I've just started reading a book this week (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See), set in China in the mid 1800's, the story of a girl growing up basically. I'm not very far in so I can't comment too much myself yet, but there are reviews here and here.
Anyway, I've just gotten past the part about foot binding. It's grotesque but also fascinating. Not knowing too much about the topic, I had assumed the feet were bound tight as a child to prevent them growing any larger. But in the instance spoken about in this book, it's far more involved; a process of remodelling the entire shape of the foot, so that it starts from the heel, arcs straight up through the arch, and straight back down again into a point at the front. To create the point at the front, the big tow is left out, while the other four toes are bound under, pulled in tight along the side of the foot, until the toes eventually break and reset creating a cone shape down the front of the foot. (I won't go into any more detail here, but there's a great blog post overview with pictures here.)
Like I said grotesque but also fascinating.
The process was carried out on all girls in order to make them marry-able.
Lucky for me this no longer applies. However, it strikes me that the shape of these feet are very much replicated in the shape of our everyday high-heels. I hardly ever wear high heels, in fact I've been doing special ankle-aerobics (hehehe, well, sort of) just to get myself strong enough to be able to wear them all day at our wedding. So I'm curious now, wondering... while I'm glad I never had to break my feet to mary my man, I have fallen into reshaping them for the day.
(Having said that... By God my shoes are great! I am dying to wear them!)
I could have worn flats (and I might still pack some for later on in the night anyway), but Mr You is more than a foot taller than me. If I have any chance of getting in a photo with him, I'm going to need all the height I can get! ;)
4 comments:
We humans have certainly been responsible for some unbelievable and grotesque practices-I mean who on earth decided that bound feet were the way to go? Those poor girls-it makes you just cringe.i would be interested to see how you find the book as you get further into it
Selvedge magazine did a feature on a collector of the shoes, which are at once fascinating and horrifying. I am not convinced though that historians won't look back on botox and tweezers and a range of our own beauty contraptions - I am sure others can think of more - and wonder at why we tortured ourselves.
Heels it has to be Ms. You can wear flats later, but heels it must be.
Love you.
Renee xoxo
I've actually seen old photos of Chinese gals' feet without their wrappings on - it no longer actually looks like a foot at all - really very dreadful IMO. Still, westerner's used to wear those corsets which deformed the rib cage, didn't they? Sounds like a good book despite the feet bit!!
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