it! So do men, by the way. Thinking and acting contrary to any cultural norms places any individual at odds with their communities. This takes guts and sacrafice, some times too large.

Today, modified foods are altering our world and harming pollinating bees… which harms the food chain. Along with “fashion” which is nonsense and a money-making scheme anyway, we are all caught up in a consumer culture that is damaging in far-reaching ways and hopefully won’t last 1,000 years as this horrific foot-binding did. Also, I agree that all this plastic surgery and the continuing practice of removing girl’s clitoris’ still continues and this is horrific deformation of a child’s body.
35 Eric May 29th, 2007 at 4:34 am

I am pro….
a good way to keep females from running away and staying out late at night.
Just kidding!
36 confessing7girl May 31st, 2007 at 10:25 am

OMG ohhhhhhh is that real??? OMG poor woman!!!!! she has a big hole in her foot OMG oh nooooo please no more pictures!!
37 13xforever Jun 1st, 2007 at 2:19 am

Wow…when I first heard about foot binding, I thought a child’s foot was just wrapped up and prevented from growing any more. As I was reading a novel about a girl who is forced to have her feet bound at 6 years old, I learned that the bones were actually broken and forced into a shape where the four outside toes were wrapped under. I tried to picture what it would look like, but no description could have prepared me for the actual pictures. What is especially sickening is that children were forced to endure this pain, and many died unecessarily from infection. I can’t believe it had continued for as long as it had.
38 soopledoople Jun 3rd, 2007 at 3:31 am

I agree with Cynthia on this one…. completely unnecessary and just for the sake of the esthetic bleugh… -a sickened manchild-
39 Ellie Jun 4th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

What many of you don’t realize is that this pervading custom became
so powerful that girls would be rejected as mates if their feet were
not bound. No lotus foot, no marriage. If a girl’s prospective mother-in-law lived at a distance, she would have to send a shoe as Exhibit A and her feet were checked first, upon arrival at her new home. VERY powerful motivation and it took the Communists threatening death to break the custom of a thousand years.

And, Louise M, please do try to get your facts straight lest you give all of us ardent feminists a bad name. Footbinding was never a
pervasive custom among the poor…only the middle-class and wealthy.
Poor families could not afford to have their women crippled so this
happened among the poor only with great rarity and then only in hopes of having a pretty daughter ‘marry up’ into the middle class. A long shot, indeed.

Also, female circumcision is a custom in a few 3rd-world countries and is a result of ignorance and superstition. Not something to be ignored, surely, but not something to be mentioned in the same breath as breast implants.

Unless you want to argue that breast implants are also a product of ignorance and superstition? I’m game.
40 Sammi Jun 8th, 2007 at 11:22 am

my great grandma has bound feet. when i go to taiwan, every night we would have to undbind her feet and soak it in hot tea. the smell is so horrid and it looks so distorted. im just glad i dont have to do that to my feet
41 D-Lin Jun 11th, 2007 at 10:37 am

My great-grandmother had bound feet, and she bound her two oldest daughters’ feet. My grandmother was daughter-number-three and a favorite. Her tears of pain caused my great-grandmother to free her feet of the strips of cloths. I can still see in my mind’s eye, her two older sisters hobbling on their feet as old women, and I can remember playing with their cast off shoes when I was a toddler. I am glad that my grandmother did NOT have to endure the hardship of walking her 92 years on with small feet. Praise GOD for deliverance.
42 HellKitty Jun 12th, 2007 at 7:50 am

i think that foot binding is not wrong because there are many things done in the US that are similar and have similar reason to be done. And they thinks this makes them a better woman so if i were there i wouldn’t say i wouldn’t do it cause i would want to fit in and be a so called ‘better’ woman.
43 Amalia Jun 20th, 2007 at 5:32 am

This practice only reflects the insecurity of males, and therefore, one of
many ways to oppress women. Women were not valued in chinese culture as man
were. Girls would die on the streets left there by their parents. Women have
been feared by man for thousands of years. Even now, in North America, where
the rights of women are defended, women make less money than man for the
same work performed. This is not an attack against males. This is a call
for reflexion.
44 cb Jun 23rd, 2007 at 5:12 am

It’s hard not to be so judgmental and ethnocentric when considering this custom but please consider that much of what has been written about chanzu (bound feet) is based on biased lenses of the last 150 years. Those points of view frequently denounce Han culture and customs as a means to justify cultural invasion from the West and often pathologize male desire. The plight of victimized Chinese women in need of rescue from sympathetic (’superior’) westerners is a constructed scenario often masking evangelical or political agendas. I mean how can you really base an informed decsion about a thousand year custom on only the record of the past 15 percent of that time?
As Dorothy Ko rightfully asserts you cannot let the Qing and Republic period (17th - 20th century) literature arrest your consideration of this custom as nothing more than broken bones and abused women. Was it painful? yes. Was it erotic? To some, but that is only one part of a very complex story. Understanding the cultural forces of The Song dynasty before the Mongol invasion in the late 13th century and the Ming dynasty before the Manchu seized power in 1644 are crucial to having an well-rounded understanding of why the Han practiced. Read Dorothy Ko’s Cinderella’s Sisters for the best non-fiction book ever written on the topic.
45 Robin Jun 27th, 2007 at 9:16 am

As deeply troubling as the actual foot binding, female genital mutilation and forced child-marriages , I am equally troubled that the means of social reinforcement of these practices are women themselves. Women bind their daughters feet to ensure their marriageability, the perform female circumcisions on kitchen tables, towards the same end, and participate in the forced marriages of their children. There seems to be some kind of tolerance for the pain of young girls, that borders on enjoyment. Granted, the institutionalization of these practices is a product of dominance as well, but I have to wonder about the seeming unquestioning acquience of the mothers, and apparent indifference of may governments and organizations.
46 Allen Jul 16th, 2007 at 1:14 pm

Footbind was an erotic custom that lasted for thousands of years. Painful and cruel as it might seem it was accepted much like breast implants and cosmetic dentistry. I find it fascinating.
47 BARBARA Jul 27th, 2007 at 10:35 am

In the tenth century in China, a prince began the practice of foot binding because he loved the small ‘lily feet’ of his concubine. Thus traditional Chinese values for over 1000 years dictated that the feet of young girls should be bound to keep them small. ‘Lily feet’, as they were called, were thought to be very dainty and beautiful and a symbol of gentility and high-class. Although the term sounded harmless, it was really very cruel. It began when a girl was between three and eleven years old. First her foot was washed in hot water and massaged. Then the child’s toes were turned under and pressed against the bottom of her foot. The arches were broken as the foot was pulled straight with the leg, and a long narrow cotton bandage would be tightly wound around the foot from the toes to the ankle to hold the toes in place.

After two or three years, a girl’s feet actually shrank — until they could fit into shoes just three inches long. This resulted in feet that were very deformed and unbearably painful to walk on. Sometimes the toes even fell off, because blood could no longer reach them. Besides identifying women of gentility or high-class, it prevented women from “wandering,” since the bound with bound feet was unable to walk unassisted, and even going a short distance was very painful. These women had to walk with very short mincing steps and could stand only with great difficulty.

Tiny 3-inch-long shoes, called ‘lotus shoes’, were made of silk and were beautifully embroidered. In the upper classes in China, a good marriage wound be impossible to arrange if the girl had “big ugly feet.” The practice of foot binding continued in China for over 1000 years until the Manchu Dynasty was toppled in 1911 and the new republic was formed. Foot binding was then outlawed.

Few Chinese women and girls who came to California had their feet bound as small children in China, but those who did had to spend their lives with the tiny useless feet. However, many of them did manage to walk and could do light household tasks and cook ing. Sometimes, the young girls would have the bindings removed and often their feet would grow enough to permit normal walking. Most of these people migrated to San Francisco and other cities where the upper class Chinese ran lucrative businesses.

