Okay, so I'm playing catch-up. One finds it necessary at times when he's taking 3 classes during summer term. Anyway, in reading about foot binding in Chapter 9, I gotta admit, I was a little put out. I'd heard of breaking femurs and applying braces to lengthen them (so as to make people taller). But foot binding as "associated with new images of female beauty and eroticism (?) that emphasized small size, delicacy (!), and reticence." Really?
Hmm...brings to mind fetishism, of the foot kind in particular. Gross!
Courtesy of NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942
Play on words: "to walk (haha!) through two courtyards is a source of shame for a woman."
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of remarriage, for widows in particular.
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ReplyDeleteThe women who were subjected to footbinding had to endure so much pain in order to achieve "beauty." Can you image what the women's feet looked like when they had to change their binding? I am sure the binding made their feet look like it was a club foot.
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