Years ago (like. . . about 17 when I was living abroad), I picked up a copy of "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang and first discovered the concept of foot binding. Wiki: Foot Binding Basically, before a girl reaches her teens (and usually around the age of four) her feet are ritualistically broken. First the toes are snapped in one or two places. Then--normally with a rock--the arch of her feet are broken. With the foot so malleable, the toes are then bent under the feet and the arch is forced un-naturally high. After that, the foot is wrapped in wet silk bands. As the silk ribbons dry, they contract, further crushing the foot. For the first year or so, the foot us unwrapped and checked for infection. Nails clipped and feet cleaned, they are re-wrapped even tighter. All this done under the watchful eyes of her parents. There are several explanations why this started, but suffice it to say that it was practiced for about a thousand or so years and it's estimated that up to two billion females had their feet broken and bound during this period. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Overall, I believe that--relative to its past--the current communist rule is actually one of the very high points in the long history of Chinese government. This is noted in their zealous abolition of foot binding (though, the Kuomintang beat them to the punch by about a decade). ~String
Is there a point? I mean what is it we're supposed to be discussing? The picture you post of the shoes were not typical. They look more like this http://www.willamette.edu/~juwen/Small shoes.jpg Or this if you were not as wealthy http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Foot_binding_shoes.jpg
Women still do atrocious things to themselves and to female children in the belief that it makes them more attractive. Corsets, Brazilian waxes, breast implants, genital mutilation, botox injections, rings around the neck and arms and legs, in the ear and nose, body piercing, tattoos. You name it, its been done.
I'm sorry, did I need a "point" other than to discuss something interesting. Debate is for the other fora, this is one is for discussing this and that. If you have nothing to contribute but negativeness, then leave. I found the topic interesting and was wondering if anybody had any historical insight. As far as the footwear is concerned, I googled pictures for various shoes and unwrapped feet. I didn't pick one over the other because--shit--I didn't really know or care for one over the other. The pictures I posted were from one of the few women alive today with bound feet. If you don't like discussing history, even some of the less savory parts of it, then don't post, but there is no reason to be bitchy. ~String
Its a very interesting topic and something I happen to know something about but you leave no avenue for discussion. No particular point on which to pick up the discussion. Footbinding is a huge subject, there were variations on the shoes and what was considered the ideal size of the feet, there were poems dedicated to the little 'lotus blossoms', an erotica built around little feet and it was highly sexualized, it indicated social status and at one point a woman couldn't get married without having her feet bound built, the richer you were the smaller the feet but even the poor would attempt to emulate the ultimate symbol of femininity and I can go on and on. So what exactly is it that you would like to focus on precisely? Its not about debate String. I wasn't being 'bitchy'. I was simply asking what particular aspect of subject are we looking at. I mean you don't highlight anything in particular around the topic to help build a discussion:shrug: See I actually wrote a paper on the subject while studying at zhejiang university in Hangzhou in a cross-cultural study program and would have loved to have a discussion, I even own a pair of genuine small pink lotus shoes or what you call footbinding shoes. Sorry your knickers are in such a twist you couldn't even figure out that I entered the thread out of interest.
True but there is something distinct about this particular tradition. There was a lot of tapestry built around footbinding.
The practice came during the Sung dynasty. It was a period when femininity was fetishized through poems by the Chinese aristocracy rhapsodizing over 'little feet' as the pinnacle of beauty, the most interesting aspect of a woman's body. It was highly sexualized and became a fashion norm that woman tried to emulate, first by tightly wrapping the feet and later breaking the feet. Men were so taken with all aspects of 'lotus flowers', they drank from the little shoes, there were erotic tales highlighting the smell of the feet and shoes which of course stank to high heaven due to the dead skin. Small feet were always considered important but foot binding took it to a new extreme. The wealthier the woman the smaller the feet. Women of the wealthier classes were carried and didn't have to walk. It was said that by binding a woman's feet she became fatter in the thigh area making sex more satisfyingPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The practice did trickle down to the working class section but they still had to work so they couldn't break the feet. Can you imagine these women in the rice fields or doing major physical labor? Some tried but most preferred a variation on that theme so that they could at least get a husband. It got to a point that mother's would start wrapping and breaking the feet when the girl was quite small and before her feet would grow to its full size. It marked the time that a girl was entering womanhood, she could no longer run and play but would have to conform herself to the more sedentary features of a woman's life. Mind you China's most fearsome dowager also had her feet bound so it didn't necessarily mean a woman with bound feet wasn't capable of wielding a lot of power.
