Calling it "bounding" also doesn't express what it really was. Their feet were BROKEN often many times, their broken bones were then pushed towards new positions and then bound to shape. Very often it wasn't done "correctly" so their feet would still be destroyed, but weren't "beautiful" enough to guarantee good marriages. Sometimes bones would protrude through the skin and would have to be shaved off. Girls and women weren't able to take more than few steps and had to take really really tiny steps or be carried around. They also needed to take really good care about their feet, as very often they would get infections or even literally rot. That wasn't binding. That was true torture.
Yes . Also it was meant for the elite girls not all the young girls as it was a status symbol. The girls who had this done to them weren't meant to be walking alot or doing manual labor. Still....What a terrible thing to do to your daughters feet.!
I remember a short story from a literature book when I was younger of a chinese family. And a little girl was putting on her ballet slippers and the grandmother saw it and started scolding her for it and threw away the slippers, and the scolded her parents because how could they do that to their daughter. And the daughter didn't understand, she thought it was about dancing. And then she saw her grandmother's feet. She was told about foot binding and then explained to her grandmother what the slippers were actually for. I think the grandma bought her new ballet slippers and the daughter gave her a special performance. I have no idea why that story stuck in my head
@@kspade1788 do you mean like going on pointe before your feet are mostly grown? Lots of people do flat shoes for several years before demi and full pointe
@@scoutharris8586 i have some dancer friends that started young and their big toes are very deformed. It's not as bad as this video, but ballet does mess up your feet to a certain degree.
I’m Chinese, and when I first heard about this tradition, Ngl I kinda threw up after I saw pictures. This practice is ABSOULUTLEY TERRIBLE. And the fact that they would do this to kids make my heart burn. God bless you
Hey I know this is random as hell, but I just want you to know that not all Americans view Chinese people in a negative way. I personally love your culture, traditions, and have been treated with kindness from your people
@bigpapaplantman5126 same. I love Chinese culture and am fascinated with their history. It's really only there, government I don't like. Then again, I don't like my own government either.
Well sadly, in ancient China, if your girl was attractive enough to get a wealthy man it could mean the difference between a life of poverty or a life or prosperity you the mother and daughter. I guess for those women they thought the girls would be thankful enough eventually that it would be worth it in the end
I see so many babies with pierced earlobes every day. No, obviously those aren't equivalent but it DOES show we haven't evolved as far as we like to think
You see it with a modern mindset. Women (now) have the most freedom in history, we're able to work, make a good living, we're able to choose to marry or not, and so many other freedoms. Back then, not having the feet bound could mean she wouldn't marry, be shunned by society, not be able to have a family, not have financial stability, etc. It was absolutely barbaric but it was needed for her future.
What about high heels? Or tanning? Or women who "waist train" by wearing a tight corset to shrink their waist? Or serums to grow their lashes that also deplete the natural fat around the eyes and cause dark circles and sunken eyes? This seems so extreme, but is it? Societal beauty ideals are very powerful. My mother wore high heels every day to work, when she retired she could no longer walk flat-footed. She would have been passed by for promotions or out-right chastised if she didn't conform. It's no different today when young women inject their lips, butts, and faces to attain a beauty ideal. Even though they defend it by saying, "I did it for ME, not anyone else." Of course, that's ridiculous. It's easy to sit in judgment of such an extreme practice, but it continues, just in different forms, today.
@@ambrr_lily The difference is between an adult choosing to do something permanent and dangerous to their body, versus a child being put through it and never being able to walk properly and live with chronic pain.
@ambrr_lily Nowadays I think there are very few careers that demand women wear high heels. There are many options for women who don't want to wear them.
@@ambrr_lilythat’s different and not forced, families would force children into doing this a 5 year old wouldn’t have a choice, modern day comsmetics are a choice and yes the are social influences and beauty standards, but the choice is there
Part of why this practice was so popular wasn't just because of the visual, but also because it was a way to show that the woman would suffer such extreme pain in complete silence. It represented docile submission to mistreatment with no backlash or complaint
And that the family was rich enough to afford to have a member who was unable to contribute to heavy physical labor and likely needed servants to assist with moving to red long periods.
High heels can't really be compared to foot binding because no small children are forced into and deformed for the rest of their lives by high heels. Heels are optional and removable, a completed foot binding is not.
Yes, foot binding is enacted on a child who can’t consent to physically deform them in a painful and irreversible manner. High heels are definitely not that. However, they’re also not always a choice for women either. There are still policies enacted around the world at a company level to enforce high heels as a requirement for women to have jobs. Some countries are more progressive about addressing the legality of this (see Canada and the Philippines in 2017) but this is still a problem in some places like Japan, which had a #KuToo movement in 2019 asking the government for legal protection from mandatory high heels. (The Japanese Minister of Labor said lol wut.) So no, not the same thing, and a comparison made in poor taste, but there is a throughline of making it painful for women to exist via their feet. Which, just, you know. It’s weird it happened twice.
The things different cultures did to young women throughout life ,and sadly even some practices still today, is beyond barbaric and heartbreaking. From this to female circumcision and all the horrors in between. 😢😢😢
There was an English missionary named Gladys Aylward who worked with the rural Chinese in the early 1900s. She advocated strongly for the end of this practice, and even tracked around the country un-binding girls feet after it was outlawed. She also led about two hundred children on a crazy long journey to escape the Japanese who were invading the country. Incredible woman.
She’s one of my all-time heroes! Don’t forget that to get to China she walked 20 miles in the Russian snow through an active war zone and narrowly escaped being kidnapped by Russia because they thought she was an engineer. She also once stormed into the most violent prison in her area *during* a murderous riot and began a successful prison reform program that led to the entire prison accepting Christ. She’s an amazing woman!
My great grandmother had this done to her. I don’t know why I never noticed it the dozens of times we’ve visited her, but I only learned about this practice from social media when I was in middle school. This procedure often took years to complete, with each tightening of the bandages causing the child terrible agony. The thought that this happened to someone I knew kept me up at night for weeks.
Keep in mind that just because foot binding was outlawed in 1912 the practice still continued in some parts of China well into the 1940s. It wasn't until Mao Zedong took power and passed a number of laws that were done to improve gender equality in marriage. This further stipulated that you cannot bind a child's feet in the name of getting a good marriage.
For context as to why this would have been seen as an attractive status symbol: The binding made it difficult and painful to walk, let alone for long distances. The tighter your bindings, the less you were expected to be doing any sort of work, showing your higher social/financial status, and thus greater eligibility for marriage. Kind of like the pale skin in Europe that resulted in ricketts.
On top of all this, having the feet in this position also pushes up the thighs and buttocks, the same effect high heels have. So women with bind feet were considered sexier and more physically attractive by men
These women couldn't walk more than 5 ft without an attendant so it was also a way of preventing brides from running away. These women are oftentimes promised to their husbands when they are around 5 to 6 years old or at birth. This process was usually done to noblewoman but later became popular with the commoners. A lot of women were forced into marriagse that would benefit their families but they would end up very unhappy. If they married an emperor they had to compete with other concubines, competing with other wives for their husbands affection. A lot of young girls would learn of this fate that they would be facing an attempt to run away. Binding the feet serves an aesthetic purpose but it also makes them incapable of leaving on their own.
Idk how it’s an attractive status symbol. Imagine coming home to your wife and she takes her shoes off and it’s this ?? Hell no . I would feel terrible yea . But it’s NOT A BEAUTY STANDARD . like no
I worked at a senior living home and got the privilege to meet a sweet lady with lotus feet. She was in pain every day and was so grateful to the few staff who would take the time to massage her feet and talk with her. She ended up with dementia and passed away. Even though I have witnessed hundreds of deaths and met even more residents in my facility I’ll always remember her and her name when (sadly) I can’t recall others.
The meme at the end calling stilettos modern foot binding while showing actual lotus feet is vile. That's like calling sneezing in the shower waterboarding.
I am so glad this is no longer done. Those poor kids and women. Completely avoidable pain every day of your life, for what? I guess they thought it was worth it somehow. 😢
i mean in a way in those time it was worth it for many this could mean difference between wealth a poverty and their parents most likely didn’t want their child to be poor and have the best chance at finding a wealthy husband still horrible but there’s reasons we should focus on the society that allowed that to happen and learn from it so it doesn’t happen again
@@bostonb4kedbeans it’s necessary because it’s the girls’ mothers who would break and bind their feet, not the men. Was it necessary for you to say this?
It makes me sad to imagine young children never being able to enjoy running around playing because their feet hurt too much, assuming they could run with their feet deformed like that in the first place.
As a woman who's never worn high-heels and never been forced to I feel like theres a difference in social pressure between footbinding then and highheels now.
We read a book in school called “Ties that Bind, Ties that Break” and thats when I first learnt about this. All of us were genuinely so shocked and we were GLAD this doesn’t happen anymore
I am no historian and I am not Asian put the history I was told was that it was originally instituted in wealthy families in order to keep women from running away and then it became a beauty practice but still the origin seems more sinister than just beauty
It was done because an Emperor had a concubine who had tiny feet that he was obsessed with. It was romanticized in poetry and soon every woman was expected to live up to that beauty.
I've never heard it this way. I've always been taught that it was because if you had unusable feet, it meant you didn't do work and had servants, and therefore were of high wealth and status
Well officially didn’t mean much, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty China fell into civil war with Warlords and such, until the Chinese United Front was able to fight back. After that the Civil war between the Communists and Kuomintang continued until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1935.
When I was told about it my mother also said the way of walking due to pain (small steps and slow) was seen as very attractive as well. She would normalise it for me. I was shocked when it was seen as a bad thing to everyone else, but it made so much sense! She also casually mentioned that it was normal for suicides to happen due to this pain.
Ah the golden lotus😭 those poor lil girls... And all the littles that got infections and passed away 😔 i hope their souls are resting. I cant believe some women still have their lotuses. Shocking really.
The last picture isn’t a correct comparison. Some/most of these woman were forced to undergo foot binding. High heels are definitely a choice and ones not often marketed to or worn by 5 year olds.
comparing heels to foot binding is so… no???? please show me people forcing 5 year olds into stilettos. sure heels aren’t good, mostly if you wear them on a daily basis, but they don’t literally destroy the bones of your feet???
Yes they can seriously deform you feet! Many women in my mom's era HAD FOOT PROBLEMS DUE TO THIS! Also, there are stress fractures. Now if we can get stillettos banned...just as stupid though the deforming takes place voluntarily if you love fashion.
There are some practices right now that is just as devastating to children. Leave children alone to mature and choose for themselves as adults what they want in life. ❤❤
Soo sad that woman needed to go through that I’m so happy that this world has changed, which is not good enough to catch the people who’s not going good thing
"Look how beautiful, this bride is molded perfectly so she can't run away from you" - creator of the Lotus binding for infant girls. Because that's exactly what it boiled down to, like clipping the wings of a bird.
They also used broken glass in the shoes at one point which caused infections thus parts of the feet would fall off and sometimes the girls would be left with nothing but their heel. The unlucky ones died
High heels are not even remotely as bad as foot binding, but this is a good opportunity to remind everyone to stretch your calves frequently if you wear heels.
