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 We
have all heard of
the practice of foot binding prevalent in ancient
China but not many of us are probably aware of how
severe and painful this practice was. Women with small
feet were considered the ultimate in sexual appeal and
eligibility for
a good marriage depended solely on this criteria in
those days. Chinese families, depending on how
affluent they were, bound the feet of their girl
children between the ages of three to seven years.
Those who were less well-off stalled this for as long
as they could so that their daughter could be useful
longer around the house and the fields. Once her feet
were bound, she would not be able to move out at all.
Presumably, this was also one of the reasons that foot
binding became so popular, it insured that the woman
would remain mainly confined to the home and depend
solely on her husband also ensuring that this way she
would remain chaste.
What
did foot binding actually involve?
To
give an extremely graphic account, the feet had to
first be washed and
massaged, after which, all except the first toe were
broken and tied tightly under the foot. Then the
arches were broken and the feet was bound tightly
in extreme concavity with a long cloth bandage.
Every day the bandage had to be removed, the feet
were washed and massaged, toe nails were cut so
that they would not cut into the instep and cause
infections and then the bandage had to be bound back
tightly again. In order to avoid severe infections
like gangrene from setting in due to complete lack of
blood supply and also to ease the pain, the feet were
given hot and cold baths and regular attention.
Gradually, extra flesh would rot and fall off due to
lack of circulation and blood supply and the feet
became narrower and shorter. The feet were put into
smaller and smaller shoes and the bandages were bound
tighter every day till they achieved the perfect size
of three to four inches to fit into Lotus shoes.
The
process was not only excruciatingly painful for the
little girl when the feet were actually broken and
bound but it was also very tedious for the family to
care for her during the next two or three years. Not
only that, during this period, the girl would be quite
useless since even trying to put weight on her
feet would mean excruciating pain.
At the end of this period, the girl would have
a badly contorted pair of feet which were considered
the epitome of femininity and the only criterion for
getting a good husband. The higher the social status
of the family, the more important was this criterion.
The
practice of foot binding started in the tenth century
and lasted for approximately one thousand years until
the Manchu
Dynasty was toppled in 1911 and the New
Republic banned foot binding. During this period,
approximately one billion women had their feet bound.
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