Legend has it that lotus or lily foot slippers first appeared in China in the 11th century when Empress Taki was born with deformed feet. To save her future embarrassment, her father announced that only women with very small feet could be truly feminine and desirable. As a result women began to bind their feet. The tiny, virtually unusable feet were a mark of status, beauty, gentility and sexual attractiveness.
The binding process began at age 5 to 7 years old. Bandages were wrapped around the foot to bend the four smaller toes inward under the foot towards the heel until it resembled a half moon.The majority of young girls had their feet bound by their mothers. Binding a daughters feet would ensure she would be married and hopefully to a wealthy man. The intial process of binding the feet took just one night but the feet took years of pain to conform into the beautiful crescent shape. During a painful 2-3 year period, the size of the shoe was gradually reduced. The most highly desired goal being a size only three inches in length.
These silk shoes only measure 140mm (5½ inches) in length and 24mm (1 inch) in width...
Footbinding was horribly painful. In asking why women would do this we need to understand the history behind the practice. Then we can begin to answer our questions as to why a painful tradition would continue to exist for so long.
In what other ways have women continued to inflict pain upon themselves in the quest for beauty? Are foot binding and other practices acceptable and affirming to women? What should women do to stop the spread of these practices and the pressure placed upon younger women to participate in them? Watch the video below BEFORE responding to this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_FYM2Y4AR4
7 comments:
Niki Hurst(SWGATC)
I believe that some other ways that women have continued to inflict pain upon themselves in the quest of beauty are getting plastic surgery, getting waxed, plucking their eye brows, and quit eating to loose weight. These are things that some females do these days to accomplish their looks because they are afraid of what people would say about them and would judge them. Some of these things could really hurt you and possibly kill you if it wasn’t done right like plastic surgery and trying to quit eating to lose. Some of these practices I believe are acceptable like plucking your eye brows and waxing but the others I don’t think are acceptable. I think if women that have got the plastic surgery done and tried to quit eating to loose weight should encourage the younger generation that they should accept themselves for who they are and don’t worry about what other people say about them because no female was put on this earth to be perfect or to put themselves through the pain to impress somebody else.
Josh(SWGATC)If you think about it. It’s not so different from back then women still go through elaborate and painful methods to make themselves look presentable to the world. Plastic surgery has quickly became the norm for young women that think they have to look a certain way to fit into today’s society, even though its not always the safest way to lose weight we have became lazy as a society and we don’t want to put in the extra effort and work. But the world has become insane putting all this pressure on young girls to look and dress a certain way I think that people should be happy with themselves and that should be enough. It’s better to be different in your own unique way rather than killing yourself to fit somebody else’s expectations. Some things are ok in making yourself look good and giving a good impression but putting yourself through unneeded stress is not the way to go .
Carlee(SWGATC)
The things women put themselves through these days is unreal. They think they have to look a certain way for a guy to even talk to them. I think your natural beatuy is better than anything else, binding your foot just so you can get a husband is plain ridiculous. It needs to stop, the women in China should stand up for themselves. In America women do all kinds of crazy things to make themselves more appeasing to society. It's always a good thing to take care of yourself, but don't go getting carried away with it by getting fake boobs, or lips. Just go with what you got; women are a very beautiful thing on their own.
Donna (SWGATC)
I believe foot binding is totally stupid. There are alot of things today that women do to themselves that aren't so smart either. All the plastic surgeries and tummy tucks that people do can't be good for you. I wish women could feel good about themselves and not have to worry about all the pressures to be perfect. Let's face it, no one is perfect! We all need to just do the best we can and not worry about what other people or ourselves look like. We just need to treat everyone with respect and curtesy and try to be the best we can be.
Trevor (SWGATC)
Foot binding, neck extensions, botox, breast enhancements, and bulimia are all extreme measures women take to make themselves appear more attractive. The reason these measures were taken is because of the importance society as whole places on appearances. Some of these practices aren’t just for the sake of appearances, quite a few of them are based off of religious beliefs. One such example of this is circumsension (for both males and females) which is sometimes used as a “rite of passage” to maturity. Such practices will not stop until society stops placing such importance on appearances which is most likely never going to happen.
Ronald(SWGATC)
Personally, I believe that most of the things women do now days is just plain ignorant. The way I see it is they can do whatever they want because I don’t have to look at them every day. I can’t say all of it is bad because a lot of the things the women do in America is good because there is a lot of people out there that needs certain procedures done to improve their lives and looks has a lot to do with finding a person that they might want to be with and with that being said doesn’t mean it is right but get real this is America and everything revolves around your looks.
Leona(SWGATC)Today women go through extreme and painful measures to look and feel beautiful. Plastic surgery is a number one painful procedure that women go through, laser hair removal, facial injections these are a few of the long list of painful ways to become or be beautiful. Foot binding was a painful way for women to be attractive if they had small feet, which was a long time ago. Today women don’t care about their feet; they care about what people think how they look. Women have to be careful about their choice of p beauty procedure they choose. Some are extensive and could be fatal. God created us all equal, in order for us to set a good example for our younger generation is by doing things naturally. Show them the simple beauty tasks to keep up such as hair cuts, eyebrow waxing, manicure, pedicures and shaving their legs and arm pits. Teach them the good and bad of painful beauty procedures. When they become young women they can make that educated decision to go through any or all of the millions of choices to their bodies through.
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