Foot binding

Foot binding was a custom practiced in some parts of medieval China on young females for many centuries and finally discontinued in the early 20th century. Some, such as Sigmund Freud, consider the practice fetishistic, as it was done for aesthetic reasons, much as many women today wear high heels, despite the discomfort. Young girls' feet, usually at age 6 but often earlier, were wrapped in tight bandages so they could not grow normally, would break and become deformed as they reached adulthood. The feet would remain small and dysfunctional, prone to infection, paralysis, and muscular atrophy. It should be noted that this was initially only a common practice in the wealthiest parts of China, particularly in north China. However, by the late Qing Dynasty, footbinding had become popular among women of all social levels, including the poor.

History

Origins

The practice of foot binding began during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). According to legend, women were bound in this way to replicate an imperial concubine who danced with her feet wrapped in silk, the other concubines got envious and they all started binding their feet to make them look beautiful to impress the emperor. By the 12th century, the practice had become widespread among the upper classes. However, earlier forms of footbinding were not nearly as debilitating as those found during the later Qing Dynasty (1636-1911). During Qing times, girls' feet were bound so tightly and early in life that, as adults, they were unable to walk significant distances, essentially crippled and deprived of all autonomy. Foot binding was a status symbol, since only the wealthy could afford to keep women unproductive. The Hongwu Emperor's consort, born of humble origin, had normal feet (considered unattractive by the standards of the culture). Emperor Hongwu killed the neighbours of those who mocked her.

If a girl's feet were bound in this custom, beginning in infancy, four toes on each foot would break by age 3; the first ("big toe") sometimes remained intact. The feet were desired not to grow any larger than 10 cm (4 in). Bound feet would bend, becoming so concave they were sometimes described as "lotus hooks". Girls would suffer intense pain throughout the binding process.

The earliest recorded opponent to footbinding was a writer from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) called Ch'e Jo-shui, and the Manchus who conquered China in the 17th century tried without success to abolish the practice. ^*

Modern times

In 1911, the Republic of China government banned foot binding, a practice considered barbaric by other societies. According to a study conducted by the University of California at San Francisco, "As the practice waned, some girls' feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities." However, some effects of foot binding are permanent: some elderly Chinese women today suffer from disabilities related to bound feet.

Foot binding is rarely, if ever, practiced today. All modern societies would treat the behavior as child abuse and punish it accordingly. It is commonly cited by sociologists and anthropologists as an example where an extreme deformity (by the standards of both modern societies and from a medical viewpoint) can be viewed as beauty, and also where immense human suffering can be inflicted in the pursuit of a beauty standard.

Reception and appeal

While bound feet were considered beautiful by some men, a misconception is that they found the deformed foot, in the flesh, erotic. Most often, the men would never see the woman's feet, as they were concealed within tiny "lotus shoes". Feng Hsun is recorded as stating, "If you remove the shoes and bindings, the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed forever."

There are also schools of thought that believe that binding the foot was meant to keep women dependent on men, because with the foot bound, they could not walk, stand up straight or even support their weight without leaning on a man.

Photographs of bound feet — grotesque medical curiosities by today's standard — are featured on some shock sites.

Process

The grandmother and mother would wrap her daughter's or granddaughter's feet around 2-3 years old. As the process went on over years, the girl would be in terrible pain. The reason for the heels becoming so hard is because the girl would walk on her heels during the process because her toes would be in such pain. After years of this process, the bones would heal in the position of the binding, and the girl would no longer feel pain. There would be contests to see how small the parents could get their daughters' feet to be. The smaller the feet were, the more beautiful she was; thus the more likely she would be chosen as a bride to a noble man. When the liberation occurred, the women were told to unwrap their feet or they would be killed. Some of the women's feet grew 1/2 - 1 inch after the unwrapping.

In 1967 a book on the subject was published, Howard Levy's Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom, with a foreword by Arthur Waley.

External links

References

Ko, Dorothy. Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005.

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