Foot binding practices and historical significance

Foot binding remains one of the most potent examples of culturally entrenched, historical body modification. Although well out of favor in China, foot binding was once de rigueur, notes Valerie Steele and John S Major in their essay "China Chic." The article addresses the significance of foot binding for Chinese culture and society, tracing the evolution of the practice from that of status symbol to its being a symbol of backwardness. Foot binding served several social functions in Chinese society, note the authors. In particular, foot binding denoted distinctions in ethnicity, class, and gender. The Chinese used foot binding as a physical demarcation between themselves and foreign invaders like the Manchus. Foot binding prevented women from being able to do anything more than domestic work and so offered a powerful visual distinction between women of leisure and women of the laboring classes. Although the division of the sexes was also made apparent by means other than foot binding, the practice was one key emblem of Chinese gender roles and norms. Usually viewed as a sign of sexism and the political oppression of women in Chinese society, foot binding deserves scholarly scrutiny. Such scrutiny should attempt to place foot binding within historical and cultural contexts.

In "China Chic," Steele and Major first attempt to dispel a bias inherent in most examinations of the foot binding practice. Some scholars have suggested that assuming foot binding only reflects the subjugation of women; others refer to it as a blatantly barbaric practice. Steele and Major argue that these represent an "anachronistic view" with "no support in the historical records," (p. 177). At the same time, foot binding was extremely painful and did severely restrict the roles of women in Chinese society. Steele and Major would appear to contradict themselves by displaying a dangerous degree of moral relativism in approaching foot binding with an apologetic eye. However, the authors simply note that foot binding should not be viewed much differently than corset wearing among European women during the same era. Therefore, a Western bias has colored scholarly work on the historical practice of deliberately misshaping the female foot. One problem with the canon of evidence supporting any point-of-view on what role foot binding played in Chinese society is that males have been the authors of most historical records (p. 178).

Furthermore, records written by women or detailing a female perspective on foot binding would be largely colored by the prevailing social norms. In "China Chic," Steele and Major point out that many Chinese females wanted their feet bound because it improved their chances of winning a wealthy husband or because it denoted their high social rank. Those reasons for supporting foot binding do not reflect critical thought so much as they prove the entrenchment of misogyny in Chinese culture. Sexism, a worldwide phenomenon, had a unique expression in Chinese society in the form of foot binding. If females were complicit in the practice, they were so not because they actually enjoyed the experience but because foot binding may have ensured them higher social status and greater wealth vis-a-vis their non-altered counterparts. Women regarded bound feet as "regarded as beautiful and prestigious" just as rail-thin models are deemed beautiful and prestigious in American society. Steele and Major therefore imply a sort of cultural brainwashing: an absorption of social norms that normalized foot binding and made the practice chic.

One of the main points Steele and Major make in "China Chic" is that foot binding solidified the distinction between males and females in Chinese society. Foot binding may have been one of the most powerful reminders of misogyny, as the practice placed irreversible physical limitations on females and restricted their role in society. As if other biological markers like breast size or genitalia were insufficient to denote gender, contorted feet serves a disturbing reminder of how females have been thoroughly subjugated. The practice of binding, remind Steele and Major, meant that women could barely walk. Their movements can of course be controlled and scrutinized; their freedoms overtly limited. That women still wanted their feet bound shows a lack of ability to conceive of a world any different than the one in which they lived. Neo-Confucian values permeated Chinese society and so few women would have been so bold as to question the validity of female inferiority or the morality of foot binding.

Foot binding was "never mandated by any Chinese government" (p. 182). The practice was purely social and cultural. Female inferiority was considered so much a fact that no laws were needed to mandate the practice. Only after encounters with outsiders did the Chinese capitalize on foot binding as a means to distinguish their culture from others. Foot binding became not only an issue of gender and social class but of ethnicity as well.

Xenophobia and fear of cultural annihilation led the Chinese to cling to the practice of foot binding as a means to preserve their unique culture, suggest Steele and Major. The practice became one way to physically "distinguish between Chinese and non-Chinese," during threatening times (p. 179). Foot binding was therefore a type of political resistance against foreign invaders, especially during the Manchu Dynasty. As it literally marked Chinese women, the practice of mutilating their feet also denoted control over the Chinese gene pool.

Foot binding was far more than a fashion trend during the height of its popularity, Steele and Major suggest in "China Chic." The practice marked the differences in status between males and females, wealthy and poor, Chinese and outsider. Foot binding was also much more than a symbol of female inferiority even though it did reflect sexism. Scholars studying foot binding should place the practice within historical and sociological contexts to help understand how its relative chicness reflected changes taking place in Chinese history.