Women from the peasant and working classes did not have their feet bound as children because if was necessary for them to be able to work in the home and fields. As these were more frequently the women who came to America, most of the immigrant women did not have bound feet.
48 kassie Aug 7th, 2007 at 8:05 am

I have no idea what to say,Ive read all your opinions with great interest,im just looking up footbinding because I have a essay to fo on it for modern history.Geez it is rather awful.Im just glad I didnt live in those times,and was footbound.Those poor,poor women!!!!!!
49 Deanna Aug 7th, 2007 at 6:34 pm

Robin: The simple answer to that question is — survival. For many, many hundreds upon hundreds of years, virtually all women everywhere arond the world had little to no opportunities anywhere. They literally could not leave the family home unless and until they got married, and the only hopes for them to advance in the world were to marry well. This is why women resorted unquestioningly to unbelievably inexplicable practices, all in the search of a “beauty” ideal — they were trying their very hardest to secure that all-too necessary marital matchup with someone who would, if they were fortunate, be able to provide for them what their own families could not. It wasn’t that these women “enjoyed” what they were doing — it was just that they had no other choice *but* to. Compared to those dark ages, women in the Western world around the turn of the 20th century were practically liberated, with the Industrial Revolution actually making it okay for women to work in factories, and the emergence of public education meaning more women working as teachers. But even then, women had limited opportunities for self-advancement, so the liberation didn’t truly begin until more women became evident in more work places in the 1960s. Not coincidentally, this is when women’s fashions became more about comfort and less about restriction for the visual benefit of the opposite sex. So while I don’t buy the argument that contemporary women are pressured to walk in crippling stilettoes (in this case, other women and their craven desire for such torturous footwear truly are the enemy), I also don’t buy that women have always had a choice in the matter re: the way they were able to present themselves. Up until the 1960s, women predominantly had to rely upon marriage as a way out/way up, and how else would a woman be able to secure the needed attentions of a man but to subject herself to whatever restrictive fashions/body dimensions/physical attributes the males of the era considered fanciable?
50 Claudia Aug 9th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

If you read the book “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See you can actually read how
the process of footbinding was accomplished. The first section of the book discusses the
painful process. And it is true, the foot is basically “folded” to make that space in
between, which was actually used to hide coins.
51 R. J. Aug 24th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

That is really scary i feel sorry for the women and the sader thing was that men dident have to d
do it. theres a really good book written on this topic of foot binding its about a girl who
rebells against this coustom and they show what happens to her its called Ties That Bind, Ties
That Break by Lensey Namioka. u guys shoud read it and those pics i cant bare to look at them
52 Corey s Aug 26th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

Hey that is realy sik asy yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk
53 Sakura Aug 30th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

Those pictures are just creeping me out man…
54 Alana Aug 31st, 2007 at 5:21 pm

i’m doing an assinment on foot binding an people please help me answer the following ?’s
1) why was foot binding tolerated?
2) wat pracices exist in our society that promotes beauty at the expence of pain?
3) WHAT PRACTISES EXIST IN OUR SOCIETY TODAY THAT PROMOTES BEAUTY AT THE EXPENCE OF PAIN?
4)WHAT OTHER PRACICES EXIST IN OTHER CULTURES WORLDWIDE THAT ARE IMPOSED ON WOMEN FOR THE SAKE OF BEAUTY OR SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE?
5) HOW DO THE MEDIA (TV, MOVIES, MAGAZINES) PERPETUATE THIS OPPRESSIOMN OF WOMEN BY CREATING FALSE AND UNREALISTIC IMAGES OF BEAUTY?
6) HOW CAN WOMEN DEFY THESE PRACTICES AND STILL BE ACCEPTED IN THEIR SOCIETY?
7) WHAT POSSIBLE ROLE CAN MEN PLAY IN STOPPING THESE HARMFUL PRACTICES?

thnx!
55 mamahorn Sep 1st, 2007 at 1:05 pm

Alana, Do your own homework please. And please use spell-check before you turn it in. I believe Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek were opposed to footbinding. Don’t give all the credit to the communists.
56 annabel Sep 3rd, 2007 at 7:09 pm

hii mamahom hru?? i hope ur gd! nywaii alot of ppl use these thngs 4 hw
so dnt take it out on alana. shee jst wnts help

bii oh and not everii 1 uesess spell chk
57 Diego Sep 12th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

Probably in 1000 years, someone will see a holographic image of a big percentage of humanity with pieces of metal in the skin, tongue, etc…and someone else will say “those people were crazy”…
58 barbara Sep 14th, 2007 at 5:12 am

I just finished ‘Snow Flower and the Secret Fan’ for my book club. I have to recommend it, a wonderful, touching and tough book. It gives us a look into a strange and troubling world that is in many ways not different than the one we live in today. the women in this book did what they had to do and had the same desires and fears we have today. Foot binding was a terrible practice but the people were not terrible people. and it was all about the oppression of women.

Women became more free in our world when we could control our reproductive lives. less restrictive clothing is wonderful but timing our pregnancies set us free.
59 Bookworm Sep 27th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

Nobody’s mentioned corsets, bras, and girdles. Corsets used to be so tight women couldn’t breathe and would faint. Their lower ribs would be pushed inward, restricting their airflow even when the corset was off. And let’s not forget circumcision. A religious tradition which is perpetuated from generation to generation still today, sometimes with no more reason than for the son to look like the father. All the same, I cannot even pretend to understand how women could do this to their children, despite the social expectations and acceptance. A circumcision is over with and done with, but to listen to their daughters’ cries, knowing the pain they were going through, not knowing how to avoid it without subjecting them to the life of a servant… I don’t know what I might have done.
60 MAR Sep 30th, 2007 at 5:13 am

I’ve not yet finished the book Snow Flower . . .and have read these posts with interest. As compelling as the topic of footbinding may be, I’m reading so much more in Lisa See’s book. Despite (and sometimes inspired by) phenomenal hardship, women use relationship (and I don’t mean relationships) to endure. It’s no accident that so much enforced isolation has been imposed on women across cultures. See’s female characters have much more than nu shu to connect them and prevailed in a subculture of strength. It didn’t seem to matter that nu shu was inferior to mainstream, male-dominated communication. The complexity and depth of women’s wisdom prevailed. Strength and power are not equivalent. Foot binding is a powerful symptom of an evolutionary struggle that can be found across the globe and humanity.
61 Lili Oct 1st, 2007 at 2:45 pm

Claudia and MAR both mention “Snowflower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See. It’s an amazing book, and goes into specific details of the foot binding process, though that’s not the subject of the novel. A later book (published just this past summer) by the same author is “Peony in Love.” It, too, goes into foot binding, and again has an entirely different story line. Just terrific.
62 I Oct 4th, 2007 at 9:04 am

Please read the book “Peony in Love” if you are interested in foot binding in China. It was
a social statement about the woman whose foot was bound and the bound foot was also used
sexually by the husband. The woman learned how to pleasyre her husband with her feet.
63 Lili Oct 5th, 2007 at 9:12 am

I read it and enjoyed it as much, if not more, than “Snowflower and the Secret Fan.” Foot binding, of course, was part of it, but the exploration of other facets of ancient Chinese beliefs and customs was incredible. This one takes place in China 400 years ago, and deals with, among other things, the effect (an actual) Chinese opera, “The Peony Pavillion” had on a young girl, who, because of an unattainable love, becomes a “lovesick maiden.” (They really did exist.) Women writers, death rituals and the afterlife are explored and really thought-provoking.
64 caroline Oct 11th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

I’ve recently become interested in the practice of foot binding.
I found a series of interviews where older Chinese women spoke of their experiences. Some said that they wanted to have their feet bound because otherwise, they would be common house servants. If they were poor, and had their feet bound, they had a greater chance of being a ladies servant. These types of servants apparently did not have to perform the heavy chores of the common house variety.
It was also mentioned that when the Communists ordered a stop to the tradition, the older women refused to unbind their feet. For the most part, it wasn’t because of style, but for pain. If they were to unbind their feet, the bones would separate and crate excruciating pain. They would also be unable to walk without their bindings.
I agree with the abolishment of the practice, but I don’t agree with the reversal of foot binding for the women who’ve already had it done.
65 lillibella Oct 12th, 2007 at 9:12 am

This is a rich part of Chinese/Japanese history. Although it is an unfortunate and sad part, having
so many young girls endure such torchure, it is still history. And you have to keep in mind as well that
many of these girl beleived in this, and did it willingly as another article on the same subject said.
It is not right for us to judge a population based on their past and what has been done. After all, even
today we being “civilized” do much worse things to ourselfs today, of which is not looked down upon.
Read, Learn, and marvel at other customs practiced threwout the world. Never judge. Read Snow Flower and
the Secret Fan….Very interesting insight on their life at that tome.
66 Lili Oct 15th, 2007 at 3:09 pm

Back to Peony in Love: This was the featured book in the Barnes and Noble Online Book Club in September. For great insight and links to lots of facets of Chinese culture (including foot-binding, of course) , all contributed by readers, you can just log on to
Barnes and Noble, Peony in Love and read to your heart’s content. No need to sign up, join, or sign on!
67 Aubfan81 Oct 18th, 2007 at 5:24 am

Don’t forget that this practice of the binding of the feet, also killed. I think it was like one in ten would die from it. As you can imagine, infection was rampant. It’s just another example of a women feeling led to do something to gain her place in life and society. It’s shameful that women were treated as less than the air they breathe. As if having a stick and berries makes a man special. How about being a human being? Women must remember that they ARE NOT their bodies. If they were, we wouldn’t leave them here when we die.
68 romana Oct 21st, 2007 at 6:35 am

this is taken by an article found on the internet, written by connie kay folleth:

“Footbinding began in the 10th century in China. Although historical records are sketchy, it is believed that the practice started during the Tâ€™ang Dynasty. Ruler Li Yu had a favourite concubine named Lovely Maiden who was a gifted dancer. Li Yu had a golden six-foot wide lotus blossom built for her to dance upon. â€œLi Yu had Lovely Maiden bind her feet in white silk cloth to make the tips of her feet look like the points of a moon sickle. Lovely Maiden then danced in the centre of the lotus, whirling like a rising cloud”.

