| Flip flops catching on in China? | |
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| Jul 11, 2008 18:21 | #11   |
 | Forgot to comment about foot binding. Have heard about it, but know nothing about the history or purpose of it. Was it to show beauty or femininity ? Whatever....it makes about as much sense as ties required to be worn by men or corsets by women just because our society says so. It must take 5yrs. off the average life of an individual plus all the physical suffering when wearing these things. |
| Jul 12, 2008 04:01 | #12 |
| My Wife’s Grandmother had bound feet, so it wasn’t that long ago. My understanding is that it was middle to upper-class Han habit. Please read Pang Mei Chang’s book “Bound feet & Western Dress (Bantam books) She gives some good insight into this. The foot was supposed to resemble the shape of a lotus leaf, so you can work out what was done. The toes where bent back towards to heel. This slow process started at about the age of five. The Manchu women did not bind their feet. Alicia Archibald helped form the Ant Foot binding league in the late 19th centenary but I don’t think it was banned until 1949. Dodger. |
| Jul 12, 2008 04:27 | #13 |
| Interesting.....thanks for the information DODGER!! |
| Jul 12, 2008 10:11 | #14 |
| (I used to be Guest 06934) I don't think that baring ones feet is quite the same as being "topless" Alot more subtle, asthetic and tasteful. Plus I love all the cute things I can wear on my feet to make them look cute, pedicures, anklets, toe-rings and (sigh) flip flops :) |
| Jul 12, 2008 11:20 | #15 |
| Yes, my comparison using "topless" was overstated but at the time I couldn't think of a milder form of dress code taboo that we have. I'm assuming that you consider a flip flop as any form of open toed shoe ? |
| Jul 12, 2008 11:37 | #16 |
| bound foot starts in song dynasty, it has been torturing women until it's banned in 1949. my grandma on my father side has a 'cute feet' with broken bone but my grandma on my mon's side has big feet. i think the latter is the pioneer of women liberalization. |
| Jul 14, 2008 22:26 | #17 |
| I'm so glad that I live in this century. I can't even stand my feet in closed shoes. Liberated feet = happy me. |
| Jul 15, 2008 00:19 | #18 |
| A few comments to help clarify things. Flip flops or thongs as I call them are anything resembling the former photo compliments of Shegottobe 'the CROCS ' They were once just something you wore to the beach or around the house. In Australia they are part on our 'National Dress Code' of shorts, singlet and thongs. In China, feet are still very important and if you are going to expose them they better look good. Foot massaging and pedicures are a national pass time and very cheap even for the average city dweller. So everywhere you look the women are showing off there feet. The good the bad and the ugly. So much so that I often feel self conscious about my sometimes tardy looking toes but a trip to the paint shop always leave them looking like a million dollars. As to bound feet. This is my humble understanding of this crippling act The Chinese, men of course, considered feet very sensual, the smaller and more delicate looking the better. Thus this barbaric act of binding of women's feet began around the age of five, preparing them for marriage. They were then only seen by the women themselves or the master of the house when he sought some sensual pleasure or arousal from these now ugly, smelly, peeling stubs. They were for a man's pleasure only!!!!!!!!!!!!! Indeed the women found no pleasure it any of this. Women with big feet were considered ugly, and ineligible for marriage, especially in upper class circles. In those days women rarely left their homes so walking any great distance was unnecessary and it kept them housebound like other household chattels. When they travelled any distance it would be by sedan chair, mostly hidden from public sight. While the practice has been banned for more than fifty years it 'died hard' when early activist began to help liberate those still bound to this custom and there is still a generation of elderly women who still totter courageously on their 'beautiful little lotus leaves' I personally fail to see any resemblance with lotus leaves. If you've ever seen them, these are in fact huge and round enabling them to float on water. I guess they don't have toes!! But they are certainly not small or delicate. Beautiful yes and practical but not small or delicate!! |
| Jul 16, 2008 00:45 | #19 |
| My Chinese husband finds my feet very sexy and sensual but in their full liberated form. We both can't imagine how anybody could find deformed broken feet at all arousable. It's really sick. Maybe it was how it made women walk like in a hobbled fashion and that's what these old sick men liked. Something to do with their power and the helplessness of women. We are going on a tangent albeit an informative one. |
| Jul 16, 2008 21:00 | #20 |
| Crazy, It was certainly meant to “hobble” the woman. In Confusion society Women were thought of as less then second class citizens. The way that the woman was forced to walk was thought to enhance her pelvic region. “The Soong Dynasty” by Sterling Seagraves, gives a graphic account. I cannot quote it here because it may be a little ripe for some. Dodger. |
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