Foot-binding in Imperial China
“The sight of a woman teetering on bound feet was supposed to have an erotic effect on men, partly because her vulnerability induced a feeling of protectiveness in the onlooker.”
- Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Foot binding, to fit a cultural ideal of beauty, took away women's rights because they could barely walk.
"For about two or three years, little girls go through the inferno of torture: the flesh of her feet, which are tightly bound with layers of bandages day and night, is slowly putrefied, her toes crushed under the soles, and the insteps arched to the degree where the toes and heels meet. Loving mothers suddenly turn into monsters that beat their sobbing girls with sticks or brooms, forcing them to hop around to speed up the rotting flesh and made sure the bones are broken properly. "
- Wang Ping in Aching for Beauty: Foot binding in China
China's last foot binding survivors by Reuters
Testimony of woman who had her feet bound:
“She (the mother) ordered me to walk but when I did the pain proved unbearable [...] 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 puss and blood; in winter, my feet felt cold because of lack of circulation [...] My shanks were thin, my feet became humped, ugly and odoriferous.”
“She (the mother) ordered me to walk but when I did the pain proved unbearable [...] 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 puss and blood; in winter, my feet felt cold because of lack of circulation [...] My shanks were thin, my feet became humped, ugly and odoriferous.”
Audio Testimony of a woman with bound feet:
Foot binding was outlawed by Mao Zedong in 1949 when he became the Chairman of the PRC.