1. Foot Binding and the Chinese Woman

2. Foot binding was a custom practiced on females for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century.

3. In Chinese foot binding, young girls' feet, were wrapped in tight bandages so that they could not grow and develop normally; they would, instead, break and become highly deformed, not growing past 4-6 inches. As the girl reached adulthood, her feet would remain small and dysfunctional, prone to infection, paralysis, and muscular atrophy.

4. Girl's feet were bound beginning as early as age five, but generally no later than 8. Four toes on each foot would break within a year; the first (“big toe") remained intact. The arch had to be well-developed for the perfect "lotus foot" to be formed, so some women would bind girls' feet at a later age; the ideal was a 3-in. foot, and no longer than 4 in. Bound feet would bend, becoming so concave they were sometimes described as "lotus hooks".

5. A mother or grandmother was the one who typically wrapped her daughter's or granddaughter's feet The toes were doubled under the soles, and deep cuts might be made in the soles to make this easier. As the process proceeded, the girl experienced severe pain. Her heels developed extremely hard calluses because she walked on her heels, unable to put weight on her doubled-under toes. After years of this process, the bones healed in the position of the binding. The smaller the feet, the more beautiful a girl was, and the more likely she was to be chosen as a bride of a desirable husband.

6. In the beginning, the bandage was tightened each day and the foot was put into smaller and smaller shoes. In two years, the process was finished. By then, the foot was useless for walking very far.

7. Bound feet had to be washed and cared for daily. If toe nails grew into the instep, infection could set in. If the bindings were too tight, gangrene and blood poisoning could occur. The bound foot was painful and tender forever. It often had an unpleasant smell. Women often doused their feet in perfume to hide the odor.

8. There are several legends that endeavor to account for the inception of this custom. One is that the concubine of a Chinese prince named Yao Niang walked so gracefully that it seemed as if she "skimmed over the top of golden lilies. " At that time the "lily footed woman," or a woman with bound feet, became the model in China.

9. A second legend says that this concubine was ordered to bind her feet so that her feet would look like new moons. A third legend says that women bound their feet out of sympathy for an empress with clubbed feet.

10. Another account is that foot binding was made stylish by court dancers. However this seems somewhat unlikely because women with bound feet had a hard time walking, let alone dancing.

11. The origin of foot binding may not be clear; however the results are apparent. Foot binding stopped concubines and wives of the rich from straying or running away from beatings. Confucian teachings at this time stressed the superior status of men over women as a basic element of social order and this was certainly an effective method of restraint.

12. Foot binding began as a luxury among the rich; it made the women more dependant on others and less useful around the house.Having a wife and daughters with bound feet meant you were wealthy enough not to need their help in the house or in farming. This was especially hard on the poor who needed this help.

13. Foot binding soon became a prerequisite for marriage. It was a just reason for a man to call off marriage if he found out that the woman with whom he had an arranged did not have bound feet. Foot binding became the only right thing to do for a daughter. Many lower class families who really could not afford to bind their daughters’ feet due to the loss of labor she would have contributed to the family did so an anyway in hopes that she would be able to "marry up" into the middle class.

14. In 1911, the Republic of China government banned foot binding; women were told to unwrap their feet lest they be killed. Some women's feet grew 1/2 - 1 inch after the unwrapping. The process of unbinding the feet and the new growth process was extremely painful and emotionally and culturally devastating. Foot binding is rarely practiced today and it still illegal.

16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= Fr3hnAxeOTY&feature=related