In imitation of Lovely Maiden and her small Lotus feet, palace dancers and concubines became eager to gently bind their feet. By the twelfth century, the practice of binding a womanâ€™s feet to a smaller size had spread throughout the palaces and royal houses of China. It is unlikely that the practice had moved from the royal houses to the common home until the beginning of the 12th century. In the book The Description of the World, written by Marco Polo in 1299 chronicling his travels in China between 1275 and 1295, Polo never mentioned foot bound women. It seems unlikely that Polo would have left out such an unusual sight in his writings. But less than 25 years later Friar Odoric of Pordenone, travelling in northern China in 1324, remarked that the practice was common to all women he encountered. The practice had certainly spread throughout the country by then.”

…that is part of an 11 page article, and within the article it mentions other modern/practiced ways of the 20th and 21st century where women deform their body to please, predominantly, the male - such as: the neck rings of the Padaung, and more obviously, cosmetic surgery. There are others such as corsets (1600’s - 1920’s), and as many have already mentioned the less harmful high-heals.

- re-reading that last paragraph it sounds very feminist; men are not the only cause. Such garments as ‘the wasp’ took particular interest in males. It’s basically a corset that provided ‘the wasp waist’ (an extremely small waist).This completely rearranges your internal organs through an excruciating time period to which many black-outs and deaths have followed. - i mention this to express that it’s not only females that go to such extremities.
Personally, i believe that the cause of it all is the want to be accepted. Too many people believe that beauty is an outward, visible feature that one can create or form. i know that is not how it is, and for those that believe it is, only have themselves - at large - to blame. Such an eagerness to conform thrives in modern day society just as it did in history, only thanks to technical and medical advances the outcomes and consequences haven’t been as horrific though such cases as a burst breast implant and self mutilation have lead to tragic ends.

So, in conclusion i put forward the culprits to be ignorance, fear and self (image) consciousness.
69 dorothy. Oct 28th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

OMFG.
This is sick.
But seriously. The men had nothing to do with the female mothers binding their daughter’s feet. THE MOTHERS DID IT TO THEIR DAUGHTERS. For a MALE. But he had nothing to do with it. They chose to do it, [females]. They didn’t have to bind their daughters feet. Even if it was for wealth. If they had a heart, they wouldn’t do this sick and twisted thing TO THEIR OWN DAUGHTERS.
70 Lili Oct 29th, 2007 at 8:24 am

I don’t think “having a heart” had anything to do with it. We’re talking about something they believed in and didn’t question.
71 Augustus Oct 29th, 2007 at 9:40 am

I think that the pictures were a little disturbing, but they were a little
cool. Considering the fact that it showed how the foot looked like it was cut
and how the soul of the foot was really longer than a normal persons foot
soul was. But otherwise I think you should show different pictures, maybe
drawings of other footbinded people. Make sure that it stays outlawed for all
eternity.
72 hkdr Nov 1st, 2007 at 12:21 pm

dorothy,

If men didn’t refuse to marry women whose feet weren’t bound, the women wouldn’t have bound
their feet. It’s just another example of people getting tortured to make a living. Like the
children on the streets of 1920s Shanghai whose bones were broken by their parents so that
they would look more pitiable and earn more money.
73 HollyLS Nov 5th, 2007 at 8:46 am

These pics are highly disturbing. What’s even more bizarre and sick is the
reason men want this done - so their woman can make a hole with the crevices and they
and they can …….. What??
74 cntrywolf Nov 5th, 2007 at 3:07 pm

for those of you that are interested there is a book published called
“snow flower and the secret fan”
it goes into detail why they did binding to the foot and as well as what the women went through
during that era.
it is truly an eye opener
75 rachel Nov 20th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

I feel bad for people who had to get there feet binded.
would not have enough strength to sit
there while people tear my feet up like that.
I would hate to live in china at the time that foot binding was popular.
76 Worldlife Nov 21st, 2007 at 5:05 am

Reading Lisa See’s book “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” that really gives you a picture of life for young girls in the period when foot binding was more or less essential to ensure marriage prospects.

These pictures convey the horror of what is described in the book.

Read the book though to get a balanced picture of love and pain.
77 Worldlife Nov 23rd, 2007 at 12:05 am

From “Snow Flower” I was under the impression during the course of foot binding the toes would decay,

This view was correct by author of “White Swans” was on UK Radio recently (Desert Island Discs). She explained that the toe nails continue to grow and those who have foot binding need special nail kits throughout life to stop the nails penetrating skin.

Now have had time to read through other points here. Women, throughout history and across various cultures seem to be prepared to suffer various degrees of pain or body damage in the interest of fashion.

Footbinding is an extreme example but I have seen elderly women in the UK with deformed feet caused by wearing pointed high heels. (agree that the deformity was incidental to the main objective of high heels in terms of sex appeal) Ballet dancers suffer serious pain and crippling injuries because they love dancing and the accolades from an audience.
78 Rob Nov 26th, 2007 at 7:04 pm

It was the nationalist revolution that eventually led to the demise of foot binding… some liberal agendas lead to positive action…
79 Stephanie Nov 26th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

okay, all i’ve got to say, is that those look nothing like golden lotus’ to me.
80 student8 Nov 28th, 2007 at 11:47 am

actually sometimes the foot was cut to make it easyer for the foot to bend though more painful for the young girls. For all we know this foot could have been cut aswell.
81 Jimmy Dec 6th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

wow these pictures are so graphic, in school i am reading a book about this practice. i find this to be truly disturbing, there is no reaason to go through that kind of pain for so long.
82 Jacquie Dec 13th, 2007 at 8:41 am

Personally…this is not something I would ever do…the future complications must be horrible…and to be quite honest…they say its suppose to be a sign of beauty but when they do not have their shoes on…visually…it is far from beautiful. I knock no cultures and what they believe in I just feel that the fact that they do this to their children is unfair.
83 chrissy Dec 17th, 2007 at 7:34 pm

i think it is cool just think of it if you were there back then you would think it was the right thing to do so don’t try to say it is stupid when you arent them
84 ashley Dec 20th, 2007 at 7:55 pm

we learned about this in class and its actually really sad, painful, devistating, etc…
its basically the same definition as torture. foot binding=torture , and they hav not control
over it
85 Marzo Dec 23rd, 2007 at 9:02 pm

well. I think everyones response is right. Yes we do wear heals for fashion. Foot binding was a very attractive thing back then. I had just learned about china and stuff and it talked about it. Really we do some things right now that in 1000 years later people will probably think is stupid too. We really cant do anything about it. It no longer exists. I know we alll say that that is the most stupid thing but really it fasinates me. I think it is cool. Yes, the poor woman suffered in those times but it was just what they did.
86 Alfie Jan 2nd, 2008 at 8:23 am

Diego made an interesting comment about how each culture and its practices is viewed through the lens of history.

This 20th and 21st Century trend/custom will be an interesting one to monitor for future blog postings in 300 years time…..
87 Alfie Jan 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 am

This link or image should accompany the above posting….

http://www.gift4body.com/blog/wp-content/piercingimplants.jpg
88 jess and ariel Jan 4th, 2008 at 7:18 am

this is gross
89 nolan Jan 4th, 2008 at 9:54 pm

It is no different from the body modifications we cling to in our own society…lots of these comments are focused on women but look at the practice of routine male circumcision in the us..it is not endorsed by the american academy of pediatrics and isnt covered by many insurance companies but routinely many parents pay for their son’s genitals to be mutilated for no reason other than “beacuse you are supposed to” so that they can “look like everyone else”. It is the same mentality.
i did not have my son circumcised and the biggest opposition was his father who wanted him to look like himand was even going to pay the $500 since it was not coverd by insurance. Many men aggreed…why? same many of these women bound the feet of their daughters. because that is what was expected.
90 hmmmm Jan 7th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

I’m sure that male circumcision will be considered cruel and unusual in the future, along with breast implants, penis enlargement, face lifts and injecting poison into your forehead.
91 Kailee Jan 10th, 2008 at 8:52 am

This is a great article. I am in 7th grade and we are doing research projects on different aspects of Chinese culture. I was assigned footbinding (kind of obvious) At first I thought it was boring and I just felt neutral about the subject, but the more I read, the more it intrigued me. I find it absolutely barbaric that for 1000 years, people would subject their children to this, even in the face of lifelong crippling and even death. But then again, we aren’t any better, are we? Getting all sorts of plastic surgery, tattoos, and piercings just to fit in with society and to be considered attractive? I’m a very emotional and sentimental person, so naturally this article made me cry, but I’m so glad I was assigned this topic, and I thank God that no one has to experience the pain of footbinding anymore.
92 PF Jan 11th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

With feet that small the women can not run away from the men!!!
93 As-ever Jan 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

Women have been objectified for years…still are. It is not right. But we can fight back within a framework of the choices we have in this day, and age. If only we take the opportunity.
94 JessyLyn Feb 1st, 2008 at 6:20 pm

Isn’t it amazing how far women have come in as few as a hundred years. Hurray for progress! I agree that women in North America suffer similar disfigurements to feel accepted within our society. How is anorexia any different from distorting a limb?