I read so many books from Asian authors that said it was also so the "bride" or woman could literally no longer run away or out of town because it hurt so much
The last image also shows that we’ve grown as a society but not fully. The “fashionable” shoes still have really narrow toe-space and I never noticed how curled-in my toes became as a result. Now I can’t fully-extend them. They’re the exact shape of a shoe, and not of a foot.
It is however voluntary. That image is a chinese "meme" where they try to saythat old pactice was the same as wearing high heels and often is made with and argument that it should be legal.
All shoes have too narrow of toes. It's not fashion, it's the industry needing to catch up with modern findings. Not that the knowledge that you shouldn't constantly wear shoes was anything new: I've been told since I was little that it's important to walk barefoot on the grass. I now know that science backs that claim: it's important for your feet to spread, and the grass/texture stimulating your soles triggers good chemicals.
correct me if i'm wrong but i believe it was seen as "attractive" because these women couldn't walk without help so they literally couldn't walk away from their male partner :(
Uhh not exactly. Women did this to other women (their own daughters) and marriages were arranged without a couple ever meeting beforehand, so it’s not like a guy went around looking for the woman nearby with the smallest feet. 🙄 There’s so much more to this and it’s worth the research.
My nana's feet looked like this. We aren't Chinese, it bent like that from childhood POLIO. Horrible. She tried to get it fixed with surgery but it hurt her too much.
This makes me cry, man. Honestly, the situation for women has been so fucked up in my country that anything related to them just makes me cry and wonder when will this end? When will the beauty standards and the lack of lust end? When will the women feel safe? I don't know about the situation of women much in the rest of the world, but here where I live, in India, the situation is pretty fucked up right now, and the mainstream media, instead of finding the solutions, will cover this horrible tragedy. Honestly, shame to those who think of women as inferior, and as a toy. Shame on those people.
It’s important to note that the video of the woman washing her feet is a very rare example Of her skin and feet, looking relatively healthy still after the bones, being broken and reforming. Many women’s feet became necrotic, meaning the tissue of their feet literally died, because of how damaging this process is. so under the bandages, their feet would be rotting, full of pus, bleeding, with open wounds, and would smell of rotting flesh. I’m sorry to be so graphic, but it’s very important to understand just how damaging this is even beyond the horror of the aesthetic and the fact that they couldn’t walk.
Funny how many of female beauty standards are disabling, restrictive, or poisonous. Lead makeup, heels, foot binding, tight corset, long nails, the list goes on.
It was very much a status thing in addition to a beauty standard. It was a very "loud" or prominent way to show you were (at least by appearances) well off as you clould afford to hobble a member of your household rather than rely on them for labor.
It also meant a bride physically couldn’t escape once married. You can treat your wife as poorly as you want when she literally cannot leave the house unaided
That last picture claiming high heels are modern day foot binding just massively undermines the amount of pain these women went through, if you don't like high heels don't fucking wear them, these girls didn't have a choice, their feet were smashed to pieces at 5 years old, you can't even begin to compare modern fashion to this sick torture
Domt forgot. They didn't just bind the feet. They broke them before doing so quite often, and not only that, it wasn't simply for beauty, but also, a woman with boind feet can't run.
It was considered really beautiful, then really ugly. Can you imagine the pain of going through all that, just to become what you were (or your parents were) trying to avoid? Edit: just realised i'm a monster
I know it's not what you meant, but it really bothers me to compare adult women choosing to wear heels (usually on occasion) with giving a permanent deformity to a small child
It might have been banned in 1912 but my dad’s mom had her feet bound as a child and she was born after 1912. People kept doing it bc they thought their daughter could not get married w normal feet. Her feet were eventually “unbound” but they were never the same again and she had difficulty walking her whole life.
Ever since reading a fiction book about these very real ancient practices in elementary school I have always had a morbid fascination with foot binding.
No it's actually one of the reasons so the young girls couldn't run away when they become someone's wife and it was also to show one's stutue because they keep doing the same thing for years until the feet became like this so the more they did it the more painful and unable to walk the girl was which shows he stutue's as someone who doesn't need to do any kinda of labor and also show's the man stutue's as someone who doesn't need a family member to do any labor and can brovide for his wife and alas the whole act started when young girls who were about to be married off run away with their younger sisters or the man they loved so the whole act started so they can keep woman frome being able to run away
My feet are badly messed up from wearing heels. The pain was so bad from wearing them that I often wanted to scream but I could barely walk with them off once my feet began to change to suit the shoes. I could feel the bones realigning. I found it gave me some relief if I walked like a Barbie doll when I was barefooted. Sneakers were horribly painful because they forced my feet to be so flat. I had no choice but to wear heels for years due to the expectations of the fashion world, to keep my job which was my life's passion. I worked on my feet with no rest breaks, often doing double shifts. "Beauty is pain" everyone said. I was considered weak to complain and so I suffered in silence and repeated that mantra, normalized it. The picture on the right is correct. We still do this today. We just call it fashion... And I used to have such pretty feet. Now they just hurt and I wonder if I'll be able to walk when I am old.
Can u imagine the screaming and pain? Doing that to a child is beyond cruel. Who was the 1st person who decided to experiment on a childs foot and thought i can break it and bend it like that
I love how you compare it to present-day foot binding, aka: high heels. If ever you wondered how bunions are formed; they aren't. It's just your toes that are flexed out of place, making it LOOK like you have a bony protrusion.
