Mmm

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MmmBound Feet!
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Why Bind Feet?

• Marriage-ability mothers wanted to ensure the
  best match for their daughters, and women were
  expected to have bound feet
• Sensuality feet binding gave women a lilting
  walk desired by men.
• Confucian ideas about women Their ideal station
  was as a mother in the home. It is no accident
  that foot binding became prevalent in the late
  Tang Dynasty, AFTER the attack on Buddhism as
  foreign influence
• Sign of wealth wealthy women bound their feet
  to a VERY small size and needed servants to help
  with daily tasks and a sedan chair if they were
  walking more than a very short distance.

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Process

• Wait until about age 6-8, so the arch can
  properly develop
• Begin in winter, so your feet are cold and numb
  and the pain is less
• Cut back toenails to prevent in-grown nails and
  infection
• Fold 4 smaller toes under, wrap in 10 foot long
  silk cloth, pulling them toward the heel
• Continue every few days for several years. Toes
  and instep will eventually break.
• Result Super tiny feet the best length was 3
  inches (the golden lotus) but most were between
  4-5 inches, as middle and lower-class women
  needed to be able to walk
• FYI Keep feet bandaged and in pretty silken
  shoes. Feng Xun is recorded as stating, "If you
  remove the shoes and bindings, the aesthetic
  feeling will be destroyed forever. ltltWow.
  Duh.gtgt

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Effects

• In the essay Painful Words About Lotus Hooks by
  Chueh
• Fei-Sheng, he discusses his own wifes foot
  binding
• experience and the frequent pain and infections
  she
• suffered
• I was from an average family, where
  daughters-in-law had to draw water from the well
  and pound the mortar. My wife, with tiny and weak
  feet, couldnt stand the heavy labor. Whenever
  the foot infections caused her to have to sweep
  the floors on her knees, (as a type of soothing
  ointment) I placed bean curd peelings or
  vegetable leaves on her foot bindings. At such
  times, I couldnt help thinking of how evil and
  injurious this custom was suddenly my fondness
  for the golden lotus came to an end.

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Teeny tiny lotus flower feet
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• Crazy, you say?

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