Bound by Tradition
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 2:55 pm
Bound By Tradition • Damn Interesting
I knew what foot binding was but never knew quite how brutal the process was ... thank heavens it's a thing of the past! Imagine doing that to a little girl! Never being able to walk properly again in their lifetime had to have had a gradual health affect. I read somewhere once where the pain caused by the foot binding was considered good training for the future pain of childbirth. ( a good wifely quality!) I suppose anything can be justified especially if you get enough people to buy into it.
In one form or another, most cultures past and present have had their share of physical mutilations in the name of beauty and physical allure. I had my ears pierced at age 14 at a local department store and afterwards my earlobes stung and burned like crazy as I walked through the mall yet I suddenly felt very cosmopolitan and grown-up. That was the beginning and end of my physical alterations ... no tattoos, no further piercings, no cement in my backside!
I knew what foot binding was but never knew quite how brutal the process was ... thank heavens it's a thing of the past! Imagine doing that to a little girl! Never being able to walk properly again in their lifetime had to have had a gradual health affect. I read somewhere once where the pain caused by the foot binding was considered good training for the future pain of childbirth. ( a good wifely quality!) I suppose anything can be justified especially if you get enough people to buy into it.
In one form or another, most cultures past and present have had their share of physical mutilations in the name of beauty and physical allure. I had my ears pierced at age 14 at a local department store and afterwards my earlobes stung and burned like crazy as I walked through the mall yet I suddenly felt very cosmopolitan and grown-up. That was the beginning and end of my physical alterations ... no tattoos, no further piercings, no cement in my backside!