I’m reading a book called “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See. Read it.
95 Kayleen Feb 5th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

this is horrible. just looking at this gives me the chills and makes my foot hurt. i understand it’s part of culture. but i still think that’s horrible.
96 Bella. Feb 5th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

“A mother or grandmother started to bind her daughter’s or granddaughter’s feet when the child was around 4-7 years old. The process was started before the arch of the foot had a chance to properly develop so that the feet were numb, meaning the pain would not be as extreme. Binding usually started during the winter months [3].
First, each foot would be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood. This concoction caused any necrotised flesh to fall off [4]. Then her toenails were cut back as far as possible to prevent ingrowth and subsequent infections. To prepare her for what was to come next the girl’s feet were delicately massaged. Silk or cotton bandages, ten feet long and two inches wide, were prepared by soaking them in the same blood and herb mix as before. Each of the toes were then broken and wrapped in the wet bandages, which would constrict when drying, and pulled tightly downwards toward the heel. There may have been deep cuts made in the sole to facilitate this [5].”

So yeah, all those arguing about it being bent not cut…

Also feminist IS a bad word. Haha. Eww.

Foot binding was cruel, and the results weren’t attractive, but I guess I don’t have the cultural conditioning to view it that way..
But it now way would I ever stop wearing heels! They look so good, make you look better, and most of them are more comfortable for me than flat shoes. You get more of a work-out too, and stand up straighter. So I’m kind of sick of feminists whinging about heels and how its a chauvinistic design. ‘Harmful to a lesser degree’ yeah sure.
97 sara Feb 10th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

Is it possible to repair the bound feet with surgery (and not only unbind them as the boens are broken completly)?
98 Kat Feb 12th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

As many have mentioned, there are numerous mutilating practices throughout the world. Foot binding in china, female genital mutilation in africa and middle east, and male circumcision here in the US. all are for the purpose of fitting into the current cultural communitiy. No mother willingly hurts her child, she always does what she thinks is best fo rthe child as a life long practice. I cried and cried when my first child had to have immunizations. It hurt him and he cried but I did it for his own good. Yes, tat is now recognized as a valed reason to hurt our child, but these mothers truly believed they were doing what was in the child’s best interest. “As a woman, ya gotta get married and have someone to take care you!” By Grace, we don’t have to marry to live a full life today, but how many girls/women do you know that can’t stand to be without a boyfriend or a man at any one time? I know lots. We sare still willing to do just about anything to patner with someone. High heels and all! I wear bikenstocks…. don’t look real great, but not harmful to me either…..
99 Deity Feb 20th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

@Hmmm:agree.

On another note: Who are we to criticize another culture? We know nothing about them, we did not grow up there - and, do keep in mind, USA has only existed for a couple hundred years. China is one of the oldest civilizations. It has its customs.

We have no right to say what is “right” and what is “wrong” - we are biased in our own so-called “Free and democratic culture”. America is now, what, 40% massively overweight? That’s pretty bad, too, and with FAR worse outcomes.

IMHO.
100 Tiny Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 am

Huh, who is America to say anything about anyone else they should look in their own back yard, until recently they would only consider people that were skin and bone (skinny) as fashion models which promoted anerxia and bulimia. Many many years ago it was the women who were large that were considered for the fashion queens for photos and art. which promoted obesity. so who is anyone to talk, and look at what they said and did with the first nations people of america. huh, just goes to show no one is better than their neighbor.
101 Kelly Mar 5th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

I recently read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and was curious what golden lillies actually looked like. These pictures are awesome. I’ve seen some other pictures of bound feet and they merely looked deformed. This ladies feet are more re-formed than de-formed. I am a 49-year old woman and, although I would not undergo body modification myself, I am fascinated by the phenomenom and the people that engage in the activity. Extreme tatoos, piercings, the insertion of objects subcutaneously to form patterns of bumps, tongue splitting. It is not for everyone but you have to admire people that have the confidence and fearlessness to set themselves so far apart from “norm” (whoever he is-nyuck, nyuck). Before anyone has a kitten, I do realize these are adults who freely choose body modification whereas footbinding was a procedure
that was forced on many young females but you can’t remove the practice from its cultural context and judge it. Daughters were simply not highly valued and their sole worth was based on whether they could be married into a family with a higher status, thus increasing the status of her natal family. For the information of those who think the glorious communists rescued girl children from this horrible practice, the one child rule they imposed to control the population resulted in true barbarism, the infanticide of thousands of female babies. Women aren’t valued any more highly now than before communism. Anyone ever heard of a westerner adopting a male baby from China? I think not.
102 anne Mar 7th, 2008 at 1:22 am

hi everyone! i guess it’s just their culture.. . . and their fashions too… well,, a long time ago. . .
103 Brad Mar 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm

Ok. First of all, how can binding your feet be considered beautiful if it makes your feet all bloody and nasty and everything? It looks like her foot is almost in half! I am a guy but to me, this is so disgusting!Â¡!

High heels I can see why they are part of feet binding but why people wear them, I have no idea! Beauty isn’t everything ladies! Once you wreck yourself anywhere, it is either impossible or extremely hard to get that back.
104 the kid Mar 11th, 2008 at 9:54 am

ahh this is so messed —-eeek.
105 emily Mar 11th, 2008 at 11:09 am

brad that is gross
106 pretty lady Mar 11th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

calm down every body that was back then, were here now. it looks painful but we cant go back and say “dont do it”
107 fashion historian Mar 13th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

Contemporary documents show that the practice of foot binding was considered absolutely crucial to a families status in society. Your rank meant everything and women were acutely aware of this. From the cut and colour of your clothes to the way you would wear your hair, would mark you out as belonging to a particular class or caste. To our modern sensibilities, the practice seems barbaric. To a woman of the age it would have been unthinkable and shocking NOT to bind.
Men had an equally unpleasant task to submit to if they wished to have a career in local /national /imperial government [mandarins], the military or civil service [pen -pusher]. At an early age [11-13yrs], they would be castrated. The testicles would then be dried out and worn around the neck in a little silver/metal pierced locket or pomander.
I expect this kept their mind on the job in hand as opposed to the feet of the ladies.
108 ksb Mar 18th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

both “peony in love” and “snowflower and the secret fan” were amazing books !! i was bawling my eyes out at the end of snowflower. chinese cinderella is another good book.. if chinese culture interests you. it does not have anything to do with foot binding.. but it shows you how lowly girls were thought to be even in the 20th century !!
someone had comented on how the woman in the picture looked happy with her feet.. and i’m sure as an old woman who has indured much in her life and lived past 40 to tell about it… but i promise you she was not happy when she was 4 years old and her mother spent the following 2 years breaking her feet so that her daughter could “marry well”.. if not.. she could be sold as a laborer, or as what they called a “little sister in law”.. which was worse than being a concubine.. she had only one man.. a little sister in law was used by any man in the house at any time…treated like trash.
her feet.. sad to say.. actually look better than some that i have read about. the women had to clean the dead skin from their feet nightly.. and file down the bones that protruded thru their skin.
i’m very thankful that i live in a time where if i choose to wear heals or flats.. have plastic surgery or not.. it is MY choice… with MY voice.
109 Home Mar 31st, 2008 at 5:50 am

I am surprised no one has mentioned steroids and anti-baldness medication
as examples of men’s willingness to put their bodies at risk.
110 yonus Apr 10th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

hey everybody shut up and think about if that was you in that kind of position people……..you guys just laughting and people been through struggle for there beauty and there life man……..imagaine that was you at the time. how would you feel about it…so dont say some stupid stuff and thank god that something wouldn’t happend to you…
111 /sighs Apr 15th, 2008 at 7:31 pm

just to clarify to all who keep saying stuff like teh feet were broken in half and folded, and on exactly when the process would start.
what they do is your mother (usually) would break all toes except the lareg ones (thumb toes >_> ehe) and tehn bind it with about 2 meters of binding fabric, it would be chanegd and you feet would be washed about every two days (cause of eth blood and pus) and then put back on even tighter… this all began between 3-4 years old, because teh arch needs some time to develop. and blah blah blah i could write a novel but i doubt many people will read this… point is, check you info with more than a couple sources … and about how women wear heels now, it’s completly different
and wow anne… just wow
it’s not ‘just’ culture and eth fashion ‘back then’
this symbolises so many different thigns, such as teh things women go through today to fit society’s view on beauty… and it’s teh same as corsets, dieting, plastic surgery, neck rings etc.
… it’s also a sign of male dominance, and if everyone just brushed it off as just culture, nothign would change and we’d still need fainting rooms because our corset’s are too tight, or we’d need canes to hepl us walk on our three inch feet and such
… prob. many typos T_T
112 gypsy Apr 18th, 2008 at 10:20 am

peoples judgemental statements just amaze me. cultural practices develop for all kinds of reasons. estimations of beauty change through time, and what it takes to acheive it, what the benefits of doing so change as well. it is very easy for western culture now to condemn the practice of footbinding, but without knowledge of the custom those words are worthless. many people on this chain have talked about how the process was done, when it was stared, etc. some have talked about the economic reality of china during that time. whoever made the comment that this practice was done in japan is just plain wrong. it never was.

