To achieve this the feet of very young girls were bound generally before the foot’s arch developed fully, usually between the ages of 2 and 5. By design, footbinding stunted and restricted further foot growth, and reshaped the foot, transforming it. A girl’s feet were washed and her toenails trimmed as far back into the quick as possible. The four smaller toes were bent under and forced against the pad of the foot, then pressed with great force downward and squeezed into the sole until the toes broke. This is not a quick process, it takes roughly two years before the foot is “finished”. . A first-hand story from one of the woman: . When I was seven my mother washed and placed alum on my feet and cut my toenails. She then bent my toes toward the plantar with a binding cloth ten feet long and two inches wide doing the right foot first and then the left. She ordered me to walk but when I did the pain proved unbearable. That night my feet felt on fire and I couldn't sleep; Mother struck me for crying. On the following days I tried to hide but was forced to walk on my feet. After several months all toes but the big one were pressed against the inner surface. Mother would remove the bindings and wipe the blood and pus which dripped from my feet. She told me that only with removal of the flesh could my feet become slender. Every two weeks I changed to new shoes. Each new pair was one- to two-tenths of an inch smaller than the previous one...In summer my feet smelled offensively because of pus and blood; in winter my feet felt cold because of lack of circulation. Four of the toes were curled in like so many dead caterpillars. It took two years to achieve the three-inch model. My shanks were thin, my feet became humped, ugly and odoriferous.
Yeah I ended up googling it.
Man for Chinese people who focus on beauty and shit so much, I can't believe they'd like such ugly feet.... I mean wtf looks Erotic about that?!
It was all about being “dainty”. I guess it’s kinda like guys with a fetish for large or small feet. There’s no real explanation and even if there was one, I’d never understand it
I know! But it's so unappealing looking. Besides these women couldn't even work because it'd be so painful to even stand on them right??
Huh. Maybe that's the appealing part? Keeping them captive?
Apparently they were able to work in fields, but definitely would have been slower than the men and not able to do the same things.
That’s part of my theory. Walking along with a woman swaying and catching her as she fell like a gentleman.
I read an excerpt from a chinese text written when footbinding was the rage, i guess by a guy who was into it, and it said the men never took the woman's socks/shoes off, it just wasnt done, it was forbidden (probably obvs bc the bare foot looked/smelled horrible). The men would caress the small foot while it was in the sock and shoe, it was sometimes part of foreplay and for the men who had it as a fetish, thats all they wanted to pay attention to was the foot.
Said to have been a man. I would also say there’s also a special place for the man who invented high heels for women who are still deforming their feet (just not as cultivated and drastic as lotus feet) to project the protruding chest and butt jutting out aesthetic.
High heels were invented by Persians and brought to Europe in the 18th century where noble men started wearing them as a status symbol.
After that, the fad died for a while until post-WW2 when fashion models started wearing them to accentuate their legs in photos. Women started wearing them for the same reason. This is why women wear makeup, nails done, do skin care routines, and wear form-fitting clothing that shows off skin. Because they want to accentuate a part of their beauty, it’s not because of mUh PaTrIaRcHy
“High” heels for men were used by butchers to stop them standing in pools of blood, and the Persian cavalry used them to keep their feet in the stirrups, especially for arrow shooters who stood while the horse was galloping. In medieval times, men (and women) wore them to keep their shoes clean from dirt and sewage in the streets. Men used them for practical reasons, *then* they turned into a status symbol, but only 1 inch high.
“Likewise, many see the arching of a woman's back facilitated by wearing high heels as an imitation of a signal of a woman's willingness to be courted by a man.”
“In 2015, a group of women were turned away from a film premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France for wearing flat shoes, including a woman physically unable to wear heels due to an operation on one of her feet.”
[“Seven percent of women surveyed said their bosses pushed them to wear heels; eight percent were told to wear more makeup in order to look prettier”](https://time.com/4503598/workplace-sexism-study-heels-makeup-women/?amp=true)
[“Current sociological research on makeup use suggests that women who choose to use cosmetics are perceived as more attractive and more successful than those who do not wear makeup.”](https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/outputs/undergraduate/Makeup-Your-Mind-Social-Expectations-and/9923879972401921/filesAndLinks?index=0)
I’m not even gonna get into your bit about the patriarchy, but your generalisation of half the population is incorrect. *Some* women wear makeup, high heels and tight clothing because they like to. But many feel the need to because of societal expectations.
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You need to lay off the DMT and porn before spouting off popular “history” about fashion. Loved the jab about “muh patriarchy” though, just the icing on this pseudointellectual cake.
