1. BEAUTY? Footbound woman and Twiggy. What is beauty?
Which do you find more attractive?

2. BEAUTY? Footbound Woman nd Dolly Parton. What is beauty?
China “beauty” and American “beauty” show difference in culture.
"To this day elderly Chinese men will look at a woman's feet before her face. Dolly Parton wouldn't stand a chance," Jackson said. "They look at my size 10 feet and laugh."

3. FOOTBINDING began around 920 AD, outlawed in 1911 Lotus Shoe
young girls, ages 3-8
- feet are kept at 3-4 inches in length
Lotus Shoe
4 – 5 inch shoe
Foot binding was a custom practiced in China on young females for more than one thousand years and finally discontinued in the early 20th century. Some, such as Sigmund Freud, consider the practice fetishistic, as it was done for aesthetic reasons. Young girls' feet, usually at age 6 but often earlier, were wrapped in tight bandages so they could not grow normally, would break and become deformed as they reached adulthood. The feet would remain small and dysfunctional, prone to infection, paralysis, and muscular atrophy.
The practice of foot binding began during the Tang Dynasty.
In 1911, the Republic of China government banned foot binding, a practice considered barbaric by other societies.
Men rarely saw the unbound foot of a woman. The naked foot was the great unknown; the cloth-bound mystery that aroused the man.46 Concealment was the ultimate turn on. Fang Hsun warned men against seeing the bound foot, “If you remove the shoes and bindings, the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed forever.” 47 The shoes worn over the bindings were almost as sexually exciting as the tiny foot itself. So intricate was the embroidery and so small the shoe that men would go to great lengths to obtain the shoes of the woman of his desire.

4. Since time immemorial small feet have been prized in China and, for that matter, in many cultures. (One recalls Cinderella's tiny glass slipper.) Actual binding of the feet, however, probably did not begin until around the tenth century. Initially it was practiced by dancers at the imperial palace, who are thought to have performed on a rug or stage of some kind having a lotus design, hence the term "golden lotuses" for bound feet. From there it spread to the women of the imperial court, then to the upper classes, and finally to Chinese society as a whole. Since the dancers could still dance, presumably binding wasn't taken to extremes at first. But over time tinier and tinier feet became prized. Ultimately the ideal foot was one not exceeding three inches in length.

5. ORIGIN - Chinese prince in 920 AD - Several theories???
concubine dancing
feet like “sickle moons”
sympathy for empress with club feet
It is not exactly clear when footbinding began. Footbinding began in the 10th century in China. Although historical records are sketchy, it is believed that the practice started during the T’ang Dynasty. Ruler Li Yu had a favorite concubine named Lovely Maiden who was a gifted dancer. Li Yu had a golden six-foot wide lotus blossom built for her to dance upon. “Li Yu had Lovely Maiden bind her feet in white silk cloth to make the tips of her feet look like the points of a moon sickle. Lovely Maiden then danced in the center of the lotus, whirling like a rising cloud".
Some believe that the practice began after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in 907. According to legend, it began when a concubine called 'Precious Thing' belonging to Prince Li Yu danced somewhat like a ballerina on her toes. She did this inside a six-foot high lotus. From there, the custom is believed to have been picked up by royalty before becoming popular with commoners (Splendid Slippers 1997). The second belief centers around the period approximately 300 years before Prince Li Yu, between the years of 618 and 907.  According to this legend, court dancers wrapped their feet in white silk to dance atop a golden lotus sculpture ('Locating Footbinding: Variations across Class and Space in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century China' 1997). The third belief argues that footbinding originated much later than the Tang Dynasty's collapse or age of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The years they believe footbinding to have originated are during the Song Dynasty years of 960 to This is based on the premise that one of the earliest written references to footbinding was recorded by Su Shih in the eleventh century.

