why? - weebly · • foot binding was more than a fashion statement, it was a way of life for about...
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Why?
• Women who did not have their feet bound were viewed as having “clown-feet” and were not fit to be married to any man of rank.
• If was socially embarrassing and shameful to be discovered without bound feet.
Why?
• Because women’s feet were bound, they had much less power, and could be easily dominated by their husbands/men in the society.
• During this period, women were seen as an objects. Appealing to men mattered more to the girls than their health.
Stopping a Custom
• Foot binding did not stay popular forever. • In the mid-1600s the Manchus took over the Yuan dynasty to
create the Qing Empire. The Manchus were strongly against foot binding.
• The Qing Empire began to charge people for having daughters with bound feet and prohibiting it in areas they could control.
• The practiced nevertheless continued. It had become so much part of the Chinese culture and family traditions, that the government could not stop it.
Stopping a Custom
• The nationalist revolution helped destroy foot binding for good.
• In 1911 after the revolution of Sun Yat-Sen, foot binding officially ended, with the exception of some women in the country/rural areas who continued this tradition.
Reflections
• Foot binding was more than a fashion statement, it was a way of life for about one billion women.
• It took much more than laws and protests to bring foot binding to an end.
• Foot binding had higher consequences, greater appeal, and was more desirable than any other practice women implemented to be beautiful in history.
Reflections
• Foot binding was not just a fashion statement. It had the purpose woman more desirable, increasing her marriageability, and providing her with a higher social status.
Reflections
• Foot binding physically crippled women, but also crippled Chinese society.
• Being physically crippled by foot binding, women had little role in the government.
• It was a custom that started out to define beauty but ended up defining the way the society was.
The shoes
Our Society
• In our society, do we experience unnecessary pain in order to be beautiful, handsome, or more attractive?
• What things have we done in the past, and what things do we do know for beauty’s sake?
The Corset
High Heels
Tattoos
Piercings
“Enhancements”
Essay Prompt
• What is your opinion of Foot Binding? Is it “beautiful?”
• If you had been born in China when Foot Binding “was all the rage,” do you think you would still find it ugly, or would you find it attractive?
• What parts of our society compare to Chinese foot binding?