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Viewed 69221 times
Chinese footbinding
 1. Xixi | 2006-08-31 | English HOT topic

Most of more than 80 years old chinese women are still having really small feet, they had footbinding when they were young... that was really painful to do ... but at that time people feel small feet are sexy and pretty, so if ur feet not binded it might be really hard to get any man's interested!!! the smaller the better - the girls with the smallest feet would be able to marry to the richest families. Also it was mandated by the king.

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 2. Xixi | 2006-08-31 | English
This is how those women get binding their feet and get shoes on.... rich families daughters started doing this from 2 years old. The poor families couldn't afford binding materials so they usually started later, age 6 or so.





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 3. Xixi | 2006-08-31 | English
 
 


Basically thier 4 toes from each feet must be broken when they started binding. Then u can get the shape and make it so tiny.

It's really painful from the start and actually it hurts all your life. But i guess people do anything for beauty. These days western young kids do piercings all ove their body even without anyone forcing them... i can never understand that! smiley
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 4. Cynthia | 2006-09-1 | English
I do agree that a lot of these piercings do look horrible, but at least it does not affect their ability to walk and they don't have to break bones to do it.  I remember studying foot-binding in social studies in school. It lead to many complications later in life for these women.  I'm very glad it's not a required practice anymore.  Do any women still do it today?  I hope not. I'd hate to see someone go through so much pain to achieve beauty. 

Just think of some of the other painful things women do to look beautiful.  Waxing I hear is painful too.  I'll stick to my razor and shaving cream...LOL.  Plastic surgery is the big thing going now.  Sometimes it requires breaking bones and then reshaping.  That's ok, I'll stick to the way I look.  If they don't like it, they can move on.
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 5. Denis | 2006-10-8 | English
This reminds me to the women of the Padaung-tribe. The Padaung live around Loikaw (near the border of yanmar and Thailand), 96 kilometer tof Kalaw.

I guess, making their neck to look longer has also a beauty reason.... man man....

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 6. shirley | 2006-10-9 | English
when i was about 4years old , i had saw that kind of old woman,and she want help me do it , i was crying ~~~ ,then  protect my foot , sometimes crying also lucky ^_^~~
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 7. HappyInSZ | 2006-12-7 | English
It's kind of beast's action to women! A torture to women! Crude and lack of human behavior! I dont see any beauty from it!
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 8. seaghost | 2007-06-2 | English
It looks very painful. I like women's feet as they are. Not like this. smiley
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 9. joke | 2007-06-2 | English
smiley that is crude and ugly.I hate that
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 10. Guest | 2007-06-7 | English
smiley that must really hurt!!
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 11. Guest | 2007-06-22 | English
smiley THE THINGS WE AS WOMEN WILL DO FOR YOU KNUCLE HEADED MEN.
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 12. Guest | 2007-07-7 | English
what small shoes
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 13. Guest | 2007-07-17 | English
lack of self realization on the womens part.

lack of sense of self.

lack of importance.

desperate desire to be maintained/ thirst for an easy life/ status

a cop-out.

a masculine societys means of subjugation.

people in effect act according to popular trend/
however sickened & perverted, or in this case, distorted realized as sensuous & desirable

but it is deficient of any thing empowering for women.

in species, there must always be a submissive for the dominant to control.
when the constraints are broken there is always confusion

a world new is a world of fear.

the trouble in destroying tradition
is much like destroying purpose.

these things can become undone.

the world sort of appears to be less reliant on pleasing men.
as more & more humankind are becoming equals and a division of rights between sexes is lessening.

especially in america.

