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#1
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02-07-2010, 10:15 PM
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 My Rank: CORPORAL Poster Rank:1698 Can't you tell? :) Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 318 318Posts 61Thanked 0Quoted 0Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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China's Lotus Feet
Welcome to my first post!  The 'ideal' length of a perfect foot, called the "Golden Lotus", was three inches long. This was a rare occurrence, this 3 inch perfection, but it was something to strive for nonetheless. Perfect feet were seen as a type of dowry to sweeten the pot when trying to marry off your daughter to someone with Standing. If your feet ended up over four inches long you could pretty much forget them bringing you any extra leverage when marriage offers came around - they were considered too large, and ruined; all the work done to mutilate them had been a "waste" of time. But aside from its materialistic purpose, what motivated millions of women in ancient China to practice this painful art? All in the name of sex... The story goes that the practice started in the 9th century when an Imperial concubine had her feet bound because her Prince loved her little feet. Other women started copying this "desirable" look, and the teeter-totter sway it produced as you tried not to fall on your face somehow got to be seen as 'erotic'. In ancient Chinese sex manuals, the fold between the ball and heel of the foot was the preferred site for intercourse. Whether the women got a thing out of the whole act was less than unimportant. Foot binding was designed to literally keep women in their place. Regarded as property, they couldn't walk more than a few steps with out someone to support them. This guaranteed they weren't going to get anywhere unless they were willing to crawl. In spite of all this, they were expected to keep up with all daily duties including house cleaning and child raising. Stools were often put in chains in the homes and kitchens so all the women could scoot from one to the next without their feet touching the floor, or they would endure a life of traveling on their knees which would cause blistering and swelling of excruciating proportions. Many women spent their "leisure" time making elaborate shoes for themselves. The ability to decorate the deformity was also seen as an expected part of the "art". Weird huh?  ·  ·  · |
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#8
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02-09-2010, 08:56 PM
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| My Rank: CORPORAL Poster Rank:1698 Can't you tell? :) Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 318 318Posts 61Thanked 0Quoted 0Mentioned 0Contrib. |
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Re: China's Lotus Feet
Well, I guess the men during their time did..but not for me! I'd find them freaky! When I was a kid, we had a Chinese neighbor whose mom's feet were like that..unfortunately for her, she perished in a fire because she couldn't walk fast enough to get out in time...
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