Chinese Foot Binding

By Stephen in Don't try this at home, Shocking

Suffering in the name of beauty is a concept familiar to most women who have dyed, plucked or shaved hair, squeezed their feet into uncomfortable high heels or even gone through plastic surgery. Millions of Chinese women, however, went even further — binding their feet to turn them into the dearly sought after “three-inch golden lotuses.”

At that time, bound feet were actually considered highly erotic and a status symbol – the only way for a woman to marry into money. Footbinding was first banned in 1912, but some continued binding their feet in secret. Some of the last survivors of this barbaric practice are still living in Liuyicun, a village in Southern China’s Yunnan province.

Wang Lifen was just 7 years old when her mother started binding her feet: breaking her toes and binding them underneath the sole of the foot with bandages. After her mother died, Wang carried on, breaking the arch of her own foot to force her toes and heel ever closer. Now 79, Wang no longer remembers the pain.

“Because I bound my own feet, I could manipulate them more gently until the bones were broken. Young bones are soft, and break more easily,” she says.

All in the name of fashion, acceptance and even love. Now that’s scary.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding