The Peculiar History of Foot Binding in China - Research Paper Example

09 December The Peculiar History of Foot Binding in China: This research paper aims to illustrate the reality of this claim that women are still in the present world engaged in myriad activities which seek to make them as beautiful as possible for the pleasure of men. This reality does not leave much difference between modern day women and the ancient Chinese women who used to bind their feet to make men happy. “The Peculiar History of Foot Binding in China” is a very insightful article written by Matt Schiavenza in which he explores the cruel treatment of Chinese women in the name of beauty for viewing pleasure of men who dominated the Chinese society. When people are treated unequally, injustice is to be seen which can sometimes take very gross form. The exploitation of Chinese women by way of fostering a foot binding culture is one example of that. It makes this argument that women have always been handled by men like submissive automatons more emphatic especially given the way women were made to bind their feet for the male gaze. The purpose of this research paper is to explore the resemblance between foot binding in China and modern day practices, both of which seek to spread the ideology of male dominance in society by objectification of women. Following discussion will prove how ancient practices like foot binding and modern culture influence women in the same way because they are both equally manipulative. According to Schiavenza, foot binding in ancient China was a highly debilitating practice. It remained in vogue for about ten centuries. Research has recognized it as “a problem of Chinese culture that called into doubt the whole of Chinese civilization” (Zito 8). Schiavenza mentions Pearl Buck in his article to stress how painful this practice of foot binding was for women. Buck discusses that he met a Chinese woman in 1923 who had bound feet. The woman told him how she cried for three days without eating anything to have her feet unbound because apparently, Chinese women could not unbind their feet by their own choice (Schiavenza). Their feet or their bodies were literally not theirs. Rather, they were the property of manipulative societal ideals designed by men much like how today bodies of women in fashion and media belong to the powerful people who control them. More discussion on this will be included later. A large population of Chinese women at last in the early 20th century began to show signs of resistance against this painful practice due to growing social awareness (Schiavenza). Actually, the societal makeup of China then was of such kind that it reinforced the ideology of male dominance. Therefore, women were tricked by men into believing that 3-inch feet could be an epitome of feminine beauty. Research claims that foot binding represents “some of the worst of Chinese culture, running right along with female infanticide and idolatry” (Zito 10). Some may synonym this practice with sexism or objectification, but general consensus is that foot binding was an open threat to women because it reinforced their inferiority to men. By mid-17th century, the foot binding culture became so well established that every woman essentially had to have her feet bound in order to get married because she had no other choice (Wilson 17). Degrading cultures like foot binding are promoted by men to achieve exactly this purpose, rendering women helpless. Women who resisted were considered of low social standing. They were turned into social outcasts and people did not like to relate to them because they had their own will and they defended their agency. The whole point of the foot binding culture was to rob women off of their agency. So, the women who protested were punished by society. When feet were turned into hooves, extra muscles were needed to facilitate women in moving around. So, women with bound feet naturally had more muscles in their thighs, buttocks, and hips (Schiavenza). Such physical features in women highly appealed to Chinese men of that era who were just as unconcerned with the daily agony experienced by women with bound feet as much concerned they were with their bodies. Research claims that foot binding is the most deleterious bodily mutilation inflicted on women by the Confucian patriarchs “to serve male interests” (Ko 8). This proves that women since the dawn of time have been making sacrifices to please men and to gain their approval. Why was it women and not men who had to bind their feet to be considered beautiful and eligible? This is because women have always remained victims of inequality of treatment. There is little hope for any culture to persist for such a long time as foot binding did if there is not a whole system to support it and make it legitimate. Similarly, the tradition of foot binding was completely supported by the Neo-Confucian philosophy. This philosophy preached that an ideal woman was one who remained faithful and compliant despite all sufferings. There had to be persistence in bearing the pain for a woman to be labelled ideal by society (Campion). Therefore, the unbearable pain which used to be the consequence of foot binding was considered a good character in personality and it was advised to inculcate this character in girls from a very young age. So, feet were bound when Chinese girls used to be only four or six. Adherence to family was also a highly regarded trait and women were supposed to excel in this area much more than men by society. This is why women who rejected foot binding were rejected by their families. Another objective behind binding feet was to make women stay inside the four walls of their homes. A woman who did not work herself and stayed inside her home all day long was considered elegant by men. These are the reasons why “China’s male-dominated society legitimized downsizing foot on the pretext of purity and elegance” (Andriani). If we scrutinize the present day culture, we see that objectification of women is still alive today despite the fact that people like to describe themselves as citizens of a liberal world. There are many traditions and practices which serve to objectify women and force them to do things they would rather not do to please men. The US media environment is so sexually charged that it forces women to “fit into an ever narrowing ideal of female beauty” (Goh-Mah). Young girls are pressurized by society and culture to fit into defined sizes for chest, waist, and hips. This formula of “36-24-36” is popularized by music and fashion alike and it influences women in a devastating way. This is because women take so much stress in adjusting their bodies according to a set physical measurement formula that it makes many clinically depressed. Much has been written over the years to assess different media practices through which women are exploited to make male dominance more emphatic despite changing