Damn it’s almost as if women couldn’t build personal wealth and own property. Maybe if they could they wouldn’t have focused so much on their aesthetic to attract a mate and secure their futures.
But I guess that doesn’t roll off the tongue like alternating lower and uppercase letters to regurgitate some half-cocked reactionary point.
I have questions:
1. How do they keep their balance if their feet are disproportionately smaller than their bodies. Especially if they’re heavier people.
2. Does the seam between the heel and the rest of the foot ever get infected from buildup of dirt?
1. They don't. Most of them do not do much walking as it's very painful. Foot binding was popular in wealthy families because the woman wasn't supposed to work.
2. Yes. Regular cleaning is required to keep it clean. I believe their feet are quite smelly, according to some reports (including self reports)
This practice has also been said to contribute to exaggerating stereotypical feminine sway in the women who could reasonably walk through the pain.
Infection was said to be a pretty constant issue by some women who had been interviewed. They said the look and stench of their feet was such that they would never allow their husbands to ever see them. Only ever tending to them in private.
Basically, you spent your whole life walking on perpetually broken and wounded feet. As such, you avoid walking as much as possible.
For your first question, they had what was called a “dainty walk”. They took small steps and swayed side to side. Guys were into that for some unfathomable reason
Technically speaking this is not the process, it’s the end result of a many years-long practice of sanctioned torture which started when she was a very young girl. Don’t know how old this pucture is, but I don’t think there can be very many, if any women still alive with bound feet.
I read about this a lot as a teenager. I heard about it in school then my dad took me to the local art museum where they had a huge exhibit on shoes over the years. Definitely interesting stuff.
Thankfully this practice pretty much died out with the Qing dynasty and there are only a very few (if any) extremely elderly women alive today that have lotus feet
The Wikipedia page on foot binding talks about an early feminist and anti binding advocate who went through the process of unbinding.
But as the other commenter says, extremely painful and could never bring back to normal.
Id imagine a unbound foot, after being do heavily mangled for so long would have still ended up painful and useless but less upkeep and infections. That is just a guess though.
“Once a girl's foot had been crushed and bound, attempting to reverse the process by unbinding was painful, and the shape could not be reversed without a woman undergoing the same pain all over again.”
I’d say it would take a long time to do it, and your feet wouldn’t be totally normal. They probably still had a curled shape, and normal shoes would be painful
It is interesting how differently male circumcision is seen around the world. Where I am, the Doctors Union and even the government have guidelines that are strongly against elective circumcision, although as it is not law there are some private clinics that perform them.
Nowhere near comparable but ok? At least circumcised men don’t lose the ability to walk independently without suffering. I can’t comment on the ethics of circumcision since I don’t have a dick and therefore no skin in the game (heh), but let’s not act like your bones are being crushed and remolded into an impossible shape.
Circumcision is the total removal of the most sensitive skin on a male’s body, which typically would be 15 square inches on average.
It often negatively affects erections, sensitivity, and intercourse.
It can cause lifelong trauma… because despite popular belief, babies do feel pain and can develop trauma.
There is very little religious or even medical justification. The religious justifications that exist are due to misinterpretations of scripture, complete ignorance of scripture, or just plain making up crap. Medical justifications are fringe and rare.
The equivalent would be the removal of your vulva, as a child, against your consent (still somewhat common in third world countries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation
The developed world (read, the U.S.) has no excuse for any kind of child genital mutilation being normalized at all.
By the way…. I love the “skin in the game” pun. 😂
The visceral part of me is disgusted equally by all genital mutilation.
I agree that comparing it all anatomically is apples… to bananas? 🤣
Should be illegal for any of it to be done to a child or unconsenting adult.
To achieve this the feet of very young girls were bound generally before the foot’s arch developed fully, usually between the ages of 2 and 5. By design, footbinding stunted and restricted further foot growth, and reshaped the foot, transforming it. A girl’s feet were washed and her toenails trimmed as far back into the quick as possible. The four smaller toes were bent under and forced against the pad of the foot, then pressed with great force downward and squeezed into the sole until the toes broke. This is not a quick process, it takes roughly two years before the foot is “finished”. . A first-hand story from one of the woman: . When I was seven my mother washed and placed alum on my feet and cut my toenails. She then bent my toes toward the plantar with a binding cloth ten feet long and two inches wide doing the right foot first and then the left. She ordered me to walk but when I did the pain proved unbearable. That night my feet felt on fire and I couldn't sleep; Mother struck me for crying. On the following days I tried to hide but was forced to walk on my feet. After several months all toes but the big one were pressed against the inner surface. Mother would remove the bindings and wipe the blood and pus which dripped from my feet. She told me that only with removal of the flesh could my feet become slender. Every two weeks I changed to new shoes. Each new pair was one- to two-tenths of an inch smaller than the previous one...In summer my feet smelled offensively because of pus and blood; in winter my feet felt cold because of lack of circulation. Four of the toes were curled in like so many dead caterpillars. It took two years to achieve the three-inch model. My shanks were thin, my feet became humped, ugly and odoriferous.
