Generally when people are referring to foot binding, they are referring to the restructuring of the feet by the breaking of the arch and four smaller toes on each foot for the purpose of achieving small feet for females. Difficult to imagine, but it is the bending of the metatarsals after the four smaller toes have been bound into the plantars. It is somewhat like bending a corner of a paper so that it is tucked under. Then the paper is bent in half, shortening the size. After the initial binding procedure, usually around the age of seven, the feet would remain tightly bound with long cloth strips until the feet were no longer growing.  Idealistic feet for women were three inches in length, which earned the title of san tsun gin lian, or golden lotus or lily. The criteria for the perfect three-inch foot consisted of three features. The first was length, which ideally should be three inches. The second was the cleft between the heel and the sole, which was to be two to three inches deep. Thirdly, the feet should appear to be extensions of the leg, rather than stands for the body (Splendid Slippers 1997).

    The process was more complicated and sacred than I am able to convey here, due to lack of space. An important part of the process involved the selection of the date for the binding, which was very important. For example, having this done during the birthday of the goddess of mercy might be more favorable than other days. The cleaning and soaking of the girl's feet was also very important. As different footbinders used different methods and ingredients, the pre-soak was not any one standardized method. Various ingredients such as urine, ground almonds, mulberry roots, tannin, frankincense, or other such things would be added to warm water (Splendid Slippers 1997). Two other less common foot soak recipes were boiled monkey bones or warm animal blood, with the child's feet inserted into the live animal's stomach in some cases (Splendid Slippers 1997). Exfoliation of dead skin and the trimming of toenails might follow with a sprinkle of alum (Splendid Slippers 1997). The four smaller toes would be pushed towards the plantars using long cloth strips to secure this before wrapping the strip around the instep and ankle. The strip would be tightened so that the arch would be pulled upwards toward the ankle. Some foot binders inserted pieces of broken porcelain, glass, or metal into parts of the cloth strips. This caused gangreous skin, which could be later removed further shortening the feet (Splendid Slippers 1997). For better details on foot-binding, the following sites are recommended:

 'Foot-binding Causes Disabilities in Chinese Women'
Medical Implications of Foot-binding

    Often what horrifies people most about foot-binding is that mothers performed this custom on their daughters feet at ages as young as two, but most often at around age seven. The reason it was carried out at such young ages is because "the foot is still composed primarily of pre-bone cartilage which is predominately water, and is therefore more easily molded" (Splendid slippers; 1997; p.27).

    Contrary to popular belief, foot-binding was not practiced by all Chinese. The Manchus did not practice foot-binding. The Hakka women of southern China also did not practice foot-binding, but only because their labor was necessary on farms during male emigration for employment (Splendid Slippers 1997).  By the 1800's, foot-binding was less common in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdon (especially Hong Kong), and Guanxi ('Locating Footbinding: Variations across Class and Space in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century China' 1997).

     Small, bound feet were symbolic of the lily or lotus. Yet interestingly enough, a woman was not comparable with the grace and delicateness of the flower unless her feet were bound very small. Women were the yang, weak and delicate, yet by nature could not be like the flower without the pruning. A woman with natural size feet was a woman with feet similar to mens', which meant that she was characterized as the opposite of grace, beauty, and the proper complement to yin.

    It is not exactly clear when footbinding began. Some believe that the practice began after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in 907. According to legend, it began when a concubine called 'Precious Thing' belonging to Prince Li Yu danced somewhat like a ballerina on her toes. She did this inside a six-foot high lotus. From there, the custom is believed to have been picked up by royalty before becoming popular with commoners (Splendid Slippers 1997). The second belief centers around the period approximately 300 years before Prince Li Yu, between the years of 618 and 907.  According to this legend, court dancers wrapped their feet in white silk to dance atop a golden lotus sculpture ('Locating Footbinding: Variations across Class and Space in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century China' 1997). The third belief argues that footbinding originated much later than the Tang Dynasty's collapse or age of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The years they believe footbinding to have originated are during the Song Dynasty years of 960 to 1279. This is based on the premise that one of the earliest written references to footbinding was recorded by Su Shih in the eleventh century.

A. Relativity

    According to this argument, there is probably not just one main reason why foot-binding occurred for nearly one thousand years. Dorothy Ko believes that foot-binding was "an amorphous practice that meant different things to different people, depending on their positions in ethnic, social, and gender hierarchies" (Journal of Women's History 1997; p.15). For one mother, this may have meant saving her daughter from a lifetime of being a social outcast and spinsterhood. For another woman, this may have meant pride in expressing her distinction of being a Han after the Manchus conquered Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Korea, and China by 1644. For one woman, it meant giving her daughter a proper status and avoiding the anger of her husband's wishes. To her husband, it might have meant a promotion and gifts from a boss as he meticulously planned how to give his daughter away as a respectable, obedient concubine (Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China 1991). But a better question to ask is who was really being satisfied each time a woman bound her daughter's feet?

