Great Little Feets of China

Contents

When in Rome do as the Romans. When in China... Wait would you do that?

Continuing with my reading of the book entitled Femininity, by Susan Brownmiller, I came to the slightly recongized but never really emphasized point of foot  binding practiced by the Chinese. It is explained by Wikipedia as follows:

       ...was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century.

The Chinese custom of foot-binding is commonly cited by sociologists and anthropologists as an example of how an extreme deformity by contemporary western standards could be viewed as a source of pleasure in other cultures and of how immense suffering can be inflicted on women and girls in the pursuit of so-called beauty.

Foot-binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its victims, though as the practice waned in the early 20th century, according to a study conducted by the University of California at San Francisco, "some girls' feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities." However, some effects of foot-binding were permanent, especially if a girl's arches had been broken or other drastic measures taken in order to achieve the desired smallness. In the 1990s and early 2000s, some elderly Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet...

to view images and read more click here

Susan has this to say about the toturous art:

    To envision a Chinese nobleman's wife or courtesan with daintily slippered three-inch stubs in place of normal feet is to understand much about man's violent subjugation of women; what is less clear is the concept of exquisite feminine beauty contained within the deforming violence: the sensuous incapacitation and useless ornamental charm perceived in the fused, misshapen bones.

What can one say? Is this beauty?  Is it fair to even judge age old cultures on their practices and beliefs. Live and let live, by all means is one of my motto. For futhering self introspection for all Femmes, I just would like to know what type of painful near torturous practices do you subscribe to for beauty? This is not a surface game, Femmes. We are trying to get to the root of some of our beauty beliefs. So, I want to hear why you even started which ever personal pain beauty regimen you practice. Was it just from watching mom in the mirror? Was it from reading an article in a magazine or a friendly suggestion from a friend? Whatever the cause or the action, please share with us. Self acceptance is born from self understanding.

Other Links

hvattum.net/index.php/2007/05/19/chinese-foot-binding
www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/China/04/hutchins/hutchi...
starbulletin.com/98/03/10/features/story1.html
library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/footbinding.htm
www.sfmuseum.org/chin/foot.html
www.josephrupp.com/history.html