Winner of the Fall 2016 StMU History Media Award for
Best Use of Scholarship
Best Article in the Category of “World History”
Best Use of Primary Sources
When I knew I couldn’t suffer another moment of pain and tears fell on my bloody bindings, my mother spoke softly into my ear, encouraging me to go one more hour, one more day, one more week, reminding me of the rewards I would have if I carried on a little longer. In this way, she taught me how to endure—not just the physical trials of footbinding or childbearing, but the more torturous pain of the heart, mind, and soul.1
More often than necessary, women are consumed with the idea of infatuation. Every culture has its own form of standards that pertain to women and what constitutes beauty. Although the world is slightly more accepting now, women used to go to extreme lengths to achieve an image that would be deemed attractive. In the Chinese culture, foot binding was that well-known beauty expectation for centuries. What started off as a celebrity fad, turned into a way of determining social status and eventually an all-around beauty expectation. 2 The objective of foot binding was for women to have the smallest foot possible, starting at very young ages. Not only was this a painful process for girls as young as five years, but it also promoted the idea that women must mutilate their bodies to become appealing to men. At some point in time, women began to just accept that this was something that was supposed to be done in order to be attractive. Often referred to as “lotus boats” or “golden lotuses,” bound feet started as a fad for the famous, and slowly made its way to becoming the social norm.3
This practice began around the tenth century with women in the entertainment business. These women were adored for their tiny arched feet and were seen by men to be much more attractive than middle class women with average feet. As these dancers were gaining an audience, the idea of “lotus feet” was becoming familiar. Not long after these performers expressed their “beauty,” foot binding became a norm for women who wanted to fit in and even for those who had a desire to find a husband.4 This painful process consisted of the breaking of young girl’s toes to form the desired triangular shape. Then the arch of the foot would be bent horizontally from the toes all the way to the heel. As if this was not painful enough, the girls were forced to walk on their feet to intensify the arch, breaking the foot even more. After all of this, the foot would be wrapped to maintain the shape of it as well as prevent any sort of deviation.5
Although this practice was around for centuries, it was only a matter of time before someone realized how inhumane and cruel it really was. Thankfully, many people began to protest against foot binding, forming “anti-foot binding organizations” to raise awareness on the inhumanity of binding women’s feet. By the 1950’s, laws were passed, allowing women to unbind their feet. Although hesitant at first, the trend slowly declined. Many women protested to unbinding their feet, due to the fact that it had been a social norm a thousand years. However, the movement against foot binding continued and eventually the last of the factories that make the tiny shoes were shut down, disabling the women from continuing the custom. Today, foot binding is no longer practiced and the only women who continue to maintain the tiny feet are those elder women who refuse to let go of the past.6
- Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (New York: Random House Publishers, 2005), 3-4. ↵
- Yaodong Gu et al., “Foot Loading Characteristics of Chinese Bound Feet Women: A Comparative Analysis,” PLoS ONE 10, no. 4 (April 2015): 1–9, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0121695. ↵
- Yu-ning Li, Chinese Women Through Chinese Eyes (New York: Routledge, 2015), 125-127. ↵
- Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia, 2004, s.v. “Footbinding (Late 10th Century-early 20th Century),” by Patricia Buckley Ebrey. ↵
- Amanda Foreman, “Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium,” Smithsonian, accessed November 8, 2016, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-footbinding-persisted-china-millennium-180953971/. ↵
- “Women with Bound Feet in China,” Reshaping the Body: Clothing & Cultural Practice, accessed November 8, 2016, http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/clothes/lady_bound/. ↵
Tags from the story
Beauty
Chinese Culture
Chinese Footbinding
Recent Comments
Stephanie Silvola
The standard of beauty is a epidemic that needs to end. Women are supposed to wear this and to act like this. The practicing of foot-binding make my, ironically, feet curl. It’s scary how far women would go far to be considered “beautiful.” Every women should be loved because of what’s in the inside not the outside. Outer beauty can only last for so long, so for women to go far as to foot-binding is alarming. I am glad that this is prohibited and I hope that the standard of beauty would be in the way of someone’s self-esteem.