B. Social Pressure

    People often incredulously wonder how mothers who had loved their daughters could practice such painful, and seemingly inhumane treatment on them. Often it is assumed that this was very easy to carry out against females and that it was probably done because the families did not care whether female children lived or died. Although females were less valued in society, the family members may have viewed the foot-binding of daughters as an investment in them. This was thought to be an investment that would make their daughters more fertile, more sexually pleasing to men, more socially acceptable, and more disciplined (note: these are the arguments which support infibulation and female genital mutilation today). Even the orphanages run by nuns gradually and reluctantly allowed this practice to be allowed on orphans because of the societal treatment of girls and women with unbound feet (Splendid Slippers 1997). If men valued women with bound feet more highly than those with unbound feet, this placed pressure on women to observe the custom by binding their daughters feet. So societal pressure is one reason the practice continued.

C. Eroticism and Attractiveness

    The belief was that the smaller the feet, the better. Women in tiny silk slippers enticed men, regardless of whether or not he found the face to be attractive. It was not unusual for men to be aroused just from looking at the tiny silk slippers, with or without a woman wearing them. Men masturbated looking at tiny silk slippers. Men drank from the slippers. Some men would steal slippers, especially red slippers worn to bed by women (Splendid Slippers 1997). They fondled the tiny feet and slippers during sex. To some, the cleft in the foot was treated like a vagina (Splendid Slippers 1997). Another part of eroticism was that women with bound feet were thought to be like well-pruned trees in that the weight of the body was being shifted to just one point of the foot, just as a pruned tree has limbs manipulated to attain the desired effect. The weight shift to just the heels was alleged to have had the effect of tightened vaginal muscles, along with muscular thighs and hips (Splendid Slippers 1997).

    It is important to mention that some debate and are even offended by the erotic stories behind foot-binding. Author, Dorothy Ko, advises people to be cautious in separating what we know to be facts in foot-binding with what is given as facts ('The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Foot-binding in Seventeenth-Century China' 1997). Readers are cautioned to be aware of where the facts come from and what the intentions may have been. For example, a lot of the information we have comes from those voicing their opposition during the late 1800's or early 1900's. Because we know that their purpose was to end foot-binding, we don't know to what degree they may have gone in their attempts to persuade. We also do not know how much western missionaries may have misunderstood regarding why foot-binding was desirable to the Hans. Instead, the reader is advised to examine the literature and pictorial representations of foot-binding from the days before missionaries entered in the 1800's. It is important to note that she isn't denying that foot-binding occurred on a wide-scale basis over one thousand years, but is questioning the accuracy of things like men being so focused on the size of women's feet for eroticism. One example of something she finds particularly offensive is the arousal of men by the smell of women's bound feet.

D. Hans Versus Manchus

    This argues that foot-binding was a sign of loyalty by Hans towards the Ming Dynasty, which ended in 1644. The Ming was the last Han dynasty, which ended with the emperor hanging himself as the Manchus took over. This leads some to believe that foot-binding may have begun as a silent form of protest against the Manchus.

E. Immobility, Obedience, and Custom

    A function in foot-binding lay in the disadvantage it placed women in. Most women with bound feet were nearly crippled. And if women were considered at a weaker physical disadvantage before foot-binding, one can only imagine how much more disadvantaged they were afterwards. Foot-binding maintained subservience. In Anatomy of Love  by Dr. Helen Fisher, foot-binding is described as a barrier from the fleeing from the husband's house. She compares this with the history of women after the invention of the plow, which is thought to have changed the status of women forever after. This is because the plow required much more strength (placing more value on males) than the original farming techniques, which involved women using hoes or digging sticks. Dr. Fisher compares the attitudes toward women from early recorded times of about 1100 BC in ancient Mesopotamia where law codes describe women as chattels, or possessions (Anatomy of Love 1992). She goes on to compare foot-binding with "suttee" or sati in India, and the buying and selling of women by the Germanic peoples who invaded classical Rome. Foot-binding has also been compared with female genital mutilation in that both are "supported and transmitted by women" in the belief that it promotes fertility, are said to increase the sexual satisfaction in males, are needed for social acceptance, and are cultural traditions ('Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account' 1996). It seems to support the argument that foot-binding was a method used to control women during a time when women were regarded as little more than property. Whether or not this was the original aim of foot-binding, I am not certain; however, it was used as a way to maintain subservience and immoblility in women. Most people who argue that foot-binding was the result of male domination argue that all of the answers presented for why (eroticism, obedience, social acceptance, social pressure, attractiveness, and many others) were really not at the basis. When each is examined, the question should be 'Who did they do this for?' Did millions do this out of benevolence and altruism or isn't it more realistic to reason that they did these things for subjective reasons with male domination at the heart of it? A good point is that many things are enacted that are given the appearance of legitimacy over time because it becomes a custom. Some women may have bound their daughters feet believing that they were doing this out of custom and to make their daughters respectable, yet in reality they were unknowingly carrying out a seemingly legitimate custom designed to benefit males.