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How societies promote beauty culture
How common was foot binding in china
Essays about foot binding in china
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Recommended: How societies promote beauty culture
Kiana Moore
Grose
Eng 102
21 March 2014
Beauty is Pain
Throughout history women have had to endure horrible things to be deemed beautiful. The ancient tradition of foot binding in China, however, takes the “beauty is pain” concept to a whole new level. Foot binding, also known as lotus feet, is the Chinese custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of a young girl to break all of the bones in both feet and to also prevent further growth in order to keep the feet three inches long. Although one may feel that this was completely ridiculous, having this procedure done meant that a girl will be able to get married to a wealthy man and will be referred to as attractive. The cost of beauty comes with a massive price as well. The loss of the ability to walk is the biggest price a Chinese girl had to pay in order to be accepted in the Chinese culture. During the Sung Dynasty period, women have mutilated, bound, deformed, permanently damaged and altered their bodies not only to be accepted in society, but also to satisfy men erotically and sexually as well as weaken themselves to make men feel more powerful.
No one is quite sure exactly how the process of foot binding was first started or how it gained its popularity, but there are a lot of tall tales. Some believe that the practice began when a concubine called “Precious Thing” belonging to Prince Li Yu danced somewhat like a ballerina on her toes. She did this inside a six foot high lotus. From there, the custom is believed to have been picked up by royalty before becoming popular with commoners. The second belief originated among upper-class court dancers. Court dancers wrapped their feet in white silk to dance atop a golden lotus sculpture. The talented dancers bound thei...
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...ese family, woman belonged in the house and had no place in the outside world. Women were bound to patriarchy in the state society. Women were basically enslaved to become married to any man that came about and felt that their feet were tiny enough to be hitched. Chinese female bodies had been successfully used by men to perform the task often impossible crisis in order to idealize loyalty and integrity. All this body modification did was show that women were inferior to man, smaller feet meant a higher status in society, and putting one’s self in agonizing pain to become married meant crippling yourself for your whole entire life. Putting a ban on foot binding was the best choice in the Chinese culture. Today, women can do whatever they want without mutilating, deforming, and permanently damaging their bodies for the acceptance of men and the acceptance of society.
I will be explaining the role of women in society in Bound Feet and Western Dress. The Chinese have traditions that are generations old and are very serious in their culture. These Chinese traditions have been deeply established. In Bound feet and Western Dress, a dispute between Chinese traditions and Westernization of Chinese women begin to emerge. The women in traditional China were treated unequally and were basically looked upon as property for their husband. The women were taken in by the husband’s family and had to always obey their husband and also had to take orders from the husband’s family as well.
Western Perceptions of Chinese eunuchs have for the most part coincided with the idea of “Oriental Despotism,” the notion that Eastern political systems were inherently authoritarian, repressive, and corrupt. In light of this, palace eunuchs were seen by westerners as a sign of degeneracy and savagery. As historians Yosefa Loshitzky and Ryan Meyuha said in their 1992 journal article “’Ecstasy of Difference’: Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor,” eunuchs were regarded by modern Western audiences as distorted, unnatural ‘rarities’ of a former backwards era who were associated with the oddities of a foreign culture.25 As Westerners came into China during the Qing dynasty, they began to associate eunuchs as an “uncivilized phenomenon” that somehow survived long past its expiration date.26
Years later during the Ming and Ch’ing eras it became wide spread among all status levels. Footbinding is a mutilation of the feet by wrapping them up weeks upon weeks to force them into the shape of a lotus flower and keep them at a length of three inches. (p.366) “Small feet became a prestige item to such an extent that a girl without them could not achieve a good marriage arrangement and was subjected to the disrespect and taunts of the community.” (p.364). Eventually lower-class women began using binding to find wealthy husbands.
Traditions in Chinese culture are long-rooted and are taken very seriously from generation to generation. However, there must always be room for modern change in order for society to grow and strive across the globe. In Bound Feet and Western Dress the conflict between Chinese traditions and modern change arises. With this conflict it is important to discuss the different meanings of liberation for men and women and they way in which Chang Yu-I was able to obtain liberation throughout her life.
Written by Feng Jicai, The Three-Inch Golden Lotus centers around a woman named Fragrant Lotus, and the influence foot binding has on her life. At the beginning of the story, Fragrant Lotus is introduced as a young child who is raised by her grandmother, whom she affectionately calls Granny. As her sole caregiver, Fragrant Lotus places a great amount of trust in her Granny, but when the time came for her to have her feet bound, she is utterly terrified. Dating back to 961, foot binding was a practice deeply ingrained in Chinese culture, until its abolishment in the early 20th century. A very painful and tedious procedure, foot binding involved repeated breaking of the fine, unmatured bones of a young girl’s feet. The feet were then bound extremely tight with cloth strips until it was able to fit a three inch shoe. A custom passed from generation to generation, foot binding was viewed as the rite of passage from girl to woman. In addition, bound feet, also referred to as “lotus”, were viewed as a measure of a woman’s beauty and was a heavy determinant of her marriage capability. Granny, a wise woman, knew of the good fortune a perfect pair of lotus would bring, and painstakingly invested in her granddaughter’s future. What followed for Fragrant Lotus ...
