Chinese Foot Binding

Not so long ago in China, women across the country forcibly broke their feet to achieve the perfect, three inch ideal. The process would start in girls as young as three, the older females in the family bending their toes backwards and wrapping them in ten feet of cotton. At the time, this small, three inch foot was considered beautiful, as well as a status symbol. If a girl did not have her feet bound, she most likely would not be able to marry. This breaking of the foot prevented the woman from walking on her own in most cases, forcing her to rely on someone else to move around. She would thus become one hundred percent reliant on her husband to take care of her.  As barbaric as this is, today's women are not so different than those who bound their feet. Think about high heels. No, we do not generally break our feet to fit into them . . .

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But it isn't so different either. We just bend our toes in a different direction . .