Foot Binding Essay

982 Words4 Pages
“Foot binding in China originated from the Five Dynasties Period 907-960AD” ( Foot Binding in Ancient China, n.d.). Foot binding was a terrible practice that took away a girls’ childhood, subordinated women in the eyes of men, and showed the beauty the men wanted to see. It was a practice that won’t be out ruled for centuries to come, and all women could do was continue to bind their feet ( Bound to Be Beautiful: Foot Binding in Ancient China, 2005). The10th century wasn’t exactly the time period that respected women. Foot binding was something that started being practiced, and the girls who were from four to six years old had to start going through the same pain. Mothers and grandmothers didn’t try to stop this, instead they had to bind their own daughters feet ( Smith, n.d.). This is the age where kids are suppose to be happy and not worry about pain, but China had something else in mind. “Foot binding would occur in a ritualistic ceremony accompanied by other traditions intending to ward of bad luck” ( Schiavenza, 2013). The main reason that their was no one who spoke up, was that this was starting to be more and more widely known, which made it impossible to stop. The method used to make the feet so small was done by using a piece of cloth. The mothers would start “bending all the toes except the big one inward and under the sole of the foot. Large stones were placed on top of the foot to crush the arch” ( Feet Binding, n.d.). “Footbinding was viewed as a rite of passage for young girls and was believed to be preparation for puberty” ( Smith, n.d.). This was the way of making girls mature because a kid would never go through such pain, so in reality these girls were becoming women. Once the little girls became women things got worse. They became more and more out of place. women were viewed as helpless, and they became subordinated to men. Foot binding was
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