Note on the Chinese Tradition of Foot Binding
Since I've been reading the book Ties that Bind, Ties that Break...I've really been interested in the ancient Chinese tradition of foot binding. I understand why the girl would want to run away from a painful process.
The practice of foot binding in China began around the end of the Tang Dynasty, or about 900 A.D. According to the popular legend, a dancing girl at the court of the Tang emperor bound her feet so that she could dance on her toes, somewhat like a ballet dancer. She was so graceful that many dancers imitated her, and the practice spread to the court ladies and other
aristocratic women.
Many historians, however, do not believe that the Tang Dynasty ladies had bound because in sculpture and paintings they are generally shown as robust, even athletic. Polo was a popular sport among high-born women of the Tang era.
It wasn't until the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that there were definite records of women's having their feet bound. At first the practice was confined to aristocratic women, but gradually it spread to other classes of society. Peasant women and those who had to do hard physical labor escaped foot binding because it would have crippled them and made it
impossible for them to move around efficiently.
In spite of the fact that foot binding was an excruciatingly painful process and rendered the victim useless as an active worker, the practice continued for more than a thousand years.
Why did women allow themselves to suffer this procedure? The reason given was that men found bound feet attractive.
Chinese women, to be sure, were not the only ones who suffered agonies to attract men. Victorian women wore corsets so tight that they swooned at the slightest excitement. African women stretched their lips as big as plates or endured female circumcision. Some American women wear four-inch-high heels that force them to totter around.
I won't go into why high heels, tiny waists, or plate-sized lips are attractive to men. My aim is to try to understand why Chinese men were so entranced by women with feet less than three inches long. Photographs of these naked, crippled feet are a sickening sight. So what was the attraction?
There are a couple of theories. One is that having crippled feet makes a woman helpless and unable to run away, and some men are excited by the thought of helpless women.
But this does not explain everything. Not all Chinese men were sadists who enjoyed the idea of women in pain and at their mercy. The other theory is that it gave a man status to be able to afford a wife who could not work. it showed he was rich enough to support a "trophy" wife.
By the early years of the twentieth century, the practice finally began to die out, although among the upper classes women with bound feet were still preferred. Even today you can find a few isolated cases in China of old women with bound feet. They are ashamed of their feet, but they cannot remove the strips of bandages and wear normal shoes because it's too painful to walk without the support of the bindings.
It wasn't until the 1930s that the practice stopped more or less completely and mothers allowed their daughters' feet to go unbound. In some isolated areas, however, the practice went on until the 1940s! I met a woman in a small village who had bound feet, and she was in her fifties.
---Lensey Namioka
(I copied it from the last two pages of my book)
DISCUSS:
-Bound feet?! Would you EVER consider such a cruel tradition?! If you didn't have bound feet you couldn't find yourself a "decent" husband.
-Other Nasty traditions amongst the world..that make you sick to your stomach?
-How's To Kill a Mockingbird going for everyone? Getting interesting yet?!
13 comments:
Most men, even today, still find the idea of a helpless women exceedingly and annoyingly enticing. Although, today, women are a lot better about standing tall next to a man to defend herself. However, most men, in general, still think women should be a servant to their every want and need. They, again in general, find women mere play things that are there to sky rocket their ego and agree to whatever they say. I find this especially true in rural areas, where things are more traditional. The thought that women felt like they had to go through such excruciating pains, so say something within itself.
Although, if you think about it, women still do that today, not quite in such a gruesome way. Women dress, make-up, high-heel, and anything else they can think of in order to get attention. I don't mean to stereotype us, but seriously. The media places it in our heads that the only way women are worth a pile a manure is if we have a boyfriend, husband, or otherwise "male friend", and we, as humans, by into it, generally. Women today are still taken for granted. We are still under payed, and slaves, or so men think. Men still think themselves smarter and all together stronger in most areas. One of my best friends the other day told me that her ex-boyfriend told her that girls were wimps because they cried when a boy broke up with them. However, if you think about, for centuries, women's only goal in life was to hook a husband, so doesn't that show a strength for women? I mean, if women had to talk and flirt and boast themselves into marriage, doesn't that show a serious lack of strength on the man's part? Men, for ages, have fallen for women's tricks into marriage. Today, men haste themselves into a marriage by the pronouncing of a child, if they care, and then they regret the decision. I'm not saying that's always the case, but, I've seen a few. Also, men fall in love" with women who couldn't give a rip whether they got ran over by a bus, just so the women can get their hands on some money. That's tells me women are out smarting men everyday, and have been for centuries past.
Ok, so the point to my rant: it's not surprising women went to such lengths to catch a husband, is it, I mean, for a very long time, women were only made to get married. By bounding girls' feet, that proved them lesser than men, which is exactly what they wanted. Women had to SEEM pitiful and stupid, even if they weren't. By binding there feet, they were helpless, after marriage, it probably hurt to badly to UNbind them, so they were left.
ummm... i definetly have to disagree with foot-binding. Never would i ever make someone do that to themselves. I would never do it to myself either, if i never got a man then so what. i would survive without one and i would also be able to walk.Plus, i want a guy with some sense so if he didn't want me just because my feet weren't bound then he isn't worth having at all.
I agree, any man you have to change yourself to get isn't worth a scrap of cloth, in my opinion. A guy should want you for who you are, not WHAT you are!!!!
Yum. Right before lunch.
that is really disgusting, I don't understand why they would do that, it makes me sick.
thats terrible.
why would any want to do that?!
It seems like a totally barbaric act, doesn't it? But, if you're desperate enough, you'll do pretty much anything.
I cannot believe women would go to such lengths to get a man! I have to agree with Scarlet Rose on this one, it's awful how our world today makes it seem that a girl needs to have a guy to be worth something. I'm single and I survive just as good as anyone else. Also, why would you hurt yourself so badly by binding your feet. I hate pain! I won't ever even get a tatoo.
AMEN!!!!!
ok so yea some women will change just to get a guy but thats not all of us. Yea some women want money and nothing else but some also marry for love. as for the whole foot binding thing, i think that it is completely discusting and i do not see how any man could ever find that attractive. i also think that it is stupid to be judged by how small your feet were it looks like it would hurt way to much for me to even consider doing any thing to my feet. the only good thing now about having small feet is that there are more shoes out there for you to buy because not a lot of people have size 6 feet. I know i dont!!
Yes women marry for love, but I guarantee you, most or all women at some point in their lives change themselves to a.)impress a man, or b.)keep the guy they got. Now, depending on the woman, ideas of "cuteness" or whatever is going to change, but I still stick with my original comment.
I guess...Some women just believe that they should do this...sometimes it makes a girl feel better about herself. If she's pretty then she'll get more looks...but that's just how society has made girls want to be. If we didn't live in such a terrible place now..
If we didn't live in such a look and sex obsessed society, we would not even be having this conversation!!!! : )
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