part 353 whalers on the moon

[aphanon_meme]

We've been here over a year now! I can hardly believe it! Dreamwidth's been pretty good, I'd say, with almost no downtime to speak of and all that! Anyway... how is your spring going? Or I guess it's almost summer, isn't it? Hopefully it's been well! I've been catching up on work and new movies, all very exciting stuff, I'm sure.

Enjoy part 353!

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Comments

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, same here. I've read a few books about footbinding and its such a complicated cultural practice, it's a bit frustrating to see it's always boiled down to "GASP, LOOK AT THIS" when there's so much more to it than the physical appearance.

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, the article doesn't read as "gasp, look at this" so much as a really brief and somewhat repetitious overview, like the writer was bored or lacked additional information or something.

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

To me, it feels like "GASP" because the emphasis is in the article is on the photos of the actual feet.

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, this is hardly an article, more like captions to photos.

Which books have you read about footbinding, anon? Do you have any thoughts you want to share on it?

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

So far I've read Cinderella's Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding and Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet by Dorothy Ko. Both focus on the cultural importance of footbinding and how geographical differences could impact the style of footbinding used as well as the style and function of the shoes.

I've also read Aching for Beauty by Wang Ping, which is a memoir/history from an author who attempted to bind her own feet (despite it being against the law) when she was a young child--a more intimate look into the cultural and social aspect of footbinding and how it was used to bring women together. (Although it's a hard read, the author's writing style is drier than a desert.) I've also read some journal articles in various publications but I can't remember the titles and they're of the "holy shit these are expensive as hell if you're not getting them through school" variety unfortunately... :/

One thing I think is overlooked about footbinding is that it wasn't a static practice and it differed not only among different generations but in different geographic areas. For example, footbinding among rural communities in the more mountainous regions was not as strict as footbinding in the lower and richer cities, and the shoes for these areas were a lot more practical and sturdy when compared to 'city' footbinding because the women in these areas could not get by with 'city' footbinding styles and shoes. Women in rural and farming communities were generally more likely to have less strict bindings because they still needed to be able to do physical work--there are even 'work' shoes made specifically for bound feet.

It's a really complex issue and it's a shame