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/. ↵
189 comments
Christine Sackey
It is crazy to think about the lengths that women will do for beauty. I can not imagine walking on broken toes and feet on purpose! I did find it interesting that men thought it was attractive that women with small feet were attractive. I thought that it was that they choose triangular shape shoes instead of a more rounded shape. Taken as a whole this article was fascinating.
Cherice Leach
Feet are gross no matter what.. but this story is what makes them repulsive. This is such a horrifying tradition and I just don’t understand what makes tiny feet, beautiful feet. I realize they wouldn’t take off the tiny shoes to show the horrific sight of what’s inside them but it is still really gross. Who would want a deformed foot that doesn’t even look like a foot. Plus I can already assume that they probably never got pedicures and that’s just an injustice in itself.
Zeresh Haman
This is interesting to read about, I knew that foot binding was a thing, but I had no idea just how they would go about doing it. I cant imagine having my toes broken and my foot reshaped into a triangle. The quote at the beginning is really amazing because it really does give you sense of just how painful this was for all the girls that were forced to do it. I find it so crazy how far people were and still are willing to go just to achieve a standard of “beauty.” Its good to know that they realized just how awful this really was so they were able to stop it.
Liam Gillooly
I recently had the privilege to watch a Kabuki theater performance involving the use of foot-binding. In the play, an evil uncle forces his niece to have her feet bound, as a way of showing his power. The fate of a bound woman is a sad one, as they have been “bound” to a notion in society, in which one should conform to other’s standards. It brings me great joy to see how the standards of women’s rights and health have improved over the centuries. Overall, great, informative article.
Anthony Robledo
This article does a great job at explaining the concept of foot binding. The imagery used was a great clash with The description in the article, but I wish it would have been a bit more entertaining. Don’t get me wrong, its a great article, but just not my taste in reading. The way you describe the foot binding was awesome. I’m glad that no longer exist in modern culture though!
Osman Rodriguez
To think this was considered a standard of beauty in China back in the day. It is outrageous and inhumane. Then again, throughout history, many cultures did outrageous things. What I find crazy is how women fell for such a “standard of beauty”. Its good to know that this doesn’t continue today. Great topic and I enjoyed the way your article flowed.
Jazmin Pizana
Interesting article! The quote in the beginning caught my attention and pulled me in! Also the picture that compared an average shoe to shoes that were made for foot binding. I’ve heard of foot binding before but never knew that it was considered a social norm. It’s very sad that women felt they had to mutilate themselves to be conform to society.
Amanda Figueroa
This article was very well written as it explained the question as to why women would continue this awful and painful tradition. This shows how pressured women are into doing what society says is right and beautiful. Even now a days, there are still social standards that women are supposed to live up to in order to look beautiful and be attracted by men.
Kelley Salinas
Amazing article! I had heard about Chinese women binding their feet, but I never considered it any further. It pains me and my feet to read this article and read about the pain that these young women had to endure to reach a standard of beauty. However, I am glad I read this incredibly well-written article because it reminds me of America’s beauty standards today. The process of using a corset to obtain a tiny waist and an hourglass figure. Although corsets have been around for centuries, it makes me wonder, In the past, present and future, how far is each society willing to go to achieve the idea of beauty?
Megan Barnett
It is crazy to know that those women would go to such lengths just to fulfill the status of something society said was normal and attractive. It is sad that little girls would have to go through with that pain and that older women continued it because they did not want to change their ways. However, even though today in our world such horrid things are not common other practices that our society does for what they believe is beauty are still shared so it is not surprising that this happened.