www.myspace.com/irrect
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 14. Guest | 2007-08-2 | English
it was done to keep women submissive, and dependent on their husbands. a woman that can't walk, will not run or stand up for herself, or in any other way rise to achieve her full potential.
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 15. maxoxo | 2007-08-15 | English
wow.  I just read a book called Snow Flower and the fan, and it was about foot binding.  I was just wondering where you found all of your information and pictures?
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 16. Xixi | 2007-08-15 | English
maxoxo: wow.  I just read a book called Snow Flower and the fan, and it was about foot binding.  I was just wondering where you found all of your information and pictures?
hehe, It's easy for me, becouse I am Chinese. Easy to find infomation in Chinese.smiley
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 17. Guest | 2007-08-15 | English
Thanks for the information.  I am also reading "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan."  I wanted to know a little more before I started chapter 2, and I found your site!!
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 18. Guest | 2007-08-17 | English
crazy
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 19. Guest | 2007-08-18 | English
I too am reading the book "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" What an awful thing to put children through.
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 20. Guest | 2007-08-22 | English
I think, as a girl it is cruel to do and very painful and not fair that women have to do this. why not men too? I just read the book ties that bind ties that break, and i cried...smiley I dont get how men used to find things like these attractive. In the book it said that men found bound feet attractive.
Love
The two that find feet binding UNFAIR!
 21. Guest | 2007-08-26 | Finnish
Issau
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 22. justwanttopost | 2007-08-29 | English
I recently read "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" as well which is what inspired me to look for pictures/information on foot binding.  It was described in the book, but still hard to imagine!  After seeing the pictures, it really is interesting what different cultures define as beautiful and desireable.  I think that the feet look HORRIBLE and the furthest thing from sexy that there is!  However, I understand that this was great beauty. 

Although it is not a forced tradition now, I wonder if the practice is still somewhat commonplace?  ...Old traditions and ways of thinking are often hard to break....
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 23. Wen | 2007-08-29 | English
I feel even these days people still have some weird "attractive" things, like tattoo, or lots of different types of crazy piercings. Those also really hurt... but seems still lots of people like to do it... smiley
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 24. justwanttopost | 2007-08-30 | English
But a piercing is a quick procedure that then quickly heels.  There is not the breaking of bones involved!  Of course some of the things that are done with spacings are kind of crazy, but I do not think that the pain involved is nearly as great as that of the foot binding.....
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 25. justwanttopost | 2007-08-30 | English
But a piercing is a quick procedure that then quickly heels.  There is not the breaking of bones involved!  Of course some of the things that are done with spacings are kind of crazy, but I do not think that the pain involved is nearly as great as that of the foot binding.....
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 26. Guest | 2007-09-4 | English
that is some scary stuff
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 27. Guest | 2007-09-6 | English
THat is very stupid to do that to your feet. i would never do that to my feet.
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 28. Guest | 2007-09-8 | English
shirley: when i was about 4years old , i had saw that kind of old woman,and she want help me do it , i was crying ~~~ ,then  protect my foot , sometimes crying also lucky ^_^~~
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 29. Guest | 2007-09-14 | English
Starting at such a young age, just think of alll of life that these girls (and women) missed out on. Just the simple pleasure of running and exploring as a child was robbed of them~for what!? If men found this attractive, I think those men are perverted and cruel.  I also am reading "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and it is heartbreaking to think that at 6 or 7 years olld (or even younger!) these girls lives were changed forever at the hands of ignorant people following ignorant traditons.
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 30. Guest | 2007-09-19 | English
Thats sooo........   grose and theres nothing pretty or beautifull about it it looks hidious!
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 31. Guest | 2007-09-27 | English
I'm also reading Snow Flower...the idea of how women have to suffer and degrade themselves so much for their self-worth hasn't really changed that much when you think about it.  Even in highly developed countries like the U.S. women are mutating themselves and putting their health and lives at risk at a staggering rate.  In all levels of society.  How about the African counties where women are still forced into castration?!   UGH!!!!!!!
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 32. Guest | 2007-10-4 | English
smiley
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 33. Guest | 2007-10-14 | English
smiley