6. PROCESS foot soak/massages/nails bound with cloth strips
exfoliate skin
all toes, except big one, broken and turned under
arch of foot is broken
progressively tightened and forced into smaller shoes (2 years)
An important part of the process involved the selection of the date for the binding, which was very important. For example, having this done during the birthday of the goddess of mercy might be more favorable than other days. The cleaning and soaking of the girl's feet was also very important. As different footbinders used different methods and ingredients, the pre-soak was not any one standardized method. Various ingredients such as urine, ground almonds, mulberry roots, tannin, frankincense, or other such things would be added to warm water (Splendid Slippers 1997). Two other less common foot soak recipes were boiled monkey bones or warm animal blood, with the child's feet inserted into the live animal's stomach in some cases (Splendid Slippers 1997). Exfoliation of dead skin and the trimming of toenails might follow with a sprinkle of alum (Splendid Slippers 1997). The four smaller toes would be pushed towards the plantars using long cloth strips to secure this before wrapping the strip around the instep and ankle. The strip would be tightened so that the arch would be pulled upwards toward the ankle. Some foot binders inserted pieces of broken porcelain, glass, or metal into parts of the cloth strips. This caused gangreous skin, which could be later removed further shortening the feet (Splendid Slippers 1997).
The initial binding of the girl’s feet began between the ages of 5 and 7 years old. At this age, the foot was still composed mostly of pre-bone cartilage and was easily molded. If the footbinding began at a younger age, it would leave the girl crippled and unable to walk at all. If the footbinding began much older the feet would have grown too large to shape into the perfect 3” bound foot. 8
On a lucky day chosen by her Mother, the girl’s feet were soaked in warm to hot water to soften the flesh. The toenails were cut very short to avoid cutting the skin during binding and the feet were massaged. Alum was used as an astringent to contract the skin and the blood vessels and to lessen bleeding that may occur. Alum also aided in controlling perspiration, which was a problem for women with bound feet because it caused odor and infection. 9
The binding began by folding the four smaller toes down, under, and toward the ball of the foot as tightly as possible. A ten-foot by two-inch binding cloth 10, usually made of silk, was wrapped from the top of the foot and around the folded toes. The binding was then brought across the foot to the heel, tightly wrapped around the heel, brought up and over the top of the foot in a sort of figure eight. The binding then went around the instep and under the foot to wrap tightly around the four small toes again. This tight wrapping in a figure eight continued until the entire length of binding was used. The tight binding brought the heel and ball of the foot close together like the bending of a bow, which eventually broke the instep of the foot. The binding was sewn in various spots to secure it from loosening and making it more difficult for the child to loosen or remove them. Small shoes made by her Mother were placed on the feet.
Once the binding was complete, the girl was forced to walk to begin the process of breaking her toes and instep. The walking also helped to keep her foot and ankle muscles from becoming atrophied. The child was subjected to beatings if she did not walk or if she attempted to loosen the bindings. Every 3-4 days the bindings would be removed, the foot washed and alum applied, and rebound even tighter. Progressively smaller shoes were worn to aid in the molding process. 12
During the first two years of the foot binding process, the feet were very painful. The feet would often bleed and become covered with pus from putrification caused by the tight binding. Putrification caused the flesh to slough off making the feet smaller. 13
After two years, the feet were numb and no longer hurt. By the time the girl was 13 or 14 years old, she was binding her own feet. 14 She was also practicing her embroidery making her own slippers. When she was ready for marriage, one of her hand made slippers would be sent by way of a matchmaker to her prospective husband and his family to judge her skill with a needle and the size of her feet.

7. RESULTS “BULB” “CLEFT” (2-3 inches deep)
The criteria for the perfect three-inch foot consisted of three features. The first was length, which ideally should be three inches. The second was the cleft between the heel and the sole, which was to be two to three inches deep. Thirdly, the feet should appear to be extensions of the leg, rather than stands for the body (Splendid Slippers 1997).
ANOTHER ACCOUNT
"They did not begin to bind my feet until I was seven because I loved so much to run and play. Then I became very ill and they had to take the bindings off my feet again. I had the 'heavenly blossoms' and was ill for two years and my face is very pockmarked. In my childhood everyone had the illness and few escaped some marking.
When I was nine they started to bind my feet again and they had to draw the bindings tighter than usual. My feet hurt so much that for two years I had to crawl on my hands and knees. Sometimes at night they hurt so much I could not sleep. I stuck my feet under my mother and she lay on them so they hurt less and I could sleep. But by the time I was eleven my feet did not hurt and by the time I was thirteen they were finished. The toes were turned under so that I could see them on the inner and under side of the foot. They had come up around. Two fingers could be inserted in the cleft between the front of the foot and the heel. My feet were very small indeed.
A girl's beauty and desirability were counted more by the size of her feet than by the beauty of her face. Matchmakers were not asked, 'Is she beautiful?' but 'How small are her feet?' A plain face is given by heaven but poorly bound feet are a sign of laziness.
My feet were very small indeed. Not like they are now. When I worked so hard and was on my feet all day I slept with the bandages off because my feet ached, and so they spread." The bones broke, pus-filled sores developed, the flesh putrefied, and occasionally a toe dropped off. A few girls got gangrene, and some died. The final product was a sort of clubfoot, less foot than hoof.
“CLEFT”
(2-3 inches deep)

