What is foot binding?
Throughout the history, as we all know, women have tried many ways to make themselves more beautiful, attractive and desirable. They have tried to change their bodies to satisfy men, to be superior to the other women in terms of beauty and attractiveness. And, one of the ways for altering their body for the purpose of beauty was foot binding in Chinese history.
I would like to give some definition of foot binding. It is “a painful tradition in China of binding young girls’ feet to keep them from growing, and maintain small sized feet.” (Urban Dictionary) It is the custom of binding of the feet of young girls tightly for the purpose of changing the shape of their foot so that they become more acceptable for marriage.
“Its main purpose was to generate a tiny foot, the "golden lotus", which was three inches long and thought to be both lovely and alluring” (Goody, 1990). It was a painful and inhuman tradition in ancient China.
When did it begin?
According to some sources, foot binding began in the late Tang Dynasty in the years of 618-907. Then it began to spread to the upper classes in the Song Dynasty in the years of 960-1297. And, the tradition of foot binding was …show more content…
The foot-binder left the big toe of the girl facing forward and bent the other toes under the foot. Then, holding the feet in this position, s/he bound the feet using long strips of cloth. The binding must be as tight as possible, so the foot would not grow any longer. After one month, the foot-binder unbound the foot and checked if any health problems like ulceration or infection occur in the foot and tried to heal it, then rebound the feet again. Every month, the foot binder loosed and tightened the bindings of the feet. This procedure continued until the girl reaches ten years old or even longer. The purpose of this process was to have 7.5-10 cm feet for the sake of beauty. (Adriani
Throughout the history, as we all know, women have tried many ways to make themselves more beautiful, attractive and desirable. They have tried to change their bodies to satisfy men, to be superior to the other women in terms of beauty and attractiveness. And, one of the ways for altering their body for the purpose of beauty was foot binding in Chinese history.
I would like to give some definition of foot binding. It is “a painful tradition in China of binding young girls’ feet to keep them from growing, and maintain small sized feet.” (Urban Dictionary) It is the custom of binding of the feet of young girls tightly for the purpose of changing the shape of their foot so that they become more acceptable for marriage.
“Its main purpose was to generate a tiny foot, the "golden lotus", which was three inches long and thought to be both lovely and alluring” (Goody, 1990). It was a painful and inhuman tradition in ancient China.
When did it begin?
According to some sources, foot binding began in the late Tang Dynasty in the years of 618-907. Then it began to spread to the upper classes in the Song Dynasty in the years of 960-1297. And, the tradition of foot binding was …show more content…
The foot-binder left the big toe of the girl facing forward and bent the other toes under the foot. Then, holding the feet in this position, s/he bound the feet using long strips of cloth. The binding must be as tight as possible, so the foot would not grow any longer. After one month, the foot-binder unbound the foot and checked if any health problems like ulceration or infection occur in the foot and tried to heal it, then rebound the feet again. Every month, the foot binder loosed and tightened the bindings of the feet. This procedure continued until the girl reaches ten years old or even longer. The purpose of this process was to have 7.5-10 cm feet for the sake of beauty. (Adriani