Posts tagged foot binding

"Why did so many Chinese women over a thousand-year period bind their feet, enduring rotting flesh, throbbing pain and hampered mobility throughout their lives? What compelled mothers to bind the feet of their young daughters, forcing the girls to walk about on their doubled-over limbs to achieve the breakage of bones requisite for three-inch feet? Why did Chinese men find women's "golden lotuses"--stench and all--so arousing, inspiring beauty contests for feet, thousands of poems, and erotica in which bound, silk-slippered feet were fetishized and lusted after?"

Chavisa WoodsSeptember 18, 2006china, culture, foot binding, gathering of the tribes, Tribes, wang ping, women

ACHING FOR BEAUTY: Footbinding in China by Wang Ping

Why did so many Chinese women over a thousand-year period bind their feet, enduring rotting flesh, throbbing pain and hampered mobility throughout their lives? What compelled mothers to bind the feet of their young daughters, forcing the girls to walk about on their doubled-over limbs to achieve the breakage of bones requisite for three-inch feet? Why did Chinese men find women's "golden lotuses"--stench and all--so arousing, inspiring beauty contests for feet, thousands of poems, and erotica in which bound, silk-slippered feet were fetishized and lusted after?

Chavisa WoodsAugust 30, 2006, china, foot binding, girls, Tribes, wang ping, women