8. EFFECTS - feminine walking style (“totter” along) - symbol of chastity
AN ACCOUNT
Chinese Footbinding
(NOTE: The practice of footbinding began during the T'ang Dynasty in China, originally as a fashion trend among upper-class women. Over the centuries it persisted, and in fact was still practiced by some Chinese in the 20th century, despite many official campaigns to end it. This is from a memoir by a Chinese woman whose name has been lost to history. Her family name is Chang.)
I was born in western Hunan Province, during the Manchu Dynasty. In accordance with custom, at the age of seven I began binding. I had witnessed the pain of my cousins, and in the year it was to begin, I was very much frightened. That autumn, distress befell me. One day my mother told me, "You are now seven, just the right age for binding. If we wait, your foot will harden, increasing the pain. You should have started in the spring, but because you were weak we waited until now. Girls in other families have already completed the process. We will start tomorrow. I will do this for you lightly, so it won't hurt so much. What daughter doesn't have to go through this?"
She then gave me fruit to eat, showed me a new pain of phoenix-tip shoes, and beguiled me with these words: "Only with bound feet can you wear such beautiful shoes. Otherwise, you'll become a big-footed barbarian and everyone will laugh at you and be ashamed." I felt moved by a desire to be beautiful and became steadfast in my determination. I stayed awake all night.
I got up early the next morning and saw that everything had been prepared. Mother had me sit on a stool. She threaded a needle and placed it in my hair, cut off a piece of alum, and put it beside the binding cloth and the shoes. She first soaked my feet in hot water and wiped them, and trimmed my toenails with little scissors. She then took my right foot and massaged the sole. She sprinkled alum between my toes. She gave me a pen point to hold in my hand, because of the belief that it was good luck, and would make my feet as pointed as a pen-point. She then pressed my toes down hard against my feet and began wrapping my feet tightly in cloth. She wrapped five times, then sewed the cloth together. To keep it tight, she tied a cotton thread that connected the front to the rear.
She forced my feet into the flowered shoes that were a little smaller than my feet were. She told me to get down and walk around. At first, I felt a complete loss of movement. After a while, my toes began to hurt intensely. Both my feet became feverish at night and hurt from swelling. If I didn't have to walk, I just sat by the fireplace.
Mother re-bound my feet each week, each time tighter than the last. I became greatly afraid. Once I tried to avoid it by running away to a neighbor's house. If I loosened the bandage, mother would scold me for not wanting to look nice. After half a year, my toes had become uniform, and all faced inward, toward the sole. The foot became more pointed every day. After a full year, my toes began to putrefy. Corns appeared and thickened. Mother would remove the bindings and lance the corns with a needle to get rid of the hard cores. I dreaded this, but Mother always held my legs tight.
When I was nine, Father betrothed me to a neighbor boy named Chao, and I went to their house, to live with my future in-laws. My mother-in-law bound my feet much more tightly than my mother ever had, saying that I hadn't gotten it right yet. If I cried, she beat me. If I loosened the bindings, she beat me until my body was covered in black and blue bruises. Every toe but the big one had become inflamed and deteriorated. Mother-in-law said this was good; I was making progress. But she had to beat me with her fists before I would remove the bindings, which were congealed with pus and blood. To get them loose, such force was required that it always pulled off skin, causing more bleeding. The stench was hard to bear, and I felt pain in my very insides.
Every other day the bindings were made tighter and sewn up, and each time slightly smaller shoes had to be worn. I was trying to cling to life, suffering incredible pain. Because we were an average, working family, I had chores to do, and I had to go to the well as well as pound mortar. Faulty circulation caused me to lose all feeling in my feet in winter. At night, when I tried to warm them by the fireplace, this caused extreme pain. I lost one toe on my right foot. The flesh deteriorated so much that my feet had become as pointed as bamboo shoots, pointing upwards like a red chestnut.
My feet were only three inches long, at most. Relatives and friends praised them. My husband was delighted with them, but two years ago he died. So our family wealth has dissipated, and now I have to wander about, looking for work. I envy the women with natural feet. The difference between them and me is like the difference between Heaven and Hell.
- feminine walking style (“totter” along)
- symbol of chastity
- gangrene, infection...