when i was in my late 30’s, now 50, i had a chinese partner. his grandmother was still living and had bound feet. i had the opportunity to talk with her, though my partner had to interpret, as she spoke no english, but she was more than willing to talk with me about why she bound her feet, why she continued to, and to show me her feet. they looked very similar to this womans. it was very important to her to clean and rebind her feet every evening. she had beautiful sleeping slippers which were embroidered over nearly every inch. she talked about the sexual use of the crevass between the toes and the heel. she showed me a coin that was used when she was in the initial state of binding that was used to measure if the crevass was deep enough. she was not bitter about the practice. as an old woman, she was clear that it was the practice, and most women did it. those who didn’t worked the fields or were servants.

and she could walk easily, and still had the swaying, mincing gait that was so attractive to the chinese men of that time. still, i know that for all kinds of reasons, some other women were never able to walk well, or not at all as they got older. difference in the binding process, and each woman.

mandarins were not all castrated. only those who lived in the forbidden city. the emperor of china wanted to make sure his blood assended the throne. mandarins that were local judges, or even imperial scholars where not castrated-

and while people are all on their high horses about cultural practices of other nations, maybe they should reconsider the practice of europe to castrate young men by the thousands to make castrati singers for opera and the great choirs of europe. for those of you who liked the historical novel of snow flower and the secret fan, you might like “cry to heaven” by anne rice (yes she of the vampire fame) about the castrati of europe.

many people in ignorance think that the castrati were not capable of having sex, which is completely wrong. they were, and there are plenty of historical references to the fact that they were most very popular as lovers during their time, both because they were famous singers, stage performers (think of modern day groupies after rock bands) but because they could not impregnate their lovers.

please, especially you young ones out there, try to remember that the world was not always as you know it, and for many of the people in it today, it does not resemble your world even now. and that doesn’t make it wrong. it is what it is.
113 eht7ahwegv Apr 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm

good thing it stoped 100 years ago
114 Belle Apr 28th, 2008 at 8:48 am

Gypsy

OK so is anything wrong with you. If you can’t say this is and was wrong then I don’t think you would say much of anything is wrong. So what if people castrated males so they could sing higher. That was and is wrong also. How exactly do you form your ethics or morals. If some is then it is right? So we can now consider murder, rape, horrific child abuse as good and moral Or in your ethical system do you have any good and bad. As I said I think you have no morals. You are amoral. Don’t get me wrong I am not religious but I still do have ethics or morals.
115 Mariey Andrade Apr 28th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

omg thats so gross i cant believe they used to do that in da past i now feel bad for them ill. i feel like crying.
116 megzie Apr 28th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

*doing hw on this
i think that even though women want to look beautiful and follow the legend because
they want to look as pretty and elegent as other women.
and why in the wolrd do the chinese men like little
feet
when in the story the guy or prince liked how the lady danced
when in real life the women cant even walk far half~hearted dance!
and they know that they are hurting themselves.[NOt gOoD]
and im in 7th grade
and i could hardly imagine
what it would me like
to have my mom do such a thing as break my 4 toes
ugh yukky its just not right
*well thats my opinion please dont say anything mean**
im laotian and they dont care about they’re feet because the’yd rather be able to run or walk rather then sitt around
117 j Apr 29th, 2008 at 6:30 am

i think foot binding is gross
118 j Apr 30th, 2008 at 6:31 am

i think foot binding is gross and i feel bad for these people who have to live with this
119 bob Apr 30th, 2008 at 6:34 am

good point j
120 gypsy Apr 30th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

belle,

you are way out in some field to say i have no morals. you haven’t a clue.

what i said is that you can’t judge the practices of the past through the len of today. there are many, many old cultural practices that translate in modern society as barbaric or abusive. in their time, they were not considered so. i encourage people to look at everything in the context of the time it occured, what were the practices, etc. i do not say that foot binding was right, but i also do not say it was immoral. the chinese of that time were very concerned with morals, as laid out by confucius, and with societal rank, which had much to do with foot binding. all i am saying is that before one gets all high and mighty about how horrible something is, they need to look at context, and consider that things are not only how they know them to be. many others follow a different path.

i don’t follow your illogic that states “if some is then it is right” say what?

no where do i advocate murder, rape or child abuse as being a cultural practice that i defend. those words belong to you. having been raised in horrific abuse, i am familiar with it. and i don’t condone it. however, if i could go back in time and change it, i wouldn’t, because just like everyone, i am made of my experiences, and i learned some things there about human behavior, at great cost… and they have served me well to know in many other cases.

is that moral enough for you? or not? shall we discuss the propensity of the american culture in its past belief that “sparing the rod spoils the child”? or child labor, on the farms and in the factories of the past. or the modern day practice of failure to instil a value of anything much other than “me first, buy buy buy, consume and die” in our youth?

you want to know what i think is immoral? holding the highest office in american politics, and using it to feather your pockets, and those of your friends while causing the death of 4059 american troops, the wounding and maiming of 29829 more, cutting the VA budget while making more damaged and disabled veterans, the death of 1 million iraqi people, the poisoning of the country of iraq with depleted uranium waste that has a half life of 4.5 billion years, condoning torture, encouraging criminal behavior in the supreme court and the justice department, awarding of no bid contracts to halliburton, kellog brown and root, and other close associates to do projects in iraq that are never finished, retiring every general or admiral who disagrees militarily with the strategy of just pouring more blood and money into the sand while promoting a yes man Petraeus who does not even write his own reports….. all that is immoral…. and most of it illegal as well.

further, it is immoral of the pansy asses in congress not to do anything about it. also illegal.

and while i think about it, it is immoral for folks to drive around in an suv with a yellow ribbon made in china proclaiming their support for the troops and not actually doing anything to support them… like helping out the families here at home while they struggle without one of the principal members to do all the things that need to get done to get by. and it is immoral not to demand the truth of our elected leaders, and to insist that our troops be used only when it can be conclusively proved that it is necessary…. anything else is abbrogating the duties of citizenship.

but we were talking about foot binding… and i will say that it was not a healthy practice, it was damaging to women, it was painful, and i acknowledge that many of them died in the process. but i refuse to condemn the practice from my vantage point now… just as i do not condemn the europeans for the corset, or the castration of males for the great choirs and operas. or anyone for high heels. this is history. i save my condemnation for the practices that exist now, and always remember that my way of life is not “the way of life”.

all roads lead to god… it is what happens after that that is different. humans are puny in their ability to describe or interpret either god/goddess or “the word”. but that is another discussion entirely… and i have a lecture to prepare… in anthropology….
121 Delilah May 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

American women bound their waists with corsette in which some even broke their ribs. No one has the right to criticize another’s culture thinking they are of superior mind. The world is still full of culture and traditions….get used it.
122 Anise May 20th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

Anyone who thinks we should practice some kind of “cultural relativism” about the insane torture of foot-binding should… well, they should be forced to bind their feet for ONE DAY, and they would instantly shut up. Like genital mutilation, I don’t care how “traditional” or “cultural” these things supposedly are. Anyone who defends them is inhuman. If they think that breast implants or wearing high heels are the same thing, well, see the comment above about their being subjected to one single day of foot-binding… all of the nonsense b.s. justifications would stop immediately. I’m ashamed that anyone would have this attitude and call themselves a feminist.
123 jr May 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 am

this is horrible the way they were froced to bind their feet its sad. and the things that happened during the footbinding was crazy. stuff like this ******* me off. wat kind of custom is this to cripple the women. : (
124 Chloe May 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Omg wat r u talking bout. World peace people world peace. Foot binding is just so yack.
125 supa star May 25th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

man that is so sad they did this for fashion! Fashion is stupid when you start hurting urself
Stop FIGHTING GOD!!
126 smiley May 25th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

that is disagusting why would you put yourself through all that pain
127 Koolgrl May 25th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

I am so into this foot binding. Girls if u dont love it ur really weird. I mean i would do anything 4 fashion.
128 lynn Jun 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 am

There is an interesting web page with actual interviews with old women
who have had their feet bound. Very interesting to hear their stories!
check it out at: http://www.josephrupp.com/bfindex2.html
129 Jodey Jun 17th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

Oh my God! My sister showed this to me and now here I am! lokking at there gross but interesting pictures agian. why do ther think small feet are sexy? To me it’s just weird!
130 Tennisie Jun 20th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