times. Radical feminism is one such approach which attempts to reveal psychology behind reducing women to mute sex objects designed to be “sexually alluring, sexually available and sexually subordinate to men” (Pierson and Cohen 108). It is stressed that women who are reduced to objects in a litany of pictures which saturates the Internet currently do not engage in this pitiful practice out of free will. Rather, they are faced with a compulsion to do so. Majority of these women easily become victims of oppression before they even know it by the masters of manipulation. Research stresses that in the industrialized culture of the Western society, there are excessive pressures on women “to be the object of the male gaze” (Pierson and Cohen 109). This is just like the way centuries ago immense pressure was put on Chinese women by then society to bind their feet for the male gaze. Women of the present times are also faced with paralyzing pressures due to the tendency of media to objectify them. Concluding, many similarities exist between the centuries old Chinese culture of foot binding and contemporary media events. This proves that pressure has been put on women in different ways by patriarchal societies since always to modify themselves physically for the pleasure or satisfaction of women. Cultures may change, practices may take different forms, but the results and the influence exerted on women were, are, and will continue to be the same. Women are as distressed today around the globe over fitting into an ever-narrowing standard of female beauty as they were centuries ago over their bound feet in China. It is quite unfortunate how despite becoming so advanced on so many levels, millions of women in the US and other countries continue to be objectified by media and no one in the society complains about it. This is just like the way people continued to bind young girls’ feet for centuries in China and no one complained about it until 20th century arrived. Turning women into mindless sexual objects to satisfy the interests of male viewers reinforces this ideology that women are inferior and one thing which can make them distinguished among the rest is physical beauty. Works cited: Andriani, Novi. The Practice of Foot Binding. Academia.edu, 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2014. Campion, Alison. The Changing Role of Women During the Rise of Neo-Confucianism. Ali.ethanet.com, 2005. Web. 09 Dec. 2014. Goh-Mah, J. “The Objectification of Women - It Goes Much Further Than Sexy Pictures.” HUFFPOST LIFESTYLE. Huffingtonpost.co.uk, 09 Jun. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2014. Ko, Dorothy. “THE BODY AS ATTIRE: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China.” Journal of Women’s History 8.4 (1997): 8-27. Print. Pierson, Ruth R., and Cohen, Marjorie G. Canadian Women’s Issues: Volume I: Strong Voices. Canada: James Lorimer & Company, 1993. Print. Schiavenza, Matt. “The Peculiar History of Foot Binding in China.” The Atlantic. Theatlantic.com, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2014. Wilson, Ann-Marie. “How the methods used to eliminate foot binding in China can be employed to eradicate female genital mutilation.” Journal of Gender Studies 22.1 (2013): 17-37. Print. Zito, Angela. “Secularizing the Pain of Footbinding in China: Missionary and Medical Stagings of the Universal Body.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 75.1 (2007): 1–24. Print. Journal of Gender Studies iFirst Article, 2012, 1–21 RESEARCH ARTICLE How the methods used to eliminate foot binding in China can be employed to eradicate female genital mutilation Ann-Marie Wilson* Independent scholar working for 28 Too Many, 4 Normandy Avenue, High Barnet, Hertfordshire EN5 2JA. (Received 14 January 2011; final version received 25 September 2011) Gender-based violence affects women in most societies. Chinese foot binding existed for nearly a thousand years and was seen as a sign of beauty and marriageability. Female genital mutilation (FGM) has existed for over two thousand years, affecting 140 million women across forty countries. Both practices have significant parallels and are examined historically, geographically, and by health consequences. An analysis is made of the elimination of foot binding and applied to the eradication of FGM. A model is created to identify the features which are most likely to lead to success. Three case studies taken from Somalia, Ghana, and Ethiopia are assessed against the success criteria for the eradication of foot binding. Conclusions and recommendations are drawn for future work in the stand against FGM. Keywords: female genital mutilation (FGM); foot binding; health consequences; models of excellence; case studies – Somalia/Ghana/Ethiopia Introduction Gender-based violence exists in most societies, frequently focused on women. Further difficulties arise when the violence is undertaken by family members on young girls that neither have a voice, nor concept of the wrongs of the practice and understanding of alternative options. Secularizing the Pain of Footbinding in China: Missionary and Medical Stagings of the Universal Body Angela Zito How did foreign Christian anti-footbinding activists treat the distinctive forms of human embodiment they encountered in China? What were their assumptions? How should we understand the transition from religious to secular imaginings of the body and its pains? Here I discuss late nineteenth and early twentieth century religion and medicalized hygiene through the voices of two English people who campaigned against and wrote extensively about footbinding. Not an easy story about God traded for Nature, but a far more uneasy and subliminal borrowing and cross-fertilization of tropes between the religious and the scientific. In both evangelical religion and biological science our protagonists created powerful narrative technologies for making cultural process disappear into nature, and thus to re-channel agency, making it available for new projects. Here we see the secular and the religious informing and reinforcing one another as moments in the creation of the modern. Angela Zito, Departments of Anthropology and Religious Studies, New York University. USA. E-mail:angela.zito@nyu.edu. This paper had its origin in a panel organized by Dorothy Ko at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Meetings in Boston, 1994. The session was called “The Mindful Body: Footbinding,” and she and I have had many conversations about footbinding over the intervening decade, as I worked on this paper, and on my “Bound to be Represented: Fetishizing/Theorizing Footbinding” (2006). Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Spring 2007, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 1–24 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfl062 © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org Advance Access publication on February 20, 2007 Read More