1. Foot binding
By: Sari Kroschel

2. What is it? A very painful process of making a girls feet smaller
The toes are broken backwards
The arch is shifted upwards
The “ideal” foot is about
3 to 4 inches long

3. Reason/History Small feet were considered beautiful
When a boy was trying to find a wife, his mother would look the girl with the smallest feet
It all started in the early 10th century when and emperor had one of his servants bind her feet, then took off with the wealthy

4. Process
Between the ages of 3 and 7, girls had cloths wrapped around their feet.
The cloths bent and broke the toes under their foot and pushed the arch up.
The foot had to be broken many times to get the perfect shape
This kept going on for about 3 years so the foot was as small as it could be.

5. Random facts
The first high-heals were made for people with bounded feet.
If they didn’t have their feet bound, then they had no hope of a good marriage.
They way that they walked was called ‘”Lotus gait”’.

6. The Downside? It hurt, a lot!
Infection was very common , and arthritis stayed with many girls for their entire lives.
All were maimed for life
Because they couldn’t wash all of the folds of skin, they had to always wear shoes or else the smell would be to great.
You couldn’t walk, run, or stand.

7. Today In 1912, the new Republic of China banded foot binding.
Some people ignored the law and still bound their feet.
In about 1930 the tradition died out.
It’s still illegal today.

8. THE END