I think people can get used to just about anything. To someone outside the loop of that eroticism it is bizarre that anyone could find such mutilation attractive. But I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.
Totally. If you had the ideal feet which were supposed to be 3 inches then you had 'golden feet' if they were 4 inches they were 'silver feet'...you get where their going with it.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! You know I believe that there was probably one beautiful woman who had especially small feet who then became the standard by which every other woman had to brutally force her feet into that mold. An excerpt from the book 'Chinese Erotic Art' By Michel Beurdeley More than any other thing Chinese women feared criticism made without their knowledge about their feet, should they not conform to established criteria. The greatest humiliation was if a young husband expressed disapproval on his wedding night. The young woman would never dare to show her face in public again. Insults such as "Demon with large feet," "Goose foot," and so on, would be poured on the head of the hapless girl. What man in his senses would marry such a girl: "Her figure is all right, but her huge feet are ridiculous. . . ." The foot is a pretext for endless play between lovers. A small foot appearing below a skirt doubles a woman's charm and exalts her feminity. In bed, slipping out from under the blankets, it increases a man's ardor. What voluptuousness to be kicked by a woman in pretended anger, or to touch the foot surreptitiously and to rub it with one's palm! These are the delights of amorous lovers, to which the sexual scent brings an extra spice--"the scent of the odorous bed," as Fang Hsun notes. To the initiate or aesthete the sight of a woman washing her feet is so charged with poetry that it is like the sudden blossoming of flowers in a garden. It is also very pleasant to watch her fastening on her shoes, cleaning them, trying them on, undoing the laces, or playing with a balloon with the tips of her foot under the flowering trees.
I wonder, why are small feet on women considered attractive? Its a rather ubiquitous theme, is it not - glass slipper and all? Apart from foot binding have there been historically any other methods of making feet smaller?
You mean outside of foot binding in chinese culture? I don't think so or at least I am not aware of any other method. I think the phenomenon was particularly strong within Han society and I don't believe any other culture came as close in completely fetishizing the feature to the point of creating physical disability. I look at the glass slipper as being something different than simply an indication of Cinderella's foot size. I look at the glass slipper as symbolizing 'the one' and the 'only one', or 'right' one. We have to admit that small feet are pretty. My mother has small dainty feet and she's very proud of them. I have what the chinese would have called an 'Iron boat' or 'Iron feet'.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Wealth display, among others - the useless and expensive, made for the entertainment of the rich. Long fingernails, another more minor example. Possibly: Extends the apparent length of the leg, a serious indication of resources and health in a chronically malnourished country. High heeled shoes have a similar effect, visually.
It was definitely a trend of wealthy Han society but it has nothing to do with malnourishment. This was a practice born and nurtured by the wealthy not the poor. They took normal healthy feet and purposely began molding their feet into the desired shape, you cannot compare it to wearing high heels where the shoe is made to fit the feet as opposed to breaking the foot to fit the shoe which could only be a few inches.
Here is an old woman describing how she would bind the feet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr3hnAxeOTY&feature=related
here's an example of a skull following binding (apparently pretty common all over the world) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Thai Girl with neck rings Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! American Hollywood star with silicon lips, breasts and nose job Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The neck rings are a better example of something akin to foot binding than say big titty Pam. FB as well as rings were like female currency, you would have found it difficult to marry if it hadn't been done and it would have caused public embarrassment. Implants are optional in our society and are still not carried out en masse. There is no poetry or art dedicated to silicone nor is augmentation a symbol of ideal womanhood as a beautiful face is as likely to deemed a worthy characteristic. In China you could have a pretty face and a nice body but would be ostracized if the feet were not bound.
Apparently it was so expected that this woman was motivated to break her OWN feet when she was a little girl. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942 ~String
Ha! True. I guess there is just not comparison to the neck rings or foot binding in the modern world, which is probably a good thing. ~String
That first pic has scarred me for life. How can anyone find that attractive? It makes me cringe even just imagining myself being in that woman's position for a fraction of a second. I'd rather kiss a pair of hooves than those things, and good God it looks painful.