And pretty much all shoes to some degree. I never wear heals and my big toes are still deformed. Foot shaped shoes should be the norm, and yet when I search for it all I find is barefoot shoes (no padding or arch support)
I mean my feet look weird and I never had super tight shoes (sensory issues). High heels and platform shoes (or well anything that goes up in the middle so the middle isn't being forced to lay flat on the ground) have always been the most comfortable for me, other shoes hurt after walking to long. Idk maybe my feet are weird or something
It's kinda wild that that last image compared high heels to foot binding. Foot binding is permanent, as seen in the video. You can take off high heels, and they're not recommended for kids at all. If you do wear heels, you should practice good heel hygiene to not end up shortening your Achilles, but that's still adult people making adult choices about what they wear, not someone forcibly changing the shape of a child's foot for what amounts to bride clout.
I hope no one else has to suffer like this. I am cringing just looking at her foot. My brain is struggling to comprehend this foot belongs to a real human being.
@@MonseTheMouseexactly, the reason people hate green screen kids is because they add no value to the video, she adds context and explanation so that we understand
I read this story where this girl who wanted to show her grandmother her ballet shoes and you know how ballet shoes have these ribbons. So when she was showing them to her grandmother, her grandmother got angry and I believe she snatched them from her. The girl, who was young at that time, obviously didn't know why her grandmother did that. Her grandmother had her feet binded, and she thought that her granddaughter's parents were trying to bind her feet. I forgot the story's name, but this part was memorable to me.
Ppl in the comments like "so glad we don't do this anymore" Meanwhile women implant plastic and acids into nearly area of their body, break bones, cut out flesh, inject poison to paralyze themselves. Wake up, if we still thought these feet were sexy we'd still be doing it. The beauty standards have changed, but the practice is still the same.
The difference here is that women - not children - chose to do that to themselves. Beauty standards will always drive people to extreme things, but plastic surgery is a choice. Those lotus feet were forced upon literal children who did not even have the ability to choose yet
Of all the body modifications I've studied, this was the most painful. It's because it started in childhood and continued for more than a decade or even longer. I've seen x-rays of these bound feet and every single long bone in the foot ends up being broken. That's the only way it works. Imagine getting a foot job like this with no painkillers and the pain is for a lifetime. 💀
There are a few english books that have protagonists who live with this practice, the first being chinese Cinderella (btw its the only one where culturally the shoe thing makes sense) and iron widow. Both describe the taboos of letting people see the bare foot itself and the pain of walking on them.
I have heard that it often had to be the girls’ aunts that did this to them as the girls’ own mothers couldn’t bring themselves to put their daughters through that much pain and wouldn’t wrap the bindings tightly enough.
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@@FootDocDana 2 Days ago ✨🥳
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Calling it "bounding" also doesn't express what it really was. Their feet were BROKEN often many times, their broken bones were then pushed towards new positions and then bound to shape. Very often it wasn't done "correctly" so their feet would still be destroyed, but weren't "beautiful" enough to guarantee good marriages. Sometimes bones would protrude through the skin and would have to be shaved off. Girls and women weren't able to take more than few steps and had to take really really tiny steps or be carried around. They also needed to take really good care about their feet, as very often they would get infections or even literally rot. That wasn't binding. That was true torture.
👀👀👀
god that's horrible, and you are so right calling it binding really dont do it justice
That's right. I've also read that as many as 1 in 6 died from sepsis from foot binding.
Yes . Also it was meant for the elite girls not all the young girls as it was a status symbol. The girls who had this done to them weren't meant to be walking alot or doing manual labor. Still....What a terrible thing to do to your daughters feet.!
Calling it "lotus feet" makes it sound cutesy! But it's not!
I remember a short story from a literature book when I was younger of a chinese family. And a little girl was putting on her ballet slippers and the grandmother saw it and started scolding her for it and threw away the slippers, and the scolded her parents because how could they do that to their daughter.
And the daughter didn't understand, she thought it was about dancing. And then she saw her grandmother's feet. She was told about foot binding and then explained to her grandmother what the slippers were actually for. I think the grandma bought her new ballet slippers and the daughter gave her a special performance. I have no idea why that story stuck in my head
I think the book is called Ribbons? It's a wonderful book
I remember reading it in school too.
To be fair. Ballet DOES fk up your feet if you're still growing
@@kspade1788 do you mean like going on pointe before your feet are mostly grown? Lots of people do flat shoes for several years before demi and full pointe
@@scoutharris8586 i have some dancer friends that started young and their big toes are very deformed. It's not as bad as this video, but ballet does mess up your feet to a certain degree.
I’m Chinese, and when I first heard about this tradition, Ngl I kinda threw up after I saw pictures. This practice is ABSOULUTLEY TERRIBLE. And the fact that they would do this to kids make my heart burn. God bless you
Hey I know this is random as hell, but I just want you to know that not all Americans view Chinese people in a negative way. I personally love your culture, traditions, and have been treated with kindness from your people
Imagine that you were born 100 years ago, that would have been done to you as well
it makes me really sick to look at, having the medical knowledge to know what the bones must look like for the foot to look like that
@bigpapaplantman5126 same. I love Chinese culture and am fascinated with their history. It's really only there, government I don't like. Then again, I don't like my own government either.
@@cinderguard3156same here! I love the mythology and I long to see the beautiful lands there!
I have a 5 year old and i cant imagine making her go through this pain for "beauty standards"
Well sadly, in ancient China, if your girl was attractive enough to get a wealthy man it could mean the difference between a life of poverty or a life or prosperity you the mother and daughter. I guess for those women they thought the girls would be thankful enough eventually that it would be worth it in the end
@@Crispytuba328 🤢🤮 (not at you)
I see so many babies with pierced earlobes every day. No, obviously those aren't equivalent but it DOES show we haven't evolved as far as we like to think
You see it with a modern mindset. Women (now) have the most freedom in history, we're able to work, make a good living, we're able to choose to marry or not, and so many other freedoms.
Back then, not having the feet bound could mean she wouldn't marry, be shunned by society, not be able to have a family, not have financial stability, etc.
