The Lotus

Manolo says, if you ever wish to see shoes the Manolo truly despises, these are such shoes.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Horrors, Shoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Responses to “The Lotus”

Jen C. Says:
March 26th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
As a woman of Chinese descent that proudly wears a size 41/10.5 shoe I’m glad that life is different now and here.
Sarah Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 5:20 am
One day, we’ll look at breast implants and liposuction the same way.
the unfashionista Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Plastic surgery, like it or not, is a choice. You do not have to get plastic surgery in order to be married off, women get it because they feel as if they need to be fixed. In some areas of China, if women did not bind their feet, they would never be able to be married, which in turn put their survival in a precarious position.
It was a different time, with a different standard of beauty, and while I’m not defending it, it is entirely unlike any other custom that we have or have ever had for the sake of fashion. Corsets from the 19th century come close, because they too caused physical deformities, but it was not really similar.
Lulu J. Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 10:02 am
My grandmother was the first in her family to refuse to bind her feet. What’s more, she snuck around unbinding other girls’ feet.

Sometimes I forget that this is a part of my cultural history, but thank you for posting this, Manolo. Though at first it brings to mind the pain of this disgusting and pointless ritual, it always reminds me of my grandmother: quite an inspirational picker-upper.
Lori Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
This reminds me of the movie “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.” Ingrid Bergman plays a missionary who becomes an official “foot inspector” when the Chinese government decides to end the practice of foot binding.
e Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
they are DETESTABLE.
quakerchic Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Lulu J. - your grandmother rocks!
me Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Foot binding is truly f*cked up. Really and truly.

The hands in that picture don’t look too healthy - is there such a thing as hand-binding? They look like anorexic/corpse Nicole Richie hands.
Verity Kindle Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I’m having sympathy pains in my size 10, flat feet as I read that article. Prohibiting foot binding was the one good thing that the Cultural Revolution did. One thing, but it was a big thing. The x-ray of bound deformed feet made me nauseous.
Deeje Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I could hardly bear to read the description of footbinding in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. It was so graphic. Admittedly, the book took place in the 1800’s, but pain is pain. Still it was a good book.
Cat Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Those shoes make me weep, and not from joy.

Lula J., may God bless your grandmother!
Ninjarina Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 3:15 am
My great grandmother escaped the fate of bound feet.

There are a few things I would like to clarify -

1) An unbound foot did not make a woman unmarriageble material - the practise was adopted by lower class people who wanted better marriage prospects for their daughters so they imitated the upper classes. Being able to sustain a crippled woman was in effect, a status symbol.

2) It was not the tiny feet that made the women erotic, it was the fact that because they could not utilise their calves (quite often their calves were atrophied), they had relatively strong pelvic and quad muscles that were built up from years of shuffling around. The strong pelvis/quad muscles were said to make a woman “tighter” if you catch my drift.

3) A woman’s ability to make shoes was highly prized. It was considered a sign of good breeding. It also gave many women with bound feet, a voice in many respects because quite often, the embroidery on their shoes would reflect her wishes. Images of coins, little boys (a desire for such), as well a symbols like fish or oranges (symbols of prosperity) were popular and allowed them to express themselves as many of them were illiterate.
Ninjarina Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Also, not all of these shoes are created equal; in order to give some women a small measure of relief, some regions in the Southeast of China had shoes that had open backs (think mules/slides). This allowed them to have comparatively larger feet, even if not by much.

Footbinding IMO is akin to genital mutilation, a rite of passage into womanhood perpetuated not necessarily by an oppressive patriarchy but by grandmothers and mothers who had their own bodies forcibly mutilated by the previous generation presumably for their own good. I honestly think it’s less about beauty/beauty standards and much more about the politics and construction of gender.
wiggles Says:
March 31st, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Ninjarina -

Gender politics and beauty standards go hand in hand for women.