Women Should Not Be A Mandatory Procedure For Chinese Women

According to Mackie (1996: 1001) the practice of foot binding spread from the imperial palace, transmitting down through the classes until it was nearly universally adopted. Thus, foot binding can be seen as symbolising one's status. Foot binding came to symbolise gentility, and it was only the absolute lowest of the lower class who were the exception to the convention. Such destitute individuals could not afford for female family members to be foot-bound when their manual labour was needed (Mackie 1996: 1001). However, to avoid such disgrace, many poor families preferred to “struggle along for a precarious living, bringing up their daughters with small feet” (Doolittle 1865: 201). This is in keeping with Veblen's (1934) view that foot binding is a costly display of a family's wealth (Mackie 1996: 1002). Likewise in Africa, female mutilation reportedly spread partly due to individuals wanting to emulate their higher status neighbours who had already adopted the practice (Mackie 1996: 1004). In addition to symbolising wealth, Mackie suggests that female mutilation symbolises a family's commitment to values of purity and chastity (Mackie 1996: 1000, 1008). Given the costs and risks associated with female mutilation, that a family would choose to commit to the practice shows how willing they are to ensure that males can be confident in terms of paternity. With this intention, female mutilation can be seen as symbolising a female's purity and future fidelity (Mackie 1996:

    As part of a practice, Chinese girls have their feet put in bindings. These bindings are part of a process known as foot binding. The foot binding reconstructs their feet physically and marks their worthiness in the eyes of their civilization. Lily has her feet put in bindings for these reasons. However, not only does it change her feet and worth, but the foot binding also alters her “whole character,” causing her to “follow” demands “without question” (4). It is from her lack of rebellion that Lily hides her emotional suffering. Her hurt stems from not telling anyone of the “torturous pain” buried deep in her “heart, mind, and soul” (4). Moreover, from this agony, a battle rages with “the person [she] should

What Is Foot Binding? Foot binding is a process used by all women during the Tang Dynasty. Women did this to show their high status and rank. This was a sign of beauty.

A central idea of Lensey Namioka’s novel, Ties That Bind, Ties That Break, is that we don’t have to diminish ourselves to societies standards. With the setting being in the early 1900’s of China, we meet the main character, Ailin Tao, who shows us that traditions and standards are meant to be broken. Ailin is a five-year-old girl who refuses to have her feet bound, which causes her engagement to be broken and later become the symbol of shame for her family. Eventually, after ending up in America, Ailin proves that she didn’t need her feet bound in order to make a living. Whilst talking with a fellow passenger on her voyage to America, it is brought to her attention that “[she is] a revolutionary, and [is admired] for fighting a war, a war against

Foot binding is now considered a very extreme and cruel form of body modification. It is almost near impossible to find information on the subject without it being shed in a negative light. The important thing to remember, however, is that body modification in different cultures is usually viewed as a right of passage and honor, not a form of torture. To be able to have your body altered to the definition of beauty in China’s society was a great privilege, and surpassed any pain that went along with the modification.

In the article, Ko highlights the many misconceptions modern people have on footbinding such as keeping a woman’s foot bound, kept them in a hobbled and subservient domestic state or as sex objects . Afterwards, she states that our “certainties may turn out to be dead wrong” suggesting to readers that she is going to shine a positive light on footbinding. Ko goes more in depth about the three things men believed footbinding was, and why the tradition of binding ones foot was important at that time. The Chinese believed that wearing shoes differentiated and distinguished them from beasts as well as savages

The power of how women feel about there own bodies is a big issue in today's society, but that doesn't mean she was right about everything. Mernissi's went a little to far when she compared Western men's control to the Chinese foot-binding. Which was causing women pain to being what Chinese men thought smaller feet was labeled beautiful. Western women choose to do things to there body for themselves not because a man or the government told her too. Foot binding doesn't even compare to the Western society's form of beauty.

Despite the oppression women were subjected to in China, they still occasionally overcame it and accomplished something extraordinary. Some worked, and helped to earn the family living, some were extremely honorable in their efforts to uphold their chastity or their family's honor, and some accomplished even more influential feats. Fa Mu Lan trained for fifteen years in order to become a woman warrior. She became as strong as a man, but swifter and more graceful. After saving her father from the draft by dressing up as a man, she assembled an army. Her army never lost, because Kuan Kung, the god of war and literature, would always ride before her into battle. Interestingly enough, another of the more extraordinary feats was that of

Foot binding has been illegal in china for a century. But a number of older women, who, continued the traditional custom in secret, are now featuring in a new photography series that aims to bust myth about bound feet.

Imagine someone’s toes must be bound except the big toe against the soles of their feet. It hurts just to think about it, doesn 't it? Traditions can make someone powerful by accomplishing them yet painful at the same time. Beauty traditions that girls go through bring pain. Family honor is also the reason why girls uphold such traditions. In the novel Ties that Bind, Ties that Break by Lensey Namioka, she explains how young Chinese girls are afflicted by pain by getting their feet bound. Being able to have bound feet are something those young girls have to bear. Also, “The journey by Inner Light”, by Meeta Kaur, she explain her journey to find her inner self both mentally and physically through her tradition. By following the

Women have been taught from a young age about her their future roles of wife, mother and daughter-in-law. In the book Lesson for Women written during the Han dynasty by Ban Chao a woman for unmarried daughters to prepare them for their duties in marriage teaches women to practice humility, obedience and devotion to her husband (e). This shows that women were expected to work for her husband and his family, thus constantly self-sacrificing by putting other before her needs. Confucianism wanted cosmic order through patriarchal families as the foundation for a stable society where women were not given the freedom to make their own decisions because her role was within the family and her status was not equal to a

She states “with living creatures one must begin very early to dwarf their growth,” seemingly still referring to the bonsai tree, but then adds “the bound feet, the crippled brain, the hair in curlers” (17-22). All of these are examples of female subjugation. , listed in a significant order. The first is the Chinese practice of foot binding; literally breaking and folding women and girls’ feet, crippling them for life for the

When coupled with the line "the bound feet" (Piercy, 20), the poem appears as if it were a comment solely about the injustice forced upon Chinese women from 934 until 1949. Foot binding is a painful process which includes breaking all of the toes and arch of the foot to grossly alter the shape of the foot, so that the foot, when mature would be no more than four inches long.  The first break was usually made when a girl was three to five years old, then the feet were wrapped in yards of cloth to prevent them from growing or reshaping. The pain from the initial break was nothing compared to the enduring pain the women experienced for the rest of their lives. The pain was caused by the drastically deformed feet. (Chinese foot binding- lotus shoes)

Beauty of a woman was very important to men because it often showed wealth. Footbinding was a cruel way to show a woman’s beauty in Ancient China, especially during the Song dynasty. It is thought that foot binding began in around 900 AD during the Tang dynasty and continued until 1911 when it was finally banned. "The practice of binding feet was originally introduced about a thousand years ago, allegedly by a concubine of the emperor. Not only was the sight of women hobbling on tiny feet considered erotic, men would also get excited playing with bound feet, which were always hidden in embroidered silk shoes” (Wild Swans) Footbinding was considered very attractive and was very common. Many times, a girl who did not have bound feet were rejected by

At the age of two to eight, female children would undergo the process of foot binding this would be done by bending/breaking the individuals four small toes underneath the sole of the foot, then would be wrapped in a tight bandage in order to make the foot appear four-inches long The process of foot binding would take six to ten years to completely reform the foot Animal blood and herbs were also used throughout this process (Tan, M 2012) This cultural practice took place in order for the women to be deemed gentle and to appear more feminine and beautiful