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Foot binding in China

  • 27-04-2007 1:37pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,187 ✭✭✭Mrs_Doyle


    Now I've worn some painful shoes in my time, all in the name of fashion, but I have never seen anything quite like this:


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,851 ✭✭✭Glowing


    Thats not something the Chinese kids had done by choice. Their feet would have been bound from about the age of 6, a number of their toes broken in the first year. Caused all sorts of medical problems in later life, infection, hip problems, not to mention the pain!

    Incredibly cruel if you ask me - its actually considered child abuse in China nowadays.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,331 ✭✭✭Keyzer


    Absolutely disgusting....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 411 ✭✭Faerie


    The title of this thread is completely wrong for the topic being discussed! It's not fashion and I don't think you should call it fashion.
    It's an ancient tradition that is only practised in rural parts of China today. Its purpose is to make women's feet look dainty and men liked the way it caused women to walk - tiny bouncy steps (although of course this is because the women is in extreme pain her whole life.) It's also meant to resemble a lotus flower; these flowers have erotic connotations in China.
    Of course the pictures we see of the foot itself would not have been attractive to men but then women would only have removed the wrapping for bathing. In fact, the skin on the foot rots and has to be scraped off regularly.
    Women carried on with this tradition because if they didn't it would be pretty impossible for them to find a husband - it's not a fashion thing. Mothers did it to their daughters at young ages even though they knew the pain of it, because they had to. It's all about male dominance and it's a pretty barbaric custom, so calling it fashion is strange.
    You should read Wild Swans by Jung Chang. She describes how her grandmother had it done and the suffering it caused her, her whole life.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,738 ✭✭✭djkeogh


    That's horrendous. I don't think it belongs in a casual discussion about fashion to be fair.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,186 ✭✭✭✭Sangre


    This is as much fashion as is female circumsion.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,187 ✭✭✭Mrs_Doyle


    Faerie wrote:
    The title of this thread is completely wrong for the topic being discussed! It's not fashion and I don't think you should call it fashion.
    It's an ancient tradition that is only practised in rural parts of China today. Its purpose is to make women's feet look dainty.....

    Apologies. I did not intend for the title to come across as so dismissive.

    Foot binding is similar, in a sense, to the wearing of corsets.

    Both are done for appearances, and both are hugely damaging.

    Women were made to do this because it made their feet look dainty, and like you said, it made them walk in a particular way.
    Sadly, this is fashion. Not in today's terms, but way back when, dainty feet were a fashion trend that people took ridiculously seriously.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,039 ✭✭✭✭Kintarō Hattori


    Wow that is incredibly horrible. To put someone through that is just sickening.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,266 ✭✭✭Rnger


    a warning perhaps? I would have preferred if i never saw those pictures


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 542 ✭✭✭lady_j


    i agree with above, i thought it was going to be humourous images. They werent. Shocking stuff. Cruel


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,083 ✭✭✭✭Stark


    Moved thread from Fashion/Appearance.

    That stuff is way too sick for such a fluffy forum.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    Chairman Mao done away with it. One of the only decent things he did for his people.
    But true, not much different to corsets, rings on your neck or getting your tits sliced open.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    Mao tried to do away with it there are places in the countryside were it is still practiced.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,234 ✭✭✭Edwardius


    No chance of fallen arches though!


  • Posts: 0 CMod ✭✭✭✭ Layton Quick Grindstone


    Glowing wrote:
    Thats not something the Chinese kids had done by choice. Their feet would have been bound from about the age of 6, a number of their toes broken in the first year. Caused all sorts of medical problems in later life, infection, hip problems, not to mention the pain!

    Incredibly cruel if you ask me - its actually considered child abuse in China nowadays.

    The book Wild Swans mentions it, I think it was more like 2-3, when the child's foot was still early developing. 6 sounds a little late to have started it.

    Yes, it's absolutely appalling.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,867 ✭✭✭Demonique


    Thaedydal wrote:
    Mao tried to do away with it there are places in the countryside were it is still practiced.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding

    That link doesn't say anything about places in the countryside where it is still practiced.

    It says 'Foot binding is rarely practiced today'. It is against the law in China, and 'Many people would treat the behavior as child abuse and punish it accordingly'.

    I don't know what the punishment for footbinding in China would be, but seeing as killing a panda carries the death penalty, footbinding wouldn't be treated as a light thing!


This discussion has been closed.
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