Footbinding is freaking nasty....they were freaks back in the day.  They should have taken both the mans balls!
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 34. Guest | 2007-10-21 | English
i think foot binding is amazing. All girls should have their feet bound!
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 35. Guest | 2007-10-23 | English
fetish
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 36. Guest | 2007-11-7 | English
smileyits descosting
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 37. Guest | 2007-12-10 | English
ouch that looks like it hurts i wouldn't do that but i guesssmiley
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 38. Guest | 2007-12-11 | English
lick my balls everyone hahah suck to be chinese jp what a horrible thing sorry lord that aint right
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 39. hmorea | 2007-12-27 | English
I have also just finished Snowflower and the Secret Fan, which has lead me to actually look for pictures of what foot binding looks like.  I will have to admit that the pictures were not as bad as my mind conjured up from the description in the book.
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 40. Guest | 2008-01-8 | English
smiley oh that is really sad.
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 41. Guest | 2008-02-8 | English
it wasn't strictly women who did this, some men also binded their feet. Though these were usually performers or male prostitutes.
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 42. Guest | 2008-02-13 | English
smileybinding womens feet had to hurt i would cry and betg my mom so i would not be married i don't care.
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 43. Guest | 2008-02-29 | English
Just as something to add, if I remember correctly, the ideal foot was the "golden lotus", four inches long or less. Foot binding was not only painful, it was a dangerous, since the girls feet were prone to infection.
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 44. Guest | 2008-03-7 | English
smiley I feel sorry for these peoplesmiley
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 45. joyous | 2008-03-10 | English
I have just started reading Snowflower and the Secret Fan after having read the author's other book, Peony in Love.  I had of course heard of foot binding but like many others who have posted here, couldn't really picture what a bound foot looked like.  I thought ALL the toes were bent under and couldn't figure out how the result could be pointed.  Now I understand how the big toe is left intact and the others wrapped under.  It really is a disgusting custom but as others have said, they might think some of the things Americans do (Botox injections, plastic surgery, "branding") are disgusting too.  Let's be glad that this custom has come to an end and that female Chinese children are free to run and play as all children should.  We should all strive to love and accept ourselves and others as we (they) are.
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 46. Janessa | 2008-03-11 | English
I read "Ties that Bind, Ties that Break," about a girl who rebels against being footbound.
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 47. Guest | 2008-03-15 | English
lol
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 48. Guest | 2008-03-29 | English
to cynthia:
u really dont kno what ur talking about. girls as young as 4 had their four smallest toes borken and pulled back as far as possible to their heel. and most of them can't walk.
you can't compare waxing your legs (which women can CHOOSE to do) to foot binding.
those girls couldnt choose to not have it done, their parents made them.
so get ur shit right
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 49. Guest | 2008-04-25 | English
that is not nice
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 50. beth1234 | 2008-07-25 | English
Maybe everyone should snap back to reality and think about the fact that this was going on 80 years ago, long before women were deemed equal to men.  Back then, when the only way a woman could increase her wealth and her family's wealth was to marry into a richer family.  For them this is all they could do to pay back to their loved ones all the time and money that they had put into them.  Women saw it, back in the day, that this was their job - to give back to their family by marrying in a social level above or equal to their current ranking.  And if this is one of the only ways in which they could get into a higher social standing...then they did not complain otherwise.  They would paint their face, put on their dresses and learn their manners and dances with no arguments with their parents b/c they respected them enough to want to see their parents succeed and benefit from their marriage.  You also have to realize that children in China and other European and Asian countries put respect of elders and well-being of their loved ones a lot higher on the list than the cut-throat Americans do.  So your reality check for the night is that this is a different culture and a different time period than that of today.  In the 1950s women wore skirts and it was frowned upon to wear pants; today, society has advanced to where women are seen as equals thus we wear pants.  Times change and so do customs and cultures.
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 51. christina | 2009-02-1 | English

I earned about the foot binding in Global but it was my teachers first teaching job so he didn't know much about the subject.  I also saw a tv show about the women that put rings around their necks tomake them look longer.  the rings actually pushed their shoulders down instead of stretching therir necks.  Their is also a tribe of people that stretch thir heads to look like cones, and people that use a razor to make their skin look like a aligator.  I find their customs interesting, they are way better thn the ones in the Unite States.
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 52. WILL | 2009-04-14 | English
smileythey areeeeee  crazy wtf?





who in daa worlld wold want there feet like dat?






i surely wouldnt! ewww
lmaoo'




ahaha but w/e




and doesnt it cut ther bloood circulation?

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 53. Jazz | 2009-04-22 | English
I agree with basically everything everyone else said. I read a true account of a grandmother in China who had her feet bound and I nearly cried. That is so cruel!! To think that it was required by the King and all the rich families. My God! It's exactly the same concept as female circumcision-men making women suffer to maintain the status quo. I bet if a man had his feet bound and found out just how painful it is, they would have put a stop to it pretty quickly in those days.
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 54. Alžbeta | 2009-06-25 | English
OK, it was really terrible, but does some1 do it now??? i think it is one of silly old traditions, that have to end and thats all!!!smiley
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