It was absolutely barbaric but it was needed for her future.
@@bostonb4kedbeansshut up whore
I’m so glad that people don’t have to go through this anymore except for the very few people who are still alive. I feel bad.
What about high heels? Or tanning? Or women who "waist train" by wearing a tight corset to shrink their waist? Or serums to grow their lashes that also deplete the natural fat around the eyes and cause dark circles and sunken eyes? This seems so extreme, but is it? Societal beauty ideals are very powerful. My mother wore high heels every day to work, when she retired she could no longer walk flat-footed. She would have been passed by for promotions or out-right chastised if she didn't conform. It's no different today when young women inject their lips, butts, and faces to attain a beauty ideal. Even though they defend it by saying, "I did it for ME, not anyone else." Of course, that's ridiculous. It's easy to sit in judgment of such an extreme practice, but it continues, just in different forms, today.
@@ambrr_lily The difference is between an adult choosing to do something permanent and dangerous to their body, versus a child being put through it and never being able to walk properly and live with chronic pain.
@ambrr_lily Nowadays I think there are very few careers that demand women wear high heels. There are many options for women who don't want to wear them.
@@ambrr_lilythat’s different and not forced, families would force children into doing this a 5 year old wouldn’t have a choice, modern day comsmetics are a choice and yes the are social influences and beauty standards, but the choice is there
@@slothisasin8240yes, like completely altering their biology with drugs and surgery. Nothing is new under the sun
Part of why this practice was so popular wasn't just because of the visual, but also because it was a way to show that the woman would suffer such extreme pain in complete silence. It represented docile submission to mistreatment with no backlash or complaint
This!!!!
That and… it meant she was physically unable to run away, to escape abuse. 😢
Or escape
Some culture
And that the family was rich enough to afford to have a member who was unable to contribute to heavy physical labor and likely needed servants to assist with moving to red long periods.
High heels can't really be compared to foot binding because no small children are forced into and deformed for the rest of their lives by high heels. Heels are optional and removable, a completed foot binding is not.
Yeah what the heck. You rarely find a woman with shortened tendons from wearing high heels too often, but it still is a result of her own choices.
It's still unhealthy and society encourages women to wear them.
In south kore a office working women are reguired to wear high heels. If you dont you get fired. High heels are not optional in many places.
Yes, foot binding is enacted on a child who can’t consent to physically deform them in a painful and irreversible manner. High heels are definitely not that. However, they’re also not always a choice for women either. There are still policies enacted around the world at a company level to enforce high heels as a requirement for women to have jobs. Some countries are more progressive about addressing the legality of this (see Canada and the Philippines in 2017) but this is still a problem in some places like Japan, which had a #KuToo movement in 2019 asking the government for legal protection from mandatory high heels. (The Japanese Minister of Labor said lol wut.)
So no, not the same thing, and a comparison made in poor taste, but there is a throughline of making it painful for women to exist via their feet.
Which, just, you know. It’s weird it happened twice.
@@kyokosakura3192not as much as footbinding. They’re basically not comparable
The things different cultures did to young women throughout life ,and sadly even some practices still today, is beyond barbaric and heartbreaking. From this to female circumcision and all the horrors in between. 😢😢😢
Different men. Men chose this.
@@umhi9778You're not wrong.
@@umhi9778don't forget the women who were complicit.
@untitled5847 Not exactly on the same level as the people who created and enforce it for their benefit.
@@untitled5847 Because back then, women had to find a husband.
There was an English missionary named Gladys Aylward who worked with the rural Chinese in the early 1900s. She advocated strongly for the end of this practice, and even tracked around the country un-binding girls feet after it was outlawed. She also led about two hundred children on a crazy long journey to escape the Japanese who were invading the country. Incredible woman.
of course, a white savior.
Inn of the Sixth Happiness.
She’s one of my all-time heroes! Don’t forget that to get to China she walked 20 miles in the Russian snow through an active war zone and narrowly escaped being kidnapped by Russia because they thought she was an engineer. She also once stormed into the most violent prison in her area *during* a murderous riot and began a successful prison reform program that led to the entire prison accepting Christ. She’s an amazing woman!
She's definitely a nice person
I love her biography The Little Woman
It's one of my favorite books
My great grandmother had this done to her. I don’t know why I never noticed it the dozens of times we’ve visited her, but I only learned about this practice from social media when I was in middle school. This procedure often took years to complete, with each tightening of the bandages causing the child terrible agony. The thought that this happened to someone I knew kept me up at night for weeks.
Keep in mind that just because foot binding was outlawed in 1912 the practice still continued in some parts of China well into the 1940s. It wasn't until Mao Zedong took power and passed a number of laws that were done to improve gender equality in marriage. This further stipulated that you cannot bind a child's feet in the name of getting a good marriage.
Say that shit Lois !
For context as to why this would have been seen as an attractive status symbol: The binding made it difficult and painful to walk, let alone for long distances. The tighter your bindings, the less you were expected to be doing any sort of work, showing your higher social/financial status, and thus greater eligibility for marriage. Kind of like the pale skin in Europe that resulted in ricketts.
That and small feet were seen as more feminine.
On top of all this, having the feet in this position also pushes up the thighs and buttocks, the same effect high heels have. So women with bind feet were considered sexier and more physically attractive by men
These women couldn't walk more than 5 ft without an attendant so it was also a way of preventing brides from running away. These women are oftentimes promised to their husbands when they are around 5 to 6 years old or at birth. This process was usually done to noblewoman but later became popular with the commoners. A lot of women were forced into marriagse that would benefit their families but they would end up very unhappy. If they married an emperor they had to compete with other concubines, competing with other wives for their husbands affection. A lot of young girls would learn of this fate that they would be facing an attempt to run away. Binding the feet serves an aesthetic purpose but it also makes them incapable of leaving on their own.
