Footbinding John King Fairbank

756 Words2 Pages

Footbinding The republic of China officially banned the traditional Chinese practice of footbinding in 1911. In “Footbinding”, John King Fairbank tells the story of what he learned about the Chinese tradition of footbinding. Footbinding became popular and a symbol of upper-class status, but it then spread to the lower class and soon became a necessity for marriage. Footbinding started out as a sexual erotic way to control women but in turn was more harmful than good. The binding of feet is extremely dangerous. Women today still harm themselves in a different kind of “binding”. What was once a fetish called footbinding, the forcible deformation of feet into the shape of a lotus, was the necessity of a lifestyle dangerous to oneself; although …show more content…

Years later during the Ming and Ch’ing eras it became wide spread among all status levels. Footbinding is a mutilation of the feet by wrapping them up weeks upon weeks to force them into the shape of a lotus flower and keep them at a length of three inches. (p.366) “Small feet became a prestige item to such an extent that a girl without them could not achieve a good marriage arrangement and was subjected to the disrespect and taunts of the community.” (p.364). Eventually lower-class women began using binding to find wealthy husbands. The eldest daughter would have her feet bound and be married off to a rich man, while her younger sisters would be sold off to the same family as bond-servants or slaves. Girls with unbound feet would become concubines to rich men or be married off to a laboring man so they could work out in the field alongside their husband. …show more content…

They are doing so by messing up their arches and forcing far too much weight on the balls of their feet. Women who wear heels on a daily basis are more at risk of harming themselves. When high heels are worn, this can be a heel of two inches or higher, the feet slide forward forcing the toes into the unnatural shape of the shoe and it redistributes weight improperly. The weight against the toes makes the body tilt forward to compensate for the incline of the foot. While the body tilts forward, typically the reaction is to lean backwards but that will over arch the back creating a straining posture for the lower back, hips, and knees. Over time, constant wearing of heels will lead to chronic pain and destruction of

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