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
Valeria Perez
It weird to think that foot binding was not only a norm but an expectation for Chinese girls. It must have been a bizarre experience for the first generation of girls not to go through it to see their mothers, grandmothers, and female figures around them with their small feet. I was surprised on how a law was passed not too long ago forbidding the practice. I also wonder why where they referred to as “golden lotuses”?
Regina De La Parra
This is a great example of how society makes people change their aspects to look a certain way or fit into a specific category even if the body is harmed. I find it really interesting and kind of weird that this practice was done in the past, and even was a huge part of the society in China. Great job Karissa!
Samuel Ruiz
Situations like this have always saddened me. When girls, and even boys, change something about themselves because they want to attract someone or be like everyone else, it is heartbreaking. Unfortunately, these women who changed their feet will have to live with the pain and deformity for the rest of their lives. Stories like this make me worry about girls of the modern day who use plastic surgery and piles of make-up to keep up with the trends.
Anna Guaderrama
I remember first hearing about this practice a few years ago and it always seemed so weird to me. The idea of having your foot broken to be molded into a certain standard of beauty seems so wild to me. I mean, I’ve always found the idea of trying to live up to society’s beauty standards super weird so this just seems like a even more extreme manner of trying to live up to the beauty standards of society.
Yahaira Martinez
This article was so interesting and informative because of all the resources that were used, especially primary. Right at the beginning i was captivated by the quote placed in the middle, it allowed for the reader to have a brief introduction to what the article was going to be speaking about. I do however wish this article was a bit longer so i could learn more about the practice
Fumei P.
Yikes! I can only imagine a fraction of the pain these women endured after looking at the pictures of their mangled feet. This article was very descriptive, and the images really drove it home. I’m glad they got around to banning this practice, it’s inhumane. Breaking the toes of little girls, and then folding them over each other is just a crazy idea. I’m not sure how this practice became so popular it’s just brutal.
Kimberly Simmons
Chinese foot binding has always been a crazy concept to me. Just reading this article made my feet hurt; I simply cannot imagine what it must have felt like to endure such a painful process. The most intriguing part of the article for me was the idea of a social norm of beauty being small feet. It wows me how times have changed – thank goodness for that.
Natalie Childs
This was a great, but absolutely heartbreaking, article. While I had heard of foot binding before, I never knew of the horrible, horrible process it took for the women to achieve the desired looked. Not only was the article written incredibly well, the pictures that were chosen further illustrated just how mutilated the women’s feet became from the process.
Alexandra Cantu
This article was written with great thought. It was captivating from the start with its title. I had never heard of such thing. Chinese Foot Binding sounds extremely painful and I’m sure these women were in excruciating pain. I understand that a small foot seems attractive but to go to these lengths thats insane. These women were tough, today many girls can’t even walk on heels and these ladies walking around with a broken foot.
Carlos Sandoval
At first when I initially scrolled to see the pictures before reading, I cringed so hard at the feet of the women. I do not know what someone would want to do that to their body. I feel like at times even today, girls/women will still do certain things just to appeal to a man’s taste and what he wants in a girl. This article was very well written and gave a good detailed history on foot binding.