26/08/2018
8:15 am
Noah Bolhuis
It blows my mind to see what people, especially women, will do to their bodies to achieve “Beauty.” A majority of these practices have a negative effect of the person’s physical health. This practice limits women’s mobility, it causes permanent damage to her feet and most likely her posture. Today’s society sees many similar practices, however they are often less damaging, such as piercings, implants and wearing heels. However, China’s outlawing of this practice shows how culturally accepted and encouraged it was, despite the obvious physical harm.
26/08/2018
8:15 am
Diego Aguilera
I enjoyed reading the intro as it gave a great example of pulling the reader in and keeping me engaged. Ive heard a little about foot binding but I didn’t know the details of how important and serious it was. now that it is prohibited is good because in my eyes no one should go through that pain but the imagery used is top notch and I want to model my article off of that then keep the reader engaged like this article.
28/08/2018
8:15 am
Clarissa Gonzalez
The bold intro stood out completely and was able to pull me into an article that spoke of true pain in Chinese foot binding. I had known a little information on this practice prior to reading, but knowing the actual process of what happens to the feet was actually revolting. I physically cringed reading what they did to young girl’s feet and how it was just a natural thing in order to gain monetary assets.
30/08/2018
8:15 am
Gabriela Ochoa
The into to this article was really intriguing and made me want to read more into the article. I have read some about foot binding but never really know why it was done. I thought that it was interesting that they thought that having small feet made someone more attractive. In most societies they criticize women for size and how they look so it was different to see that the criticized for their feet instead. I’m glad that it is finally over and has been banned after so many years of hurting themselves just too be considered beautiful.
30/08/2018
8:15 am
Madison Guerra
This is such a gross and unusual tradition. It is hard to believe so many women used to practice this. It looks so painful and i could not imagine ever doing that to my own foot. If that was what a man was looking for in a woman than i would rather be without a husband and on my own. i would never change for anyone but myself.
31/08/2018
8:15 am
Daniela Duran
The introduction to this article, as well as the images, were so attention calling that I couldn’t stop reading. I love the fact that the author explains the evolution of foot binding, from fashion, to social trend, and finally a social norm. It is tough to see how women (not only in that time) are constantly willing to modify their bodies just as a mean to “fit in” within society. Most of the time as women, we modify our personality and other superficial physical aspect so as to be accepted in society, but when we see evidence of cases in which the health of women is endangered just because they want to be accepted socially, that’s when we realize how damaging social stereotypes and norms can be. I believe that what women in China were socially pressured to do was not only inhuman, but also quite abusive. It is clearly an attempt to change their normality, simply to be seen as perfect. The images in this article are quite self-explanatory…looking at them makes you wonder why would they even accept to do that to themselves? But the simple truth is…we would do anything to fit in. The evidence for this is in this article, when the author mentions that even when foot binding was been eliminated by the law, there were a lot of women protesting against this! That sounds outrageous, but is captures a sad social truth: we are all willing to sacrifice our natural physical outlay, just to be accepted by society.
31/08/2018
8:15 am
Maxx Arizmendi
I remember reading about foot binding before, but this article gave a bigger picture as to why women would bind their feet. I was a bit disgusted looking at the images, knowing that the only reason that foot binding was a thing was because women were trying to be more beautiful. Just looking at the images made me cringe in pain because that look like it hurt, but overall this article was interesting to read.
01/09/2018
8:15 am
Richard Morales
The pictures selected for this article were well-chosen. It takes you from just reading about the issue to seeing just how much pain the women put themselves through to meet the expectation of “beauty.” Shoes were used as a veil to hide reality. People still use masks to hide what is going on inside. It was sad reading how the tradition had just become a norm. This should prompt all of us to examine traditions that may be detrimental.
01/09/2018
8:15 am
Madeline Torres
This is the very first time I’ve ever read of Chinese women doing this to their feet and let me say this left me in complete astonishment. It’s absolutely amazing to think these women did this in order to attract the opposite sex, and how much physical pain they went through to even be looked at in this case. I like how this article gave us the knowledge that this is no longer being practiced and how much a women had to suffer back in the day. It is astonishing just how much our body can transform with our will to change its shape and form.
26/08/2018
8:15 am