Foot Binding


In Chapter 8 in the Women in the Song Dynasty section, it was interesting to learn about foot binding. The book stated that this was the most compelling expression of a tightening patriarchy. Apparently beginning among dancers and courtesans in the tenth or eleventh century C.E., this practice involved the tight wrapping of young girls’ feet, usually breaking the bones of the foot and causing intense pain. During and after the Song dynasty, foot binding spread widely among the elite families and later became even more widespread in Chinese Society (Strayer 371). After reading about foot binding, I just thought it was a terrible thing all together. I see that foot binding was associated with new images of female beauty and eroticism but if it involves torturing yourself than it should not be worth it. I agree with the mothers who imposed this painful procedure at the time because I do not believe. For many women in this era it became a rite of passage and source of some pride in their tiny feet and the beautiful slippers that encased them, even the occasion for poetry for some literate women. Foot binding also distinguished Chinese women from their “barbarian” counterparts and elite women from commoners and peasants. I can see how this process separated elite women from commoners but this unpleasant process should not have taken place. They could have established other processes to separate commoners from elite women such as the clothes they wore. Furthermore, I wonder what people today would say about this process if it was still practiced today?

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