9. WHY? - mother’s obligation - sexual fetish
- prerequisite for marriage (fidelity)
- status
- fits Confucian teachings (subordinates women)
“If you love your son, you don’t go easy on his studies. If you love your daughter, you don’t go easy on her footbinding.”
Why? Part of it was the subjugation of women. A woman with bound feet could not walk unaided and spent most of her life in her quarters where her faithfulness could be assured. What's weirder is that Chinese men found these deformed and often foul-smelling feet erotic. Bound feet were said to keep the woman's lower body tense during walking (what little she could manage), enlarging her buttocks and tightening her vagina, thereby increasing the male's sexual pleasure. Seeing the unbound foot of one's lady drove men nuts. The tiny foot was a focus of foreplay and was featured in pornography. One of the bigger kicks was drinking wine from cups placed in tiny shoes. 
A. Relativity     According to this argument, there is probably not just one main reason why foot-binding occurred for nearly one thousand years. Dorothy Ko believes that foot-binding was "an amorphous practice that meant different things to different people, depending on their positions in ethnic, social, and gender hierarchies" (Journal of Women's History 1997; p.15). For one mother, this may have meant saving her daughter from a lifetime of being a social outcast and spinsterhood. For another woman, this may have meant pride in expressing her distinction of being a Han after the Manchus conquered Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Korea, and China by For one woman, it meant giving her daughter a proper status and avoiding the anger of her husband's wishes. To her husband, it might have meant a promotion and gifts from a boss as he meticulously planned how to give his daughter away as a respectable, obedient concubine (Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China 1991). But a better question to ask is who was really being satisfied each time a woman bound her daughter's feet?
B. Social Pressure
    People often incredulously wonder how mothers who had loved their daughters could practice such painful, and seemingly inhumane treatment on them. Often it is assumed that this was very easy to carry out against females and that it was probably done because the families did not care whether female children lived or died. Although females were less valued in society, the family members may have viewed the foot-binding of daughters as an investment in them. This was thought to be an investment that would make their daughters more fertile, more sexually pleasing to men, more socially acceptable, and more disciplined (note: these are the arguments which support infibulation and female genital mutilation today). Even the orphanages run by nuns gradually and reluctantly allowed this practice to be allowed on orphans because of the societal treatment of girls and women with unbound feet (Splendid Slippers 1997). If men valued women with bound feet more highly than those with unbound feet, this placed pressure on women to observe the custom by binding their daughters feet. So societal pressure is one reason the practice continued.
C. Eroticism and Attractiveness
    Chinese pornography of the past reflects a preoccupation with the feet, and the men who adored them - "lotus lovers" - became the authors of the classics of brothel culture, which describe in detail the various shapes of bound feet and the erotic practices in which they could be employed.[30] According to Chinese connoisseurs of the golden lotus, the mincing walk necessitated by the bound foot contributed to creating a more voluptuous and sensitive sexual anatomy, and tiny feet were celebrated in poetry and song. The belief was that the smaller the feet, the better. Women in tiny silk slippers enticed men, regardless of whether or not he found the face to be attractive. It was not unusual for men to be aroused just from looking at the tiny silk slippers, with or without a woman wearing them. Men masturbated looking at tiny silk slippers. Men drank from the slippers. Some men would steal slippers, especially red slippers worn to bed by women (Splendid Slippers 1997). They fondled the tiny feet and slippers during sex. To some, the cleft in the foot was treated like a vagina (Splendid Slippers 1997). Another part of eroticism was that women with bound feet were thought to be like well-pruned trees in that the weight of the body was being shifted to just one point of the foot, just as a pruned tree has limbs manipulated to attain the desired effect. The weight shift to just the heels was alleged to have had the effect of tightened vaginal muscles, along with muscular thighs and hips (Splendid Slippers 1997).