@@Blandopinion I didn't even think of that!
Idk how it’s an attractive status symbol. Imagine coming home to your wife and she takes her shoes off and it’s this ?? Hell no . I would feel terrible yea . But it’s NOT A BEAUTY STANDARD . like no
I worked at a senior living home and got the privilege to meet a sweet lady with lotus feet. She was in pain every day and was so grateful to the few staff who would take the time to massage her feet and talk with her. She ended up with dementia and passed away. Even though I have witnessed hundreds of deaths and met even more residents in my facility I’ll always remember her and her name when (sadly) I can’t recall others.
What's even worse is that a lot of women who have survived this practice aren't always treated well by their village.
The meme at the end calling stilettos modern foot binding while showing actual lotus feet is vile. That's like calling sneezing in the shower waterboarding.
I am so glad this is no longer done. Those poor kids and women. Completely avoidable pain every day of your life, for what? I guess they thought it was worth it somehow. 😢
The girls didn’t think it was worth it. The father forced the daughters.
@@kellensmith2146the mothers also forced their daughters
@Lumosnight was that necessary? Lmfao. That's a given
i mean in a way in those time it was worth it for many this could mean difference between wealth a poverty and their parents most likely didn’t want their child to be poor and have the best chance at finding a wealthy husband still horrible but there’s reasons we should focus on the society that allowed that to happen and learn from it so it doesn’t happen again
@@bostonb4kedbeans it’s necessary because it’s the girls’ mothers who would break and bind their feet, not the men. Was it necessary for you to say this?
It makes me sad to imagine young children never being able to enjoy running around playing because their feet hurt too much, assuming they could run with their feet deformed like that in the first place.
As a woman who's never worn high-heels and never been forced to I feel like theres a difference in social pressure between footbinding then and highheels now.
This is honestly sad bro
We read a book in school called “Ties that Bind, Ties that Break” and thats when I first learnt about this. All of us were genuinely so shocked and we were GLAD this doesn’t happen anymore
Imagine your whole life, comfort, and mobility being determined by what a man will find attractive
Women go through this all day, every day, even today.
I am no historian and I am not Asian put the history I was told was that it was originally instituted in wealthy families in order to keep women from running away and then it became a beauty practice but still the origin seems more sinister than just beauty
It was done because an Emperor had a concubine who had tiny feet that he was obsessed with. It was romanticized in poetry and soon every woman was expected to live up to that beauty.
“I have no knowledge of this topic or background credibility, but an unknown person told me this”
This is exactly what i heard too
@@T3nMiDGET5711you sound like an ass
I've never heard it this way. I've always been taught that it was because if you had unusable feet, it meant you didn't do work and had servants, and therefore were of high wealth and status
No need to sugarcoat. It wasn’t just for fashion. It was to control them. Heaven forbid that women walk.
Not deformity, they weren’t born like this. This is mutilation.
It was "officially" outlawed in 1912.......but they, especially way back in the mountains, were still doing it in the 40s. They FOUGHT to keep it.
Well officially didn’t mean much, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty China fell into civil war with Warlords and such, until the Chinese United Front was able to fight back. After that the Civil war between the Communists and Kuomintang continued until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1935.
I'm really happy they banned it. That looks terrifying and painful.
When I was told about it my mother also said the way of walking due to pain (small steps and slow) was seen as very attractive as well. She would normalise it for me. I was shocked when it was seen as a bad thing to everyone else, but it made so much sense! She also casually mentioned that it was normal for suicides to happen due to this pain.
Ah the golden lotus😭 those poor lil girls... And all the littles that got infections and passed away 😔 i hope their souls are resting. I cant believe some women still have their lotuses. Shocking really.
The last picture isn’t a correct comparison. Some/most of these woman were forced to undergo foot binding. High heels are definitely a choice and ones not often marketed to or worn by 5 year olds.
Shut up, it's senseless self-imposed torture (helped by a very generous dosis of brainwashing by the world obvs)
comparing heels to foot binding is so… no????
please show me people forcing 5 year olds into stilettos. sure heels aren’t good, mostly if you wear them on a daily basis, but they don’t literally destroy the bones of your feet???
Yes they can seriously deform you feet! Many women in my mom's era HAD FOOT PROBLEMS DUE TO THIS! Also, there are stress fractures. Now if we can get stillettos banned...just as stupid though the deforming takes place voluntarily if you love fashion.
This is mutilation! 😢
Yea because its painful walking with lotus feet
There are some practices right now that is just as devastating to children. Leave children alone to mature and choose for themselves as adults what they want in life. ❤❤
Soo sad that woman needed to go through that I’m so happy that this world has changed, which is not good enough to catch the people who’s not going good thing
I feel so bad, the poor babies that had to grow uplike that. I'm glad it's not done anymore.
"Look how beautiful, this bride is molded perfectly so she can't run away from you" - creator of the Lotus binding for infant girls.
Because that's exactly what it boiled down to, like clipping the wings of a bird.
5 year olds aren't infants.
Foot binding is a horrible practice on its own. We don't need to exaggerate about it.
They also used broken glass in the shoes at one point which caused infections thus parts of the feet would fall off and sometimes the girls would be left with nothing but their heel. The unlucky ones died
1912 is disturbingly close to our timeline for something so barbaric to take place
The arch of the foot was sometimes fully broken if the bones had already begun to harden...
THE WAY MY JAW DROPPED WHEN I SAW IT
This was exclusive to China
…That’s her first sentence “refers to the historical foot binding of China”.
