foot+binding+halle

=
In the Chinese Culture men were the one that ruled and women were nothing to them. The effect of foot binding in the Chinese culture was that women were less likely to get married, if your feet were not bound you were considered lower class and women went through torture and pain to have their feet bound. ===== Twisted deformed feet, pain and torture is the only way to describe foot binding. Foot bounding became a tool of marriage. Men looked for women with bounded feet and more women began to bind their feet in order to please their new husband. Many marriages at this time were arranged, it wasn’t necessary the men that thought bound feet was attractive for his family. This meant parents who wanted their daughter to get married were encouraged had to bind her feet. It was also a reason for a men to call off marriage if he found out the women he was arranged to marry didn’t have bound feet. It become that foot binding was the only right thing to do for your daughter; mothers were required to bind her daughter’s feet or she was most likely not to get married. Men of higher classes also looked for women with bound feet to marry. "I regret binding my feet," Zhou says. "I can't dance, I can't move properly. I regret it a lot. But at the time, if you didn't bind your feet, no one would marry you."(Louisa) Foot bonding was a treat for the rich it made the women have someone wait and not useful around the house. It was hard on the women that need to help around the house. Lower class people could not afford to bind their daughter’s feet but they did anyways for the hope that she would marry someone in the middle class. Unlike the lower class the middle class women didn’t have physical labor and work to do for there family to survive. Every child in a family in a lower class that had their feet bound; couldn’t do work in the fields so the family lost money. One girl from Tongan’s account of her experience with foot binding exemplifies this point, “Father took me to Xian men once, when I was quite small. I saw girls with tiny feet, in lovely shoes, and I wanted my feet bound to be beautiful like them. I begged Mother to bind me, and she agreed, saying that if I could stand the pain, a rich man might marry me, because I had a pretty face too”. (Ann) This shows that even at a young girl they wanted to have their feet bonded so they could be married and in a higher class. The process of foot binding is very terrifying. Girls bind their feet around the age four to seven. At the begging a bandage, ten feet long and two inches wide was wrapped tightly around the foot, forcing the four small toes under the sole of the foot. This made the feet narrower but at the same time it made the feet shorter because it also forced the big toe and the heel closer together by bowing the arch of the foot. The bandage was tightened every day and the girl was put in a smaller shoe size. The whole process to around two years and by the end the feet were useless. The feet had to be washed and manicured on a daily basis. If not manicured properly the toe nails could cut the feet and start infection. The feet had to be massaged and given hot and cold compress to help relieve the pain and help improve circulation. With the lack of circulation flesh would rot and fall off and sometimes the toes would ooze pus. The ideal foot has about three to four inches long. The women in China got their feet bind because it helped them get married. The lower class women wanted to be higher class and the higher class men would only marry them if their feet were bond. The process is very awful and dreadful. Men back then wanted women to look a certain way just like men now want women to look a certain way. Men back then wanted women to have small feet but men now want women to be skinny.

Louisa, Lim. "Painful Memories for China's Footbinding Survivors." //npr//. National public radio, march 19, 2007. Web. 2011. .

Ann, Wagner. "Web page template." //academic//. academic, n.d. Web. 2011. . James, Crites. "Chinese Foot Binding." //Angelfire//. Jim@eCrites.com, 1995. Web. 2011. .