    It is important to mention that some debate and are even offended by the erotic stories behind foot-binding. Author, Dorothy Ko, advises people to be cautious in separating what we know to be facts in foot-binding with what is given as facts ('The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Foot-binding in Seventeenth-Century China' 1997). Readers are cautioned to be aware of where the facts come from and what the intentions may have been. For example, a lot of the information we have comes from those voicing their opposition during the late 1800's or early 1900's. Because we know that their purpose was to end foot-binding, we don't know to what degree they may have gone in their attempts to persuade. We also do not know how much western missionaries may have misunderstood regarding why foot-binding was desirable to the Hans. Instead, the reader is advised to examine the literature and pictorial representations of foot-binding from the days before missionaries entered in the 1800's. It is important to note that she isn't denying that foot-binding occurred on a wide-scale basis over one thousand years, but is questioning the accuracy of things like men being so focused on the size of women's feet for eroticism. One example of something she finds particularly offensive is the arousal of men by the smell of women's bound feet.
D. Hans Versus Manchus
    This argues that foot-binding was a sign of loyalty by Hans towards the Ming Dynasty, which ended in The Ming was the last Han dynasty, which ended with the emperor hanging himself as the Manchus took over. This leads some to believe that foot-binding may have begun as a silent form of protest against the Manchus.
E. Immobility, Obedience, and Custom
    A function in foot-binding lay in the disadvantage it placed women in. Most women with bound feet were nearly crippled. And if women were considered at a weaker physical disadvantage before foot-binding, one can only imagine how much more disadvantaged they were afterwards. Foot-binding maintained subservience. In Anatomy of Love  by Dr. Helen Fisher, foot-binding is described as a barrier from the fleeing from the husband's house. She compares this with the history of women after the invention of the plow, which is thought to have changed the status of women forever after. This is because the plow required much more strength (placing more value on males) than the original farming techniques, which involved women using hoes or digging sticks. Dr. Fisher compares the attitudes toward women from early recorded times of about 1100 BC in ancient Mesopotamia where law codes describe women as chattels, or possessions (Anatomy of Love 1992). She goes on to compare foot-binding with "suttee" or sati in India, and the buying and selling of women by the Germanic peoples who invaded classical Rome. Foot-binding has also been compared with female genital mutilation in that both are "supported and transmitted by women" in the belief that it promotes fertility, are said to increase the sexual satisfaction in males, are needed for social acceptance, and are cultural traditions ('Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account' 1996). It seems to support the argument that foot-binding was a method used to control women during a time when women were regarded as little more than property. Whether or not this was the original aim of foot-binding, I am not certain; however, it was used as a way to maintain subservience and immoblility in women. Most people who argue that foot-binding was the result of male domination argue that all of the answers presented for why (eroticism, obedience, social acceptance, social pressure, attractiveness, and many others) were really not at the basis. When each is examined, the question should be 'Who did they do this for?' Did millions do this out of benevolence and altruism or isn't it more realistic to reason that they did these things for subjective reasons with male domination at the heart of it? A good point is that many things are enacted that are given the appearance of legitimacy over time because it becomes a custom. Some women may have bound their daughters feet believing that they were doing this out of custom and to make their daughters respectable, yet in reality they were unknowingly carrying out a seemingly legitimate custom designed to benefit males.

