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| Body Alterations Done By Women: From Footbinding to Neck Rings | |
| Chinese Footbinding Practices: Lotus Feet | |
| "The pain, of
course, teaches an important lesson: no price is too great, no
process too repulsive, no operation too painful for the women who would
be beautiful. The tolerance of pain and the romanticization of
that tolerance begins...in preadolescence, in socialization, and serves
to prepare the women for lives of
childbearing, self-abnegation, and husband pleasing." (Andrea
Dworkin)
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| The practice
of foot binding actually began with a legend from 10th Century China,
during the Tang Dynasty around 920 A.D., when a prince was said to have
fallen in love with his concubines small "lily feet."
This would become a symbol of wealth and nobility in China
for centuries to come.
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| Between the ages of
four to seven, the foot binding process occurred, and young girls would
have to sit as a strip of bandage ten feet long and two inches wide was
wrapped tightly around the foot. The four small toes were broken
and bent under the sole. The arch of the foot was indented to make
the foot appear smaller, a symbol of beauty and wealth. The
bandage was tightened each day and a girl's foot was put into smaller and
smaller shoes until the desired three-inch feet were formed. The
process took two years, and by the time it was finished, the foot was
useless for walking.
The foot binding ceremony usually took place in the presence of the girl's mother, grandmother, and sometimes her aunts. After two or three years of this binding, the girl's feet could fit into the three-inch shoes called "lotus shoes," which were decorated with silk linings and embroideries. For upperclass women, leisure time was spent making these lotus shoes, and the embroidery often told a story. The most popular symbol was the lotus flower, a symbol of balance and fertility. These lotus shoes were known as "gong xie" in chinese. In the Chinese culture, a woman could not get married unless her foot was bound. Oftentimes a woman's value was measured by the size of her feet. Bound feet also became a symbol of chasity, for once a woman's feet were properly bound, she would never be able to walk again on her own. If she wasn't carried, then the woman would have to resort to crawling on her hands and knees.
Lotus shoes were never taken off, even when the woman slept. It was not uncommon for a woman's feet to get gangrene, or even cause the woman to be paralyzed. Sometimes toes would fall off from the constriction. A woman's beauty was measured by the size of her feet. The Chinese culture subscribed to a matchmaking process in the interests of marriage, and matchmakers would want to know how big a girls feet were. A badly bound foot was a sign of laziness. When a woman would walk, she had to do it with her weight distributed on her heels, causing the muscles of the vagina to tighten. Chinese men claimed that having sex with a woman with bound feet was like having sex with a virgin. Today, some women did have, or still have bound
feet. In a study of osteoporosis in China by the
UCSF, it was
found that about 18 percent of the women in the 70s age group, and 38
percent of women in the 80s age group from the sample had footbinding
deformities. Women with bound feet fall prey to lower hip and
spine bone density, rendering them more prone to hip and spine
fractures. The practice was banned in 1911 under the new Chinese
Republic, but this followed hundreds of years of binding.
Bound Little Girl http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/foot.html Lotus Shoe http://www.crowmagazine.com/footbind.htm Bio of Footbinding http://www.crowmagazine.com/footbind.htm Girl Being Carried http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/foot.html Side View of Foot http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/footbinding.htm Front View of Foot http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/images/bndfeet2.gif
Corsets and the Effects of the Wasp Waist
A corset is a garment worn around the waist to make it appear smaller. The first incident of a group wearing corsets is as early as 1700B.C. Minoan men and women wore them, as well as people of Crete, Egypt, Rome, Greece, and Assyria. Women of ancient Greece and Rome wore corsets that pulled the waist, as well as everything from the hip to collarbone, in. During the 16th Century, a time when women's garments were heavier and wider, a smaller waist meant more wealth and higher rank. Corsets remained a fashion and status symbol straight into the 19th Century and were very popular in England and the United States.
Corsets were introduced to girls at the age of fourteen, and after years of pulling tighter and tighter, as the waist was expected to be 18-19 inches around, several internal organs were dislocated. Corsets constricted the lungs and heart, put pressure on the liver, pushed the stomach up, squeezed the small intestines and bowels, and compressed the bladder.
The most devastating damage was done to the lungs and rib cage. The corset caused the lower ribs of the ribcage, which naturally have a space between the two sides, to come together from either side, possibly causing the two sides of the ribcage to overlap. A woman who wore a corset could not sit down straight, fainted easily, had heart ailments and digestion problems, and had complications during childbirth due to organ failure.
Lady with Corset http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/corsetspage.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411 Sitting Lady http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/corsetspage.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411 Bio of Corset http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/corsetspage.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411 Corset Add http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/corsetspage.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411
Ringed Neck Stretching Among the Padaung
The Padaung are a tribe found in Burma, and one of their traditions causes an alteration to the anatomy of the female body. They use a series of neck rings to push down their shoulders, making them appear longer. A young girl receives her first ring at about the age of five, and as she grows, rings are added.
These rings are symbols of wealth within a family. A long neck was one of the ways that a woman could attract a husband among the Padaung. The neck rings caused the stretching of the vertebrae in the neck.
Women whose necks have been stretched by these rings have very poor balance. If these rings were removed, and there was no one to hold up a woman's neck, then she would suffocate to death. Today Padaung women do not all have neck rings. Those who do have them usually do it for commercial reasons, raising as a tourist attraction.
These types of body alterations were usually done as status symbols, and many cultures have done other similar types of body alterations. Once these alterations are done, there is no turning back. The bones, organs, and muscles that have been altered cannot support themselves naturally, and depend on the support of the device, such as the lotus shoe, corset, or neck rings. Removing these support systems cannot reduce the damage done, and in some cases is dangerous, as with the Padaung women of Burma. Neckstretching of Two Girls http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/neckstretching.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411 Padaung Woman http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/neckstretching.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411 Neck X-ray http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/neckstretching.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411 Tourist Rings http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/neckstretching.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0411
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| Related Web Sites
wysiwyg://43/http://www.angelfire.com/biz/halycon/wspwst.html http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/studpages/vento.html wysiwyg://36/http://puffergal.tripod.com/2002/010302.html http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/images/bndfeet2.jpg http://www.nwu.edu/univ-relations/media...leases/*events/foot.html
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References
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| Created by: Stephanie Buvoltz on 4/3/02 | |
| Biology
Department Beverly J. Brown, Ph.D. |
Nazareth College |