A cursory examination of this blog tells me that no one seems to understand the true purpose of foot binding. Comparisons to western foot fashions are insulting to womanâ€™s rights movements everywhere. The practice of binding a femaleâ€™s foot was started for the sole purpose of hobbling. It was to insure that a woman would not be able to run or escape from her husband or “provider”. She was therefore deemed suitable for a higher status marriage. Foot binding is a practice that is comparable to the hobbling practices of diamond workers in Africa and the mutation of female genitalia in Africa (so that females will be incapable of sexual pleasure and thereby be unlikely to cheat on their spouses). So, to make comparisons to high heels is a like comparing a bad beehive hairdo to a lobotomy.
131 SinKitten Jun 21st, 2008 at 3:42 pm

i think that the small feet and tin feet are beautiful. well, not the feet themselves. but i love small feet. i myself have very small feet. im 18, and only 4′11 and i take a size 2.5 in kids. im also goth/punk/whatever the fuck you wanna call it, so finding shoes is tough. but i think that those tiny little shoes are really pretty, and that the bound feet take on an interesting shape. i find this no different than the corsets of the victorian/edwardian age. the edwardian (straightfront) corsets would actually make the women horribly swaybacked, and often times would horribly disfigure them, and also could sever the liver in two. but they were normal back then.
132 Juli Jul 8th, 2008 at 8:48 am

Dear Zhou Guizhen,
Thank you for sharing your pictures with those who have never seen an example of the cruel tradition of foot-binding from the past. I feel sad that you were in tremendous pain for most of your life & could not play, run & walked in pain. God bless you Zhou Guizhen!
Sincerely yours,
Juli brown
133 Kelsey Jul 14th, 2008 at 8:16 pm

Thousand of years ago, foot binding was considered to be beautiful. Now that we look at it, it is a tradgedy. What will our future generations think when they hear we starved ourselves?
134 flo Jul 16th, 2008 at 10:42 am

Gypsy,

If you don’t mind, could you share in detail the first hand knowledge you learned from the grandmother you spoke to?
135 Rosaria Jul 28th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

Its a bit scary to be honst i
would not like to be her
whys her foot like cut in half?
136 blahblah Jul 29th, 2008 at 8:17 pm

its really gross!!! It just makes me feel sick
137 DrSharon Aug 4th, 2008 at 8:42 pm

I also just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It is an amazing look into a totally different culture. it made me very appreciative of my freedom as an American woman living at this time in history. I went online to see what a bound foot looked like. I agree that we cannot judge mothers at that time for binding their daughter’s feet. What a horrible thing for a mother to have to do. To cause years of pain to your daughter because it was the only way for a girl to marry, and without marriage, a girl could not survive.
Even worse than the actual footbinding was the pervasive degredation and low cultural position of girls and women. A woman’s only value was in bearing sons. She was punished or chastised for having a daughter as if she had any control over it. A girl child was seen as a burden. If a girl was lucky, the boy she was shipped off to marry, sight unseen, would not beat her too badly, and her mother-in-law would not abuse her too much. The only time it seems as if life was OK for a Chinese woman of that period was if she had sons and survived until she became the lady of the house.
I would definately equate this practice with the female genital mutilation practiced today. FGM is also dangerous and painful, and mothers allow the mutilation of their daughters, because society demands it if these girls are to marry. FGM can also be deadly to girls who are mutilated, and it has lifelong implications. I would absolutely not equate it to male circumcision. That is just dumb. Circumcising a male infant, in a sterile environment, carries little risk to the boy if done right. It takes 30 seconds, is usually done with a topical anesthetic (my son was), and has no effect on a boy’s later sexual function. A circumcised penis is cleaner and reduces disease transmission. Yes, it is a cultural or aesthetic choice that parents make for their sons, but it does no lasting harm (A lack of foreskins has not prevented the Jews from excelling in every field of human endeaver.).
Back to cultural issues. I suspect that an alien or a person from the future looking at our culture, would view cosmetic surgery much the same way that we view footbinding. Think about it. Women undergo the risk of general anesthesia and risk infection and pain to have foreign material sewn into their bodies because our society prizes women with large breasts. Not so different really. And countless other women starve themselves, and spend thousands on hair color, hair removal, makeup, high heels, etc. in an effort to achieve what we consider female perfection. The only difference would be that women who do this make a conscious choice as adults to do this to themselves, as apposed to the little Chinese girls of the past who had no say in the matter.
Just the two cents of a happy, large-footed professional woman with a modest bust, a J-lo butt (not fat; I would have been considered sexy in Brazil), and a husband who loves me the way I am, who really appreciates all of the freedoms that we have as modern American women.
138 DrSharon Aug 5th, 2008 at 6:33 am

I stumbled onto this discussion rather late at night, and by the time I was finished reading all of the posts, and writing my own, it was close to 1 am. So I didn’t end my post very well. Rather, I would end it like this: Reading books like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and A Thousand Splendid Suns (An amazing fictionalized account of life for women under Taliban rule), make me appreciate my life here in the United States even more. Likewise, knowing that many women in Arab countries and in countries where a strict interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law) is practiced are treated little better than slaves and cattle disturbs me greatly. I saw a newspaper article not too long ago about a Palestinian girl who was raped and impregnated by her brothers. Her mother killed her for shaming the family. Throughout the Arab and Muslim world, “honor killings”, where women are killed by family members for inappropriate behavior, are rampant and usually go unreported. And millions of other women in these countries are denied education, freedom of movement, and are beaten by their husbands.
In India and China today, girl babies are routinely aborted or abandoned after birth. In Darfur, Arab janjaweed marauders deliberately rape black African women knowing that it will destroy these women’s lives if they are regarded as unmarriageable and are rejected by their families. And much has already been said about female genital mutilation in Africa.
I am trying to teach my daughters how fortunate they are to be living in the Unites States at this point in history. And I try to choose books that show them life at other times, in other places (they are not yet old enough at 11 and 13 for the above mentioned books, but there are others out there for young adults like Shabanu and Haveli (set in Pakistan) that get the point across.) All of us, men and women alike, should work towards equal rights and dignity for all people, and appreciate just how well we have it here.
139 ALEX Aug 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 am

I’m Chinese and i have to say this was a dumb practice. They could of just wore high heels.
140 Monkey Aug 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

I looked at this website and at the pictures a couple of days ago… And I totally forgot about it. Then I got home, and now I just had to look at it again, ( to make sure that it is real )!

P.S. I am soooo glad that my cousin would not have to get that, she would not be a happy kid!!!!
141 Nuetral Sep 2nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Foot binding was practiced for many reasons. By a woman completing her foot binding she proves that she is strong and able to endure pain while still being graceful.
Not all women in China were allowed the to have their feet bound. Some were to poor or came from low ranking families on the social ladder that they were sold as servants by their families. As a servant you could never marry. You were tied to the family that bought you for the rest of your life, unless they sold you to another family.
So, as you might be able to imagine, foot binding was also a necessity. If they lived through the foot binding and their feet looked nice they were marriageable.
142 laura Sep 7th, 2008 at 9:55 am

I was researching chinese foot binding in preparation for a Sociology lesson on culture. In my search I discovered the above pictures.
They are beyond shocking! I did not expect to see anything as brutal. Surely it leads us to question ‘man’s’ decisions about
what is beautiful? Striving for beauty surely leads to female enslavement?
143 Novel Sep 7th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

All I can say is WOW @ the pictures. Like many others here I have read “Snow Flower & The Secret Fan, Peony In Love, & Memoirs Of A Geisha. All GREAT reads that I highly recommend. The vivid descriptions given in all three of these books made me curious to see first hand what exactly a bound foot looked like. These are some of the most detailed pictures I’ve come across. Thank you for sharing.
144 Renee Sep 24th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

wearing high heels has nothing at all to do with foot binding. foot binding you would be crippled for life but wearing heels was only for minutes at a time. they do not deform our feet in any kind of way! also it is our choice if we want to wear them are not
145 marlen Sep 26th, 2008 at 9:45 am

Marlen

I dont know about you but i would rather stay single than get my feet bound. I still cant see how that was attractive to a guy, i mean did he see how her feet were shaped !!!!!! It looks disgusting!!!!!!
146 Ella Sep 29th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

This isn’t something to fight about - Any of this discussion - I am replying to this article in a manner of respect and appreciation for the documentation of this individual’s foot binding.

The photographs are very clear, and helpful. Thank you for posting this fantastic article.

I read no information in the post asking one to argue or attack individual’s on their opinions in the comment portion.