I bet the UK did something similar Mr nationalist
If you "Bet" go check all that shit yourself, nobody is gonna do it for you.@@insertlogohere2643
@@insertlogohere2643 wonder if they got something to say about corsets.
@@insertlogohere2643 no, men in China were attracted to this before the fall of Qing Dynasty.
High heels are not even remotely as bad as foot binding, but this is a good opportunity to remind everyone to stretch your calves frequently if you wear heels.
I read so many books from Asian authors that said it was also so the "bride" or woman could literally no longer run away or out of town because it hurt so much
That last slide. While heels can be painful and really shouldn't be worn long term, i don't think they are comparable by any means what so ever.
The last image also shows that we’ve grown as a society but not fully.
The “fashionable” shoes still have really narrow toe-space and I never noticed how curled-in my toes became as a result. Now I can’t fully-extend them.
They’re the exact shape of a shoe, and not of a foot.
It is however voluntary. That image is a chinese "meme" where they try to saythat old pactice was the same as wearing high heels and often is made with and argument that it should be legal.
Thats why i started wearing barefoot shoes
All shoes have too narrow of toes. It's not fashion, it's the industry needing to catch up with modern findings.
Not that the knowledge that you shouldn't constantly wear shoes was anything new: I've been told since I was little that it's important to walk barefoot on the grass. I now know that science backs that claim: it's important for your feet to spread, and the grass/texture stimulating your soles triggers good chemicals.
@@dollarstoremark not all shoes have that. I traded all my normal onces for wide toe spread shoes. Brands :merrel, geweo and aliexpress xD
Imagine taking someone who can fully run, jump, climb, and DELIBERATELY crippling them for life. Absolutely evil.
That's straight out of a horror movie
I cant fathom the hell and torment this would put young girls through. So horrible. It just looks incredibly painful
correct me if i'm wrong but i believe it was seen as "attractive" because these women couldn't walk without help so they literally couldn't walk away from their male partner :(
Uhh not exactly. Women did this to other women (their own daughters) and marriages were arranged without a couple ever meeting beforehand, so it’s not like a guy went around looking for the woman nearby with the smallest feet. 🙄 There’s so much more to this and it’s worth the research.
My nana's feet looked like this. We aren't Chinese, it bent like that from childhood POLIO. Horrible. She tried to get it fixed with surgery but it hurt her too much.
This makes me cry, man. Honestly, the situation for women has been so fucked up in my country that anything related to them just makes me cry and wonder when will this end? When will the beauty standards and the lack of lust end? When will the women feel safe?
I don't know about the situation of women much in the rest of the world, but here where I live, in India, the situation is pretty fucked up right now, and the mainstream media, instead of finding the solutions, will cover this horrible tragedy.
Honestly, shame to those who think of women as inferior, and as a toy. Shame on those people.
Do something about it
It’s important to note that the video of the woman washing her feet is a very rare example Of her skin and feet, looking relatively healthy still after the bones, being broken and reforming. Many women’s feet became necrotic, meaning the tissue of their feet literally died, because of how damaging this process is. so under the bandages, their feet would be rotting, full of pus, bleeding, with open wounds, and would smell of rotting flesh. I’m sorry to be so graphic, but it’s very important to understand just how damaging this is even beyond the horror of the aesthetic and the fact that they couldn’t walk.
Funny how many of female beauty standards are disabling, restrictive, or poisonous. Lead makeup, heels, foot binding, tight corset, long nails, the list goes on.
I absolutely HATE beauty standards. Wear what you wanna wear because you are beautiful ❤
It was very much a status thing in addition to a beauty standard. It was a very "loud" or prominent way to show you were (at least by appearances) well off as you clould afford to hobble a member of your household rather than rely on them for labor.
It also meant a bride physically couldn’t escape once married. You can treat your wife as poorly as you want when she literally cannot leave the house unaided
I feel pain for all the hurt women throughout history 💔 😢
Don’t see how anyone could think that is beautiful.
That last picture claiming high heels are modern day foot binding just massively undermines the amount of pain these women went through, if you don't like high heels don't fucking wear them, these girls didn't have a choice, their feet were smashed to pieces at 5 years old, you can't even begin to compare modern fashion to this sick torture
I saw my mom watching this video the other day and I said
“Are you watching the foot doctor?”
horrible. How can parents do this to their 5 year old daughters. Absolutely disgusting.
Domt forgot. They didn't just bind the feet. They broke them before doing so quite often, and not only that, it wasn't simply for beauty, but also, a woman with boind feet can't run.
Now I can see why ‘body horror’ is such a popular horror trope. Those poor people
It was considered really beautiful, then really ugly. Can you imagine the pain of going through all that, just to become what you were (or your parents were) trying to avoid?
Edit: just realised i'm a monster
You're not a monster. The feet are like this because of torture and mutilation, I think they are not beautiful at all.
I know it's not what you meant, but it really bothers me to compare adult women choosing to wear heels (usually on occasion) with giving a permanent deformity to a small child
"Beauty is pain"
Indeed it is
But it shouldn't have to be
This is one of the few times when being the last of a generation is a good thing I hope those poor women one day aren’t in pain anymore
Im gonna get people to subcribe to you because they dont deserve you,
You deserve them keep up the videos and stay positive and love everyone
So heartbreaking that people still do that
They also did it to keep women hostage. Like they literally couldn't walk away from abuse.
It might have been banned in 1912 but my dad’s mom had her feet bound as a child and she was born after 1912. People kept doing it bc they thought their daughter could not get married w normal feet. Her feet were eventually “unbound” but they were never the same again and she had difficulty walking her whole life.
