Lotus
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
When I was little I used to read a book of Chinese folktales that belonged to my mother. Between each tale was interspersed the day to day lives of two children, brother and sister, of a fairly wealthy feudal Chinese household. One of these little interludes dealt with the sister hiding in order to avoid her daily foot binding. I never could quite imagine just what the ancient Chinese were going for when the lotus foot was described but this image leaves no doubt. In case you choose not to view the rest of the set realize that the shoes she wears are only about an inch longer than a pack of cigarettes.
Tiny shoes and very sore feet… [peety passion]
Categories: China, WTF, Fetishes, Mods
Posted at 7:05 pm on October 2, 2007
6 Comments -
*Shudders.* We Westerners have anorexic models, the Chinese have foot-binding… I just realized that we’re talking about civilization-wide fetishes. Worse fetishes, indeed, then some of the “fetishes” that mainstream society shuns; the obsession with dropping that extra pound or getting your foot that little bit smaller seems more harmful then, as a random example, voyeurism…
I will happily wager that some historian somewhere has done a serious investigation into this sort of thing. Be hard to find it, though; even “liberal” Americans show a streak of Puritanism on this sort of thing.
Comment by Robert — October 2, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
Of all the shit thus enumerated on this blog, THIS is what sickens me the most?
No really, thats sick.
Comment by Erza — October 2, 2007 @ 10:50 pm
After chocking back my vomit, the photo made me want to kiss my beautifully straight size 8s.
Comment by monkey — October 2, 2007 @ 11:16 pm
In case you didn’t already know, you won’t be surprised to hear that the original Cinderella story came from China. In that version, the king never met Cinderella (Yeh Shen) at the party; he found her shoe and became obsessed with finding whoever had such a tiny foot. Tres creepy when you know how that was accomplished.
I think the widespread preference for tiny feet came about because it was a status symbol. Only a wealthy man could afford to have a wife who was too crippled to do physical labor. Bonus: she couldn’t run away, either.
Comment by Miss Cellania — October 3, 2007 @ 12:39 am
Miss C. That makes a lot of sense especially when you consider the bit about how one of the ugly stepsisters ended up cutting her feet to make them fit into the shoes and managed to trick the prince for a while*
Comment by kim — October 3, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
Interestingly enough, even the ancient Chinese were aware of how off-putting the bare foot looked. There are texts imploring men not to view their wives’ feet without lotus shoes on, lest the “effect be ruined”.
Comment by Ross Rosenberg — October 5, 2007 @ 1:41 pm