You’re all quite immature, and I’m probably younger then all of you.
147 stephany miller Oct 6th, 2008 at 6:15 am

i found this highly grose. usually im all for the gorey stuff but this put it to the limit. eating sunchips during my study hall then reading about this stuff and seeing pictures was a sure way of loosing my apetite. foot bindings happens to be my world cultures project……yum.
148 alyssa Oct 10th, 2008 at 4:10 am

They break your toes to enable you to wear the fashion of their time.
It stopped after the Revolution began, so people could run faster.
It was suppose to be a part of becoming a woman; they would break your toes (fold them downwards) and wrap cloth around them. They would hurt for about a year or so. Girls were taught that this was a proper ordeal to be done.
But, it’s mainly older Chinese women IN China that have this done, but no one nowadays. It stopped immediently after people began to fleed from China.
Poor judgement on the fashion, I knowwww.
It was a sense of fashion to them, it was provided because they were taught that in order to get married, or engaged, you had to follow the rules of the older ways of life.
Mainly, it’s a stupidity of their choice. Just as America has it’s stupidities.

You can’t blame anyone for having a different opinion, that’s what the world’s for.

I read a book on it, and decided to see what people thought of it.

No one’s wrong about their opinions.
it’s just a matter of perception.
149 Cool Kid Oct 12th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

WOW, I am so amazed at how many people argue on this site over foot binding. i think you guys should grow up. if you cant say it to the person face to face dont say anything at all its pathetic.

i feel sorry for that old lady.
xxxxxxxxxx
150 Elaine Oct 13th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

The very first concept that people have to understand is that this is an ancient “culture” that began more than a thousand years back, way before fem-rights, way before the enlightening, way before “science”…so why are you judging things based on what we know in the year 2008? If the Chinese people who lived more than a thousand years ago know what we are discussing right now - a thousand years later - in 2008, they probably would have changed their mind.

I liken this to cigarette smoking. We have scores and scores of scientific evidences that demonstrate smoking is bad for health, pollutes the environment, puts a burden on national health-care, harms the health of innocent people who are forced to breathe in second-hand smoke and so why are these stupid smoker still happily puffing away? How come no government in the world ban tobacco outright despite knowing the risk? Anyone mentioned ignorance? We are not ignorant - we know what kind of damages it cause so why are we still allowing this bullshit to happen?

There are certain things in life that cannot be changed easily or simply coz the very bunch people doing them are not willing to changed
151 Bibi Oct 17th, 2008 at 3:52 am

I found this article after reading Lisa See’s novel “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”…if you want to know more about the foot binding process, the novel describes foods eaten before, the rag bandages soaked in water mid-winter in hopes that the cold weather would numb the feet, the excrutiating pain that followed, the fact that one in ten girls died from resulting gangrene…Alyssa, these forms of subjugation of women are not really a matter of opinion..they are fact..they hurt… little 7 - 8 yr old girls died …to make women conform to incredible selfishly(male sexually) motivated standards of beauty…this is connected to genital mutilation, which is also a form of female subjugation…if women do not feel sexual pleasure they will not run from impotent husbands..will not seek their own gratification…and Renee women do not wear heels for minutes at a time…they wear them day in and day out over a lifetime…ask your grandma to show you her bunions…heels have been empirically shown to in fact damage feet…and yes while we are at it breast implants are just another conformity to an unreal standard..
we do not ‘choose’ we are bombarded with computer-altered images in ads and ever so subtly brainwashed..
though not nearly as much, men too…why must a balding man wear fake hair?…how would a man feel if his wife told him that his penis was too small…she would love him better if it were fatter and longer?…to disform it so she could have stronger orgasms?…tell me, does silicone inside a plastic bag really feel incredible?
is there really anything sexier than a man or woman who knows their worth, carries themselves with joy and confidence, cares for their body thru exercise, healthy diet, some kind of spiritual practice?
152 Kelly Oct 19th, 2008 at 7:52 pm

If you think about it things we use today like tattoo’s and lipo-suction are like the same thing they did 1000 years ago so really it’s no different but i would never bind my feet no matter what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
153 stephanie miller Oct 20th, 2008 at 6:55 am

yes im back. the subject of foot bindings keeps brining me back here, i have learned a lot over the past weeks about foot bindings and what had happened back then to the Chines women becuase men though that it was the way of beauty. it makes me wonder if there was things that the men had to do in order to be superior but so far i haven’t found anything. if any of you guys find anything that would help me with my power point [[20-30 slides]] i would very much appreciate it considering i need a good grade on this and can only find very limited information. thanks to all

-stef
154 Esther Oct 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm

Oh my gosh this is so sick -.- I cant understand what beauty standards are there in the past. Like, why they have to bind their feet to meet the past “beauty standards”. It’s so
155 Person Oct 24th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

I learned about this in history class today, as soon as I got out I wasn’t hungry for lunch anymore! That is disgusting though. Some women are still doing this today! If that ment beauty then i’d rather have what they call “big, ugly feet!” My history teacher said that it is torture to the women that can’t walk without someone helping them! They have to take mincing steps! back in old age China this would take place when a girl was 3-11 years old! I’ll pass for binding my foot.
156 Simply Horrified Oct 27th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

What can I say? I am completely horrified at this self mutilating action, even if it was a cultural phenomenon. My heart was already saddened by previous literature online, as I sought to understand the reasoning behind such torture when I came upon this site. I realized that the damage was irreversible, ugly, no matter how hard one may attempt to convince us otherwise. I came to this site, because I was looking to see if anyone online viewed today’s “binding’s” as being any different, e.g. high heel shoes, bras, corsets, pantyhose, and what I found online surprised me. The various viewpoints do seem quite personal in nature, and yet there seems to be the undeniable aspect that no matter when, or whom, we as humans have done some very strange things to ourselves for vastly different reasons. Why do we do this? Some say it is because we want to be accepted by society as a whole, or perhaps we intend to distinquish ourselves from one another. There is a glaring indifference to the well being of the soul and mind by such actions-even if one believes that this indifference can be taken care of by outer adornment, self-disfigurement, etc. This seems to be the ongoing problem of the human race since who knows when, but it’s there; we are unhappy people as a whole, who try to be different and end up being the same after all, not satisfied with the most basic part of our humanity which is our appearance. I am not seeking to offend any, it’s just obvious that all of us suffer from this in one form or another to varying degrees. This should be a lesson for all of us.
157 erin Oct 28th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

i agree with hp. it was 1000 years of stupidity. their feet aren’t even close to pretty.
158 DW Nov 11th, 2008 at 9:36 pm

I’m in seventh grade, too. My teacher assigned my friend and I foot binding. It’s simply horrific! It scares me that it was still legal and widely used so recently. I guess that’s just pressure to do what is socially correct. No matter how awful it may be.
159 lemonz Nov 14th, 2008 at 10:08 am

the women had no choice, they were forced to have their feet bound…if you didnt you wouldnt get maried…MALE DOMINANCE…the women couldnt walk and had to rely completely on their husbands to even walk for some of them…it became a status symbol because the slaves did not have their feet bound…they were already below men…if you didnt have your feet bound, you were as low as a slave…sad…
160 SpArKy Dec 2nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm

high heels were created to make woman’s butts look bigger and to make it harder for them to run fast, because if youve ever tried to walk in heels, especially those skinny 5 inch heels, its hard, but obviously not as hard as with bound feet. its the same thing with plastic surgery, women changing themselves to feel more secure because they think theyre not beautiful or good enough. You dont see men getting plastic surgery do you? or wearing thongs? or shaving their legs? which is actually annoying because you get lazy and dont feel like shaving, and one time this guy actually commented on my stubbly legs (i hadnt shaved for like 2 days…). and guys can just throw on whatever they want and not brush their hair or wear makeup
161 Hard Mike Dec 4th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

Sparky, stop whining. You don’t have to shave, or have plastic surgery or wear those heels. You do it because you want to attract men. Guys like it so you do it. If you can’t run with heels, take them off. It is not the same thing as chinese foot binding which was done to little girls who had no choice in the matter. However, you do have a choice.
162 Intuvai Dec 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

I would like to respond to those who have posted that foot binding was practiced only by the wealthy. Although the practice began with the nobility and wealthy, foot binding was eventually practiced by virtually all classes in China. Only the poorest families would not bind the feet of their daughters because without tiny feet the daughters could not hope to make an advantageous marriage. While wealthy ladies with bound feet had maids to take care of them, the maids taking care of those wealthy ladies also had bound feet. And women in tiny villages would be working in rice fields, tending animals, walking to the market, and “running” after children with deformed and painful feet.
163 LALA [: Dec 11th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

Hey well i think that even though that these people do a certain thing to look pretty, who are we to tell them what they can and cannot do. Each culture all around the world has a different way of expressing beauty, and even if it is really gross, they might think it is a beauty. We have to understand that women in some countries have no rights, and that is just is how it is. We cannot judge what we see, just because it is different, it is just not fair. Each of us are unique and different, and how else are we going to express our beauty. expressing beauty is a part of a human longing, we all want to be accepted, and we all want to earn resect, and do what is best, so foot binding, even thought it is really disgusting, i cannot judge or say if it is wrong or not, because it is just not my place personally to judge other countries ideas of beauty.
164 ima_dreamer2 Dec 12th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

I just finished reading a book from the perspective of a woman who had this done when she was seven. She explained that the finished size of her bound feet would impress her future in-laws in many ways including her ability to comply and deal with labor pains. High heels don’t even live in my house, I can’t imagine how painful this must have been.
165 Arissa Jan 8th, 2009 at 3:31 pm