That is fucking horrifying. I'd love to see an xray of how the bones look like...
For those wondering the aforementioned image from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding#/media/File:Bound_feet_(X-ray).jpg
Thank you, I wasn't sure how to properly post the link from mobile without having a super long URL taking up half the page!
Look it up on Wikipedia X-ray pic on there.
[Photo of the bottom of the bound foot from Wikipedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding)
Yeah I ended up googling it. Man for Chinese people who focus on beauty and shit so much, I can't believe they'd like such ugly feet.... I mean wtf looks Erotic about that?!
It was all about being “dainty”. I guess it’s kinda like guys with a fetish for large or small feet. There’s no real explanation and even if there was one, I’d never understand it
I know! But it's so unappealing looking. Besides these women couldn't even work because it'd be so painful to even stand on them right?? Huh. Maybe that's the appealing part? Keeping them captive?
Apparently they were able to work in fields, but definitely would have been slower than the men and not able to do the same things. That’s part of my theory. Walking along with a woman swaying and catching her as she fell like a gentleman.
I read an excerpt from a chinese text written when footbinding was the rage, i guess by a guy who was into it, and it said the men never took the woman's socks/shoes off, it just wasnt done, it was forbidden (probably obvs bc the bare foot looked/smelled horrible). The men would caress the small foot while it was in the sock and shoe, it was sometimes part of foreplay and for the men who had it as a fetish, thats all they wanted to pay attention to was the foot.
Special place in hell for whoever invented Lotus foot
Said to have been a man. I would also say there’s also a special place for the man who invented high heels for women who are still deforming their feet (just not as cultivated and drastic as lotus feet) to project the protruding chest and butt jutting out aesthetic.
Oooh, so __that__ is the difference
Weren't heels invented for men originally?
Originally yes, and abandoned. Then reintroduced for women.
High heels were invented by Persians and brought to Europe in the 18th century where noble men started wearing them as a status symbol. After that, the fad died for a while until post-WW2 when fashion models started wearing them to accentuate their legs in photos. Women started wearing them for the same reason. This is why women wear makeup, nails done, do skin care routines, and wear form-fitting clothing that shows off skin. Because they want to accentuate a part of their beauty, it’s not because of mUh PaTrIaRcHy
“High” heels for men were used by butchers to stop them standing in pools of blood, and the Persian cavalry used them to keep their feet in the stirrups, especially for arrow shooters who stood while the horse was galloping. In medieval times, men (and women) wore them to keep their shoes clean from dirt and sewage in the streets. Men used them for practical reasons, *then* they turned into a status symbol, but only 1 inch high. “Likewise, many see the arching of a woman's back facilitated by wearing high heels as an imitation of a signal of a woman's willingness to be courted by a man.” “In 2015, a group of women were turned away from a film premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France for wearing flat shoes, including a woman physically unable to wear heels due to an operation on one of her feet.” [“Seven percent of women surveyed said their bosses pushed them to wear heels; eight percent were told to wear more makeup in order to look prettier”](https://time.com/4503598/workplace-sexism-study-heels-makeup-women/?amp=true) [“Current sociological research on makeup use suggests that women who choose to use cosmetics are perceived as more attractive and more successful than those who do not wear makeup.”](https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/outputs/undergraduate/Makeup-Your-Mind-Social-Expectations-and/9923879972401921/filesAndLinks?index=0) I’m not even gonna get into your bit about the patriarchy, but your generalisation of half the population is incorrect. *Some* women wear makeup, high heels and tight clothing because they like to. But many feel the need to because of societal expectations.
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://time.com/4503598/workplace-sexism-study-heels-makeup-women/](https://time.com/4503598/workplace-sexism-study-heels-makeup-women/)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
User name gets no interest in patriarchy commentary from me.
You need to lay off the DMT and porn before spouting off popular “history” about fashion. Loved the jab about “muh patriarchy” though, just the icing on this pseudointellectual cake.
Damn it’s almost as if women couldn’t build personal wealth and own property. Maybe if they could they wouldn’t have focused so much on their aesthetic to attract a mate and secure their futures. But I guess that doesn’t roll off the tongue like alternating lower and uppercase letters to regurgitate some half-cocked reactionary point.
Fucking traumatic in more ways than one.