Existing as a girl is not necessarily undemanding in general, but can you even begin to envision being a girl in China? At one time, girls were hobbling around with their feet squeezed into tight, painful shoes, generally in agony from the bruises and deep bloody cuts. In fact, foot binding was not the only downgrading act for women. Lensey Namioka gives an inside visual at what it is like to be a girl in China, with her novel Ties That Bind, Ties That Break. This novel follows the life of Ailin, a young girl in China, who struggles with following basic traditions and beliefs. Living life as a girl was not easy for Ailin and she faced an abundance of difficulties, which included, whether she will bind her feet, attend a public school, and what
The Ugly and Beauty Inside The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a story filled with many emotions that help to bring the characters to life, with many of them going through hardships and feelings of great loss. Death states, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). The characters in The Book Thief such as Liesel, Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and Max find themselves in situations where they have to act a certain way so as to not put their own lives in danger. Even if they don’t believe in the same things or have the same values as the Nazi Party, they must pretend in order to keep themselves from danger.
Footbinding was most popular during the Ming Dynasty, if parents cared for their sons they would not go easy on their studies and if they cared for their daughters they would not go easy on their footbinding (Levy, 47-49). One recent study estimated that there are still one million women in China with bound feet. The last Chinese women, still living with bound feet in Hawaii, was in 1994 (Kam, D-6).There are many legends of how footbinding began, one such legend is Lady Yao, a dancer and concubine for Prince Li Yu, danced with such grace that the prince required her to bind her feet to resemble new moons all the time. Another, is that it began out of the sympathy for Empress Taki who had club feet (Aero, 112-113). Although it has not been proven how footbinding started, one of the biggest reasons the practice continued for over 1000 years was it's sexual appeal (Kam, D-1).Humans have shown they will do just about anything- good, evil, or in-between for sex. Footbinding is a very bold issue that many Chinese do not like to talk about.
Also in China girls are made to bind there feet up at an early age so
Firstly, the relationship expectations in Chinese customs and traditions were strongly held onto. The daughters of the Chinese family were considered as a shame for the family. The sons of the family were given more honour than the daughters. In addition, some daughters were even discriminated. “If you want a place in this world ... do not be born as a girl child” (Choy 27). The girls from the Chinese family were considered useless. They were always looked down upon in a family; they felt as if the girls cannot provide a family with wealth. Chinese society is throwing away its little girls at an astounding rate. For every 100 girls registered at birth, there are 118 little boys in other words, nearly one seventh of Chinese girl babies are going missing (Baldwin 40). The parents from Chinese family had a preference for boys as they thought; boys could work and provide the family income. Due to Chinese culture preference to having boys, girls often did not have the right to live. In the Chinese ethnicity, the family always obeyed the elder’s decision. When the family was trying to adapt to the new country and they were tryin...
... Song times was sometimes blamed on Neo-Confucianism. Foot-binding also began during the Song Dynasty. This is the practice of binding the feet of girls with long strips of cloth to keep them from growing large. Moms wanted them to be judged more beautiful.
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China begins with author Jung Chang’s grandmother, who was born in 1909 with the name Yu-fang. In traditional Chinese culture, for any hopes of marriage, the mother must first bind her daughter’s feet. Though a long and painful process, foot binding was considered a beautiful trait in Chinese men’s eyes. By the age of two, Yu-Fang’s feet were bounded and were referred to as “Lotus Feet”. Having one’s feet bounded during this time period, made it difficult for a woman to walk, and spent their life in pain due to the broken arch and constant bending of the toes. Her father, Yang, was determined to have his daughter’s social status...
Kingston uses the story of her aunt to show the gender roles in China. Women had to take and respect gender roles that they were given. Women roles they had to follow were getting married, obey men, be a mother, and provide food. Women had to get married. Kingston states, “When the family found a young man in the next village to be her husband…she would be the first wife, an advantage secure now” (623). This quote shows how women had to get married, which is a role women in China had to follow. Moreover, marriage is a very important step in women lives. The marriage of a couple in the village where Kingston’s aunt lived was very important because any thing an individual would do would affect the village and create social disorder. Men dominated women physically and mentally. In paragraph eighteen, “they both gav...
"There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man of woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer-committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear." George Eliot (1819-80), English novelist,editor. Felis Holt, the Radical, Introduction (1866).What is pain? In the American Heritage Dictionary, pain is referred to as "an unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder." The word is rooted in Middle English, from an Old French piene, from Latin poena, meaning "penalty or pain", and from Greek pointe, meaning "penalty." Pain is a very realistic problem that many individuals face daily.
Mao, John. “Foot Binding: Beauty and Culture”. Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology. 1.2. (2008): n. pag. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec 2011.