Footbinding in Asia
Foot binding in China, has been in chinese culture for years. Foot binding was first started when one of the rulers in China had a daughter born with a deformation in the feet. To save her from future humiliation, the ruler claimed that the smaller the feet, the more beautiful the women were. Foot binding involves the breaking of toes to create a smaller foot size.
The feet were wrapped in gauss extremely tight. Doing this eventually broke the toes to create smaller feet. This was done to girls at a young age. The gauss is unwrapped after awhile, and then is wrapped even tighter to continue shrinking the feet. This caused a lot of pain and discomfort.
Binding feet in China was viewed as beautiful. Although foot binding caused a lot of pain, the foot would also get many infections after being wrapped in gauss for so long. The skin is not capable of breathing and this may cause horrible infections. The infections may cause further health issues. The foot binding process was done to many girls, and having bound feet was viewed as a symbol of high-class and royalty. After the feet are bound, the feet are no longer than three inches.
Bound feet is a form of body modification. Many may say this is extreme, but then again, it is apart of Chinese culture. Our own culture has it's own forms of body modification to be beautiful. Every culture has a form of body modification that is viewed as beautiful. A popular one would be braces. Many believe straight, so called "perfect" teeth is beautiful therefore braces come along.
Many say this is going to the extreme, but I don't mind it all that much. Everyone has something one may find odd in ones culture. I do think, that in many cases body modification isn't nessesarry because you were made how you are and you shouldn't need to try and change that. As long as it makes one happy, & confident, and they're doing it for themselves, i don't have a problem with it.
The feet were wrapped in gauss extremely tight. Doing this eventually broke the toes to create smaller feet. This was done to girls at a young age. The gauss is unwrapped after awhile, and then is wrapped even tighter to continue shrinking the feet. This caused a lot of pain and discomfort.
Binding feet in China was viewed as beautiful. Although foot binding caused a lot of pain, the foot would also get many infections after being wrapped in gauss for so long. The skin is not capable of breathing and this may cause horrible infections. The infections may cause further health issues. The foot binding process was done to many girls, and having bound feet was viewed as a symbol of high-class and royalty. After the feet are bound, the feet are no longer than three inches.
Bound feet is a form of body modification. Many may say this is extreme, but then again, it is apart of Chinese culture. Our own culture has it's own forms of body modification to be beautiful. Every culture has a form of body modification that is viewed as beautiful. A popular one would be braces. Many believe straight, so called "perfect" teeth is beautiful therefore braces come along.
Many say this is going to the extreme, but I don't mind it all that much. Everyone has something one may find odd in ones culture. I do think, that in many cases body modification isn't nessesarry because you were made how you are and you shouldn't need to try and change that. As long as it makes one happy, & confident, and they're doing it for themselves, i don't have a problem with it.