MY BODY HURTS NOW
Poor women had to deal with so much back in the day. We are still not where we should be but our ancestors went through horrible times.
this is why i say feminism is the best thing to have ever happened to humanity
That's crazy. I can't imagine the pain they're still going through
I’ve just subscribed this is sad 😢
Ever since reading a fiction book about these very real ancient practices in elementary school I have always had a morbid fascination with foot binding.
I learned in school that most husbands did this to their wives to ensure that they wouldn't be able to run away from them
Well you learned wrong because that wouldn't be possible you need to start this at an age before 10 for it to work
No it's actually one of the reasons so the young girls couldn't run away when they become someone's wife and it was also to show one's stutue because they keep doing the same thing for years until the feet became like this so the more they did it the more painful and unable to walk the girl was which shows he stutue's as someone who doesn't need to do any kinda of labor and also show's the man stutue's as someone who doesn't need a family member to do any labor and can brovide for his wife and alas the whole act started when young girls who were about to be married off run away with their younger sisters or the man they loved so the whole act started so they can keep woman frome being able to run away
Seeing this hurts so badly.
It was also so they couldnt leave the house during their adolescence, assisting in keeping them pure.
That's some smooth brain antics right there.
My feet are badly messed up from wearing heels. The pain was so bad from wearing them that I often wanted to scream but I could barely walk with them off once my feet began to change to suit the shoes. I could feel the bones realigning. I found it gave me some relief if I walked like a Barbie doll when I was barefooted. Sneakers were horribly painful because they forced my feet to be so flat. I had no choice but to wear heels for years due to the expectations of the fashion world, to keep my job which was my life's passion. I worked on my feet with no rest breaks, often doing double shifts. "Beauty is pain" everyone said. I was considered weak to complain and so I suffered in silence and repeated that mantra, normalized it.
The picture on the right is correct. We still do this today. We just call it fashion... And I used to have such pretty feet. Now they just hurt and I wonder if I'll be able to walk when I am old.
❤ I remember reading about this in elementary school. I can’t believe there is someone still living like this.
I blame the men in power.
Can u imagine the screaming and pain? Doing that to a child is beyond cruel. Who was the 1st person who decided to experiment on a childs foot and thought i can break it and bend it like that
I love how you compare it to present-day foot binding, aka: high heels. If ever you wondered how bunions are formed; they aren't. It's just your toes that are flexed out of place, making it LOOK like you have a bony protrusion.
And pretty much all shoes to some degree. I never wear heals and my big toes are still deformed. Foot shaped shoes should be the norm, and yet when I search for it all I find is barefoot shoes (no padding or arch support)
I mean my feet look weird and I never had super tight shoes (sensory issues). High heels and platform shoes (or well anything that goes up in the middle so the middle isn't being forced to lay flat on the ground) have always been the most comfortable for me, other shoes hurt after walking to long. Idk maybe my feet are weird or something
It's kinda wild that that last image compared high heels to foot binding. Foot binding is permanent, as seen in the video. You can take off high heels, and they're not recommended for kids at all. If you do wear heels, you should practice good heel hygiene to not end up shortening your Achilles, but that's still adult people making adult choices about what they wear, not someone forcibly changing the shape of a child's foot for what amounts to bride clout.
that heel has a built in stress-ball💀
I hope no one else has to suffer like this. I am cringing just looking at her foot. My brain is struggling to comprehend this foot belongs to a real human being.
Stop green screen doctors!!!😡
She explains viral videos and provides context
@@MonseTheMouseexactly, the reason people hate green screen kids is because they add no value to the video, she adds context and explanation so that we understand
@@MonseTheMouse I was joking
I read this story where this girl who wanted to show her grandmother her ballet shoes and you know how ballet shoes have these ribbons. So when she was showing them to her grandmother, her grandmother got angry and I believe she snatched them from her. The girl, who was young at that time, obviously didn't know why her grandmother did that. Her grandmother had her feet binded, and she thought that her granddaughter's parents were trying to bind her feet. I forgot the story's name, but this part was memorable to me.
@Amalia_002 Ribbons! I commented this too and someone in my comments brought up the name 😄
Unsigma☹️
I remember briefly learning about this during class, but I didn’t realize it was this horrible! So glad the government banned it 😢
Ppl in the comments like "so glad we don't do this anymore"
Meanwhile women implant plastic and acids into nearly area of their body, break bones, cut out flesh, inject poison to paralyze themselves. Wake up, if we still thought these feet were sexy we'd still be doing it. The beauty standards have changed, but the practice is still the same.
That's different
The difference here is that women - not children - chose to do that to themselves. Beauty standards will always drive people to extreme things, but plastic surgery is a choice. Those lotus feet were forced upon literal children who did not even have the ability to choose yet
Fillers and botox don't permanently cripple you unless you get it done in an alleyway. Huge difference. Comparing that to actual mutilation is weird.
Comparing the choices of Western women to the abuse of Eastern little girls is not fucking cool, fam.
That looks so incredibly painful.
They used to break their feat too if im not mistaken
Watching this video made my feet hurt, I can’t even imagine that kind of pain
Of all the body modifications I've studied, this was the most painful. It's because it started in childhood and continued for more than a decade or even longer. I've seen x-rays of these bound feet and every single long bone in the foot ends up being broken. That's the only way it works. Imagine getting a foot job like this with no painkillers and the pain is for a lifetime. 💀
i know in at least some cases they were more than forced - their feet were *broken* so that they would heal into the shape.
There are a few english books that have protagonists who live with this practice, the first being chinese Cinderella (btw its the only one where culturally the shoe thing makes sense) and iron widow. Both describe the taboos of letting people see the bare foot itself and the pain of walking on them.
I have heard that it often had to be the girls’ aunts that did this to them as the girls’ own mothers couldn’t bring themselves to put their daughters through that much pain and wouldn’t wrap the bindings tightly enough.