Footbinding of Women

Take a look at the palm of your hand. Look at the size of it, just the palm – that’s excluding your fingers. Imagine that your feet were that size too. Not a dainty little, perfectly formed, foot and toes but your real-size foot bent and broken to fit into a shoe just three and a half inches long. Now have a look at your foot, place the palm of your hand next to it, and think about squeezing your foot to fit into a shoe that size.

The custom of footbinding was inflicted on women in parts of China for almost one thousand years, and these women were unable ever to walk easily or without pain. Footbinding was still practiced less than a century ago, and the reasons for doing it were any or all of the following:

• Tiny feet were considered to be sexy.
• Footbinding kept the women physically weak and therefore dependent on their fathers and husbands.
• A woman with bound feet would be less able to run away from, or be stolen from her husband.
• A man looked good if he was able to afford to keep a helpless wife or mistress.
• An immobile wife would not be able to run around and be unfaithful to her husband.
• A woman with natural feet would not be able to get a husband.

At some stage when a girl was between three and seven years old, the time would come for her to stop running and playing so that the footbinding process could begin. All her toes except the biggest would be folded under her foot (sometimes the toes might be broken to get a better shape) and made to form a point. Then the little girl’s toes would be bound tightly in that position with bandages.

Next, her whole foot would be arched toe-to-heel and bound with more bandages to keep it in this shape. Try to squash your own foot like that with your hands, and think about trying to walk, or run.  Every couple of weeks the bandages would be removed and reapplied more tightly, and yet more painfully.

After two years or so, the young lass’s foot would at last be small enough to fit into a pointed shoe no more than three or four inches long. Her feet would have to remain bound for her whole lifetime to stop them from unfolding.

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