10. TODAY? Are there any similarities in the Western world today???
- facelift
- ribs removed
- silicon implants
- botox injections
- high heels
- beauty pageants
- tattoos
Foot binding is rarely, if ever, practiced today. All modern societies would treat the behavior as child abuse and punish it accordingly. It is commonly cited by sociologists and anthropologists as an example where an extreme deformity (by the standards of both modern societies and from a medical viewpoint) can be viewed as beauty, and also where immense human suffering can be inflicted in the pursuit of a beauty standard.

11. HIGH HEELS
HIGH HEELS
There are many reasons why women desire to wear heels, including:
the change in angle of the foot with respect to the lower leg shortens and accentuates the calves
they make the woman appear taller
one's legs look longer, and therefore more sensuous
the change in gait and posture thrusts the buttocks backwards, and causes the hips sway more - both strong sexual signs
many heels, particularly sandals, make the sole of the foot visible, also a strong sexual sign (see shoe dangling)
stiletto heels appear to some as a phallic symbol
Other associations are more masochistic:
high heels can be painful to wear, particularly for long periods
they shorten the stride of the wearer
they make the wearer less able to run, and hence more vulnerable
they can damage the wearer's feet and tendons when worn over long periods (see below)
progressively higher heels are progressively riskier and more difficult to walk in; tripping is much more likely, and the risk of damaging the wearer's ankles, toes, and feet, both short-term and long-term, is similarly increased.
As a result of these conflicting factors, many women have a love/hate relationship with high-heeled shoes. This does not prevent the majority of women from owning several pair of high heels.
Foot and tendon problems
High-heeled shoes cant the foot forward and down while bending the toes up. This unnatural position, if continued without variation, will cause the Achilles tendon to shorten, causing problems when the wearer chooses lower heels, flats, or walking barefoot. When the foot cants forward, a disproportinately greater amount of the wearer's weight is transferred to the ball of the foot, increasing liklihood of damage to the underlying soft tissure which supports the foot. In many shoes, style dictates function, either compressing the toes, or forcing them together, which results in blisters, corns, hammer-toes, bunions, and many other medical conditions, most of which are permanent, and will require surgery to alleviate the pain.
The best solution to avoid these problems is to avoid heels altogether. If that's not acceptable, then the wearer should ensure they're wearing high heels no more than half the time, and that they're spending at least a third of the time on their feet either barefoot, in flats, or in a good running/walking/cross-training shoe. This regimine will prevent most foot problems associated with high heels.
One of the most crtical problems with high heels with the design and construction of the toebox. Improper construction here wreaks the most damage and long-term pain on the foot. Narrow toe boxes force the toes together. Several celebrities, such as Victoria Beckham, have come to the point where surgery is needed to recover from the damages caused by wearing high heels too often. Ensuring room exists for the toes to assume a normal position and spending sufficient time out of high heels allows the body to repair any damage caused by high heels, thereby recovering to a sufficiently healthy point where high-heel wear remains an option, rather than a debilitating practice. Unfortunately, the most common design trend today is towards the extremely pointed toe.
Block heels do not necessarily offer more stability, and any raised heel with too large a width, such as blade and block heels, induces unhealthy side-to-side torques to the ankle every step. Heels which strike the ground too far after of the ankle over-torque the ankle forward, producing extreme stress on the ankle, and creating additional impact on the ball of the foot, both of which are highly undesirable. Thus, the best design for a high heel is one with a narrower width, where the heel is closer to the front, more solidly under the ankle, where the toe box provides room enough for the toes, and where forward movement of the foot in the shoe is kept in check by material snug across the instep, rather than by toes jamming together in the toe box. Naturally, this rules out most pumps, but boots, particularly lace-ups with a round toe box and forward heel, are surprisingly supportive.
Interestingly enough, despite the medical issues surrounding high heel wear, a few podiatrists recommend a well-constructed low heel of no more than two inches for their patients with flat feet. It appears the moderate heel improves the angle of contact between the metatarsals and the horizontal plane, thereby more closely approximating the angle and resulting weight distribution of a normally-arched foot. The angle for high-arched feet, however, is already overexaggerated, and the wear of heels by those with high arches can be particularly problematic for the metatarsal phalangeal joint.

12. Tattoos & Plastic Surgery

13. JEWELRY & PIERCING

14. BARBIE LOOK & CORSETS

15. CHILD BEAUTY PAGEANTS
(Eden Wood)