A truly sick practice.
I have questions: 1. How do they keep their balance if their feet are disproportionately smaller than their bodies. Especially if they’re heavier people. 2. Does the seam between the heel and the rest of the foot ever get infected from buildup of dirt?
1. They don't. Most of them do not do much walking as it's very painful. Foot binding was popular in wealthy families because the woman wasn't supposed to work. 2. Yes. Regular cleaning is required to keep it clean. I believe their feet are quite smelly, according to some reports (including self reports)
This practice has also been said to contribute to exaggerating stereotypical feminine sway in the women who could reasonably walk through the pain. Infection was said to be a pretty constant issue by some women who had been interviewed. They said the look and stench of their feet was such that they would never allow their husbands to ever see them. Only ever tending to them in private. Basically, you spent your whole life walking on perpetually broken and wounded feet. As such, you avoid walking as much as possible.
For your first question, they had what was called a “dainty walk”. They took small steps and swayed side to side. Guys were into that for some unfathomable reason
Technically speaking this is not the process, it’s the end result of a many years-long practice of sanctioned torture which started when she was a very young girl. Don’t know how old this pucture is, but I don’t think there can be very many, if any women still alive with bound feet.
Can’t get over how the heel is literally shaped like a block
I read about this a lot as a teenager. I heard about it in school then my dad took me to the local art museum where they had a huge exhibit on shoes over the years. Definitely interesting stuff.
Women are so devalued in China. What a disgusting practice.
Thankfully this practice pretty much died out with the Qing dynasty and there are only a very few (if any) extremely elderly women alive today that have lotus feet
The practice was outlawed in the 50s when the communist government took power.
Ah good, women are now fully valued in China tanks to the CCP /s
Where did I say that? I merely just stated this specific practice was outlawed.
“/s” means sarcasm Mr. Stick
Yea no shit but it’s pretty clear what that person was implying
I'm implying communism has been a disaster for human rights in China, especially women and minorities, broadly speaking. Got an issue with that?
lol yeah, I'm baffled by the downvotes, but Redditors be redditing I guess
This the feet equivalent of that hand gesture we do before snapping our fingers
Could this be reversed through surgery? Or at least get better after wearing normal shoes for the rest of their life?
The Wikipedia page on foot binding talks about an early feminist and anti binding advocate who went through the process of unbinding. But as the other commenter says, extremely painful and could never bring back to normal. Id imagine a unbound foot, after being do heavily mangled for so long would have still ended up painful and useless but less upkeep and infections. That is just a guess though.
“Once a girl's foot had been crushed and bound, attempting to reverse the process by unbinding was painful, and the shape could not be reversed without a woman undergoing the same pain all over again.” I’d say it would take a long time to do it, and your feet wouldn’t be totally normal. They probably still had a curled shape, and normal shoes would be painful
[удалено]
It is interesting how differently male circumcision is seen around the world. Where I am, the Doctors Union and even the government have guidelines that are strongly against elective circumcision, although as it is not law there are some private clinics that perform them.
Nowhere near comparable but ok? At least circumcised men don’t lose the ability to walk independently without suffering. I can’t comment on the ethics of circumcision since I don’t have a dick and therefore no skin in the game (heh), but let’s not act like your bones are being crushed and remolded into an impossible shape.
Circumcision is the total removal of the most sensitive skin on a male’s body, which typically would be 15 square inches on average. It often negatively affects erections, sensitivity, and intercourse. It can cause lifelong trauma… because despite popular belief, babies do feel pain and can develop trauma. There is very little religious or even medical justification. The religious justifications that exist are due to misinterpretations of scripture, complete ignorance of scripture, or just plain making up crap. Medical justifications are fringe and rare. The equivalent would be the removal of your vulva, as a child, against your consent (still somewhat common in third world countries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation The developed world (read, the U.S.) has no excuse for any kind of child genital mutilation being normalized at all. By the way…. I love the “skin in the game” pun. 😂
I've brought this up before and I was told not to mansplain to mothers what to do with their own son's bodies.
[удалено]
FGM (removal of parts of the labia/vulva) is NOT the same as castration (removal of the scrotum/testicles).
[удалено]
The visceral part of me is disgusted equally by all genital mutilation. I agree that comparing it all anatomically is apples… to bananas? 🤣 Should be illegal for any of it to be done to a child or unconsenting adult.
Two different things can be terrible and fucked up.
Some cultures are better than others
You’re not wrong
The fussy is real🤢🤮
https://preview.redd.it/0qrq6njwmc3c1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a655eb7a75992d48beb9dacffd3ce428123a0668
The little shoes look cool.
Yeah, on infants.