Why?

•  Women who did not have their feet bound were viewed as having “clown-feet” and were not fit to be married to any man of rank.

•  If was socially embarrassing and shameful to be discovered without bound feet.

Why?

•  Because women’s feet were bound, they had much less power, and could be easily dominated by their husbands/men in the society.

•  During this period, women were seen as an objects. Appealing to men mattered more to the girls than their health.

Stopping a Custom

•  Foot binding did not stay popular forever. •  In the mid-1600s the Manchus took over the Yuan dynasty to

create the Qing Empire. The Manchus were strongly against foot binding.

•  The Qing Empire began to charge people for having daughters with bound feet and prohibiting it in areas they could control.

•  The practiced nevertheless continued. It had become so much part of the Chinese culture and family traditions, that the government could not stop it.

Stopping a Custom

•  The nationalist revolution helped destroy foot binding for good.

•  In 1911 after the revolution of Sun Yat-Sen, foot binding officially ended, with the exception of some women in the country/rural areas who continued this tradition.

Reflections

•  Foot binding was more than a fashion statement, it was a way of life for about one billion women.

•  It took much more than laws and protests to bring foot binding to an end.

•  Foot binding had higher consequences, greater appeal, and was more desirable than any other practice women implemented to be beautiful in history.

Reflections

•  Foot binding was not just a fashion statement. It had the purpose woman more desirable, increasing her marriageability, and providing her with a higher social status.

Reflections

•  Foot binding physically crippled women, but also crippled Chinese society.

•  Being physically crippled by foot binding, women had little role in the government.

•  It was a custom that started out to define beauty but ended up defining the way the society was.

The shoes

Our Society

•  In our society, do we experience unnecessary pain in order to be beautiful, handsome, or more attractive?

•  What things have we done in the past, and what things do we do know for beauty’s sake?

The Corset

High Heels

Tattoos

Piercings

“Enhancements”

Essay Prompt

•  What is your opinion of Foot Binding? Is it “beautiful?”

•  If you had been born in China when Foot Binding “was all the rage,” do you think you would still find it ugly, or would you find it attractive?

•  What parts of our society compare to Chinese foot binding?