The beautiful lotus feet: chinese criteria of beauty

                                                                  Lotus feet

 

 

Ancient Chinese oddities were
As myriad as its people.
One of these were bound feet.
A Chinese gentleman judged his woman
By the feet in those days.
Her face mattered but more were her
Feet which had to be as small
As three-inches, a society gauge for
Her breeding and status.
Confucius needs to take part of the
Blame for saying women are born to
Serve their men and no other
Which spawned the bound feet tradition.
Years of pains, tears and sleepless
Nights went into making these
Chinese women walk in little gaits as
Required of a lady, a sign that she was
Not a product of household chores.
Big feet equalled slavery and low births.
An ego trip, it was, for the adherents.

-Description: Foot binding was the custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. In China, this practice was a critera of beauty. It has been illegal since the end of the XIXth century: Many emperors, like The Manchu kangxi Emperor, tried to ban the foot binding practice, but they failed, because people liked it.

-Origins: During the Shang dynasty (from 1600-BC to 1046-BC), the concubine Daji was born with clubfoot. She asked the emperor to make footbinding for all girls in court, so that all the girls would have the same feet, and she could be in the norm.

-Health issues: The most common problem was infections: the feet became infected because of injuries due to the binding. The girls could die if they weren't amputated .  

-Interpretations: Women with perfect lotus feet were likely to be married with a prestigious man. It was also erotic, and there was a sex manual that listed 48 ways of "playing" with those feet.

-Culture: The lotus feet appeared in many artwork, like Lensey Namioka's novel Ties that bind, ties that break. In this novel, a girl named Ailin in China refuses to have her feet bound, wich come to affect her future.