Foot Binding ……By Meuy Saechao…… “Every pair of small feet costs a bath of tears” ……By Meuy Saechao……

What is foot binding???????????? It is exactly what it says, binding of the feet, I think of it as twisted deformed feet. Basically it is an attempt to stop growing feet. It is started when a young girl is around 5, some girls start later if their family needed them to work. The feet are wrapped tightly with a long bandage and are unwrapped when the feet have stopped growing, two years after. Foot binding was also a type of leash men had on women. It stopped concubines and wives from running away from their beatings. It made the women dependent on the opposite sex. It made it so the women had to stay at home, insuring her virginity but also depriving her of a open social life and independence.

The Process of Foot Binding….. First the feet are soaked in warm water………………….. Dried, massaged, then the toes nails are trimmed……….. Then a 10 feet strip of cloth is wrapped tightly around the toes, curling them under the soles……………………….. Everyday the feet would be rebound tighter and tighter and fit into a smaller sized shoes…………………….…..

How did foot binding start???? Foot binding started in the late T’ang Dynasty (618-906) and spread to the upper class during the Song Dynasty (960-1297) There are beliefs of how foot binding started: the concubine Yao Niang was ordered to bind her feet so they looked like new moons women bound their feet for sympathy for an empress with club feet foot binding was made stylish by court dancers

The Facts………………………. Tight, painful binding of the feet using bandages to keep the feet as small as three inches This practice made the feet useless and confining the women to their homes Foot binding started when the girl was between three to six years old Normal feet Bound feet, wrapped Bound feet, unwrapped

The Circumstances……………. Binding the feet was the easy part, taking care of them for the rest of your life is not……………………………. If the bindings were too tight it would cut off the circulation to the foot……………………………………. If the feet weren’t manicured properly the toe nails will cut into the foot and could lead to blood poisoning…….. The feet had to be massaged and soaked to relieve pain and help the blood circulation…………………………... Sometimes corns would grow on the toes and would be cut off with a knife……………………………………….. Because of lack of circulation the skin would rot and fall off oozing pus…………………………………………….