How Sad!!
166 anonomous Jan 13th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

I think that everyone is encoutered to there opionion and mike’s opionion makes perfect since if he thinks that what cynthia said was out of line he has the right to speak…….I think that the pictures are cruel and very much painful,but if that was what beauty was back then….then what can we do about it…the past is the past.
167 KathrynQ Jan 19th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

Wow, isn’t this amazing? I love this woman’s feet–they seem completely perfect! Certainly they are perfect examples of bound feet, which is probably why she overcame her shyness and showed them. They don’t even have any toes missing, they seem completely clean and perfectly rolled under–and what a nice cleft. So sexy! I wish I had feet like that–I keep tucking my toes under to imagine it, but for some reason I don’t think I’m going to break them–it might be a bit late for that, being 43–and would my friends understand why I broke my own feet, and now I can’t walk? ha ha
I was fascinated and amazed and horrified when I saw these pics a couple of months ago, after reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. But you gotta admit, they’re so . . . cute! Well, I must be slowly recalling my Chinese lives when I had such gorgeous, sought-after, perfect dainty little feet myself, and other lives when my wives did. The other day I had my boyfriend walk on his heels, to see what the “sway” looked like. Ah! So dainty and feminine–I thought for a second he was a lovely Chinese woman from somewhere! LOL
You’re all completely correct about how horrible this practice was. It was absolutely for the purpose of dominating women, and using them as possessions, and if they hurt, well, that was their problem. And you’re completely right about us doing it still today in various ways–the stupidity is not just for women (we do have it worlds better! Though what is this trend of calling grown women “Miss”? Why is looking younger better than being empowered? I wouldn’t mind *looking* younger, and being young in spirit. But grown black men in the US used to be called “boy.” It wasn’t to make them feel youthful, it was to remind them of their place, and that’s how being called “Miss” makes me feel–it jars me every time I hear it), but even other things you never think of are aberrations too–cooking our food, for example–all other species on earth think we’re crazy for that. And recycling toilet water and then adding toxic Fluoride and other stuff to keep us numbed and dumbed–ha ha, joke’s on us. Paying taxes? Not even legal in the US! Call it an enforced tradition, then. What else have we corrupted so far from the Living Waters that we don’t even remember what a normal foot looks like anymore, so to speak?
Let’s maybe think on this, maybe talk to the trees about it. If you can find a tree that remembers.
Well, blessings on every bound foot, every lung clogged with hairspray, every cell-phone-carrying teenager, everyone who’s forgotten that Mother Earth is a living, breathing entity. Let us meditate on that, whatever shape our feet are in–unless they hurt too much to sit still, and then . . . well, God bless us all.
168 anonomous Jan 23rd, 2009 at 7:18 pm

wow!that was a sweet comment….kathrynq…..anyways i totally agree who cares about how it looks that was a turn-on THEN!a lil off track but i think its so childish to insult someone over a computer…thats ridiculous…but her feet are beautiful in soo many ways espically to people back then.
169 alexia Jan 25th, 2009 at 6:21 pm

that is so sad i read a story on this and i wanted to research and now i just want to cry
170 They call me, tater salad Feb 4th, 2009 at 3:44 am

Whoa that is freaky, she looks like a mutant footed woman. (No offense is meant by what I said, but I mean come on…)
171 Girl of the Southeast. Feb 5th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

It’s shocking to me, how long people can sit here and ramble about this. It happened a long time ago. It’s not still practiced today, so no, they had no free will. It was done for fashion purposes.
I don’t see how heels are nearly the same. If you don’t wear them too often, they don’t do any major harm to your feet. And, you are not forced to wear heels. And, in our society, you are not thought to be “better” for wearing heels. Its a form of fashion, like everything else that we do.
172 chicha210 Feb 11th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

This was a cruel subordination of women…looking back on it. The reason they did it was essentially peer pressure…everybody was doing it and they needed to to be married to a wealthy family.

High heels ARE a less painful version of this. Women wear them to make themselves pretty and be noticed by men. Also someone may not be considered ‘cool’ if they did not wear them. This is just an example of the peer pressure.

I’m sure that long in the future, there will be an article much like this one with a headline relating to one of our harmful fashion practices today.

NOBODY LITERALLY FORCED THEM INTO BINDING…THEY WERE CONVINCED TO DO IT BY EVERYONE AROUND THEM. THE SAME OCCURS IN THE PRESENT.
173 ashleigh Feb 18th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

this is not peer preasure at all lol
its what chinese people called beauty and everyone wanted it if you had big feet you where ugly and no guy would go for you,but if you had small feet you where known as beatiful doesnt matter what you looked liked as long as you had small feet
174 moreen Feb 19th, 2009 at 4:25 pm

All of these comments bring to mind the fact that no one has mentioned male circumcision in our “civilized” western countries. Culture, the “norm,” peer pressure–this is an “acceptable” mutation of a male. Why is no one horrified by this practice?
175 Dasha Feb 20th, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Hey, has anyone read SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN? Well, I’m almost done with it and basically what they do is fold the foot in half and wrap it in bandages that have been soaked in some special mixture, so whan they dry they become even tighter, and all ten toes are broken as well as the arch. The women were also forced to walk on their feet, to break the bones faster. After about 2 yrs of foot breaking, the foot would be healed, at which the girl would be eligible to marry. The feet would then be called “Golden Lilies”. If you didn’t have Golden Lilies, you were worthless, and you would become a servant, and would not marry, because of course what kind of sane man would marry you.(I didn’t really mean that.) In that culture it didn’t matter if you were pretty(although that certainly helped); your whole worth was in your Golden Lilies and how many sons you gave your husband and his family. It WAS fashionable, but you didn’t have a choice, it would be forced upon you if need be.
176 people are gay! Feb 26th, 2009 at 6:39 pm

some people looking at those pictures are laughing and others are thinking what freaks! well you shouldnt be doing either of those things. it was a tradition that they had to do. maybe for fashion maybe not, but you shouldnt be laughing that just means your a prick and if your thinking what freaks….then f**k you!

god.
177 RitzCrackersRYuminMyTum Mar 2nd, 2009 at 4:34 pm

This was a great website for me to use becuase i have homeowork on this subject. Thanks!! The pictures are cool but i feel bad for the young igirls who were only 4-7 who could no longer dance, run, or basically even walk. But if that is what they did, i understand. I would bind my feet too if my marriage and family was on the line ( i may not like it, but its the right thing to do if you wanted to survive)
178 Bind The Feet... Bind Your Life Mar 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 am

It is such a tragic to witness such thoughtless practices that existed as far back as 1000 years ago. I bet it will be a double shock and disheartening fact to those working as a Podiatrist. I wonder if there were the existence of Podiatrist 1000 years ago, I doubt such practice would be so prevalent if the older generations were being educated on the ill effects of binding, sacrificing their health for the sake of conforming to the culture at that time. What a pity !!
Charm007
179 Debbie Mar 18th, 2009 at 2:16 pm

Ok….well i did a big research paper on chinese foot binding and footbinding is supposibly a genoside of woman. People beileve it was forced apon by a king or something with a foot fetish or a princess with deformed feet that wanted everyone to have feet like her.

For your feet to look like that…you have to tie tight bandages around your feet causing the arch of your foot to break; causing the toes closer to the heel.

It was also forced apon woman so they couldn’t leave their homes so they couldn’t ‘cheat’ on their spouses.

Once it was banned in 1930 in China woman still did it in secrecy and thoughs that lived in two era’s were shunned apon for not binding so they had too. Then when communism took over the woman with bound feet had to work in the fields causing emmense pain, then being shunned for the binding.
180 Sahtawa Mar 31st, 2009 at 2:24 pm

This is just another example of difference in culture. They bound their feet in order to marry and look beautiful, and in doing so, it caused damage in later life. Women here get surgery done to look beautiful all over their bodies. Not only is this a huge risk, it’s not good for your body. We are not that different from each other. Both societies trying to make the perfect population. I’m not impling that this was ok, i’m just saying that before we can criticize them for what they did, we should look at the destruction going on right outside our front doors.
181 O.O Mar 31st, 2009 at 4:07 pm

jeez can u peeps stop commenting on the fact that her foot isnt cut?
i mean like it drives me crazy!!!!
182 Judy Apr 7th, 2009 at 7:00 am

I am actually glad to see these pictures. This is how we learn history. Through pictures and words. I feel bad for the children subjugated into it though. I mean can you imagine the pain they went through. This process was supposed to be started between the ages of 5 and 7, and the toes of the foot were pushed back into the sole and the arch was broken and then bound with bandages the bandages always got tighter awach time they rewrapped the foot. this was done because it was belived to be beautiful to the men of China. They called it a Golden Lotus shape.

Search

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

Meta

Chinese Foot Binding

182 Responses to “Chinese Foot Binding”