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#41
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10-29-2012, 11:44 AM
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| My Rank: CORPORAL Poster Rank:1515 Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 375 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 38 Post(s)
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Re: Footbinding-Looks Painful!!! =(
The tradition of binding the feet of Chinese women started, it is strongly believed, in the 10th century and was only universally outlawed in 1949. Incredibly, ten centuries of women suffered this horrible and progressively painful deformation of their feet.When you think about a prosperous Chinese man walking into a room and notice the geisha girl, her hair in a bun, white make-up on the delicate features of her face, you realize that she is shuffling behind her master/husband rather than walking. This is a direct result of childhood foot binding The feet are tightly bound when wealthy Chinese women were but children and after two years, the foot almost doubles over on itself. The bones slowly break in half, leaving a two-inch deep cleft in the bottom of the foot, almost dead center lengthwise, and width wise. While this lotus shape in women’s feet was a source of pride, it was extremely painful for life         |
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#45
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10-29-2012, 05:13 PM
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 ★ Legacy Member ★ Poster Rank:772 I'm not A bitch.... I'm THE bitch. Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 1,033 Mentioned: 4 Post(s) Quoted: 174 Post(s)
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Re: Footbinding-Looks Painful!!! =(
Yes, Glass, it was started when the girls were still infants. Most of the upper class had it done to their women to show their status. It was believed that their women did not have to "be on their feet" to handle manual labor and it was considered "beautiful" in their culture (even though it deformed them and they lived in constant pain throughout their lives). One thing I didn't notice in the OP, though: those women with "lotus" feet usually did not walk, as it was almost impossible. They were carried by servants on litters or ornate boxes with handles run through them. The more ornate the carrier, the wealthier the family. Barbaric practice, IMO. In regards to geishas. One way to view them, in a western sense, is that they were very high-priced escorts, to an extent. They were paid for their beauty and skill with musical instruments, the art of dance, serving tea, etc. They were pretty "ornaments" to have around. They were paid for sex, sometimes, at a steep price. They were not married and did walk subservantly behind men in a show of reverance. The reasoning for them walking so stilted was due to the type of shoes they had to wear. Imagine a thin piece of wood that your foot sat on top of with two smaller pieces glued to the bottom longways (approximately 6-8 inches high) that you had to balance on. **BULLSHIT to that!!!**  As always, hope this helps.  |
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#49
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10-29-2012, 07:56 PM
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 My Rank: STAFF SERGEANT Poster Rank:860 Lady Rat Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 878 Mentioned: 1 Post(s) Quoted: 134 Post(s)
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Re: Footbinding-Looks Painful!!! =(
Nice post but Geishas are Japanese not Chinese. I can't imagine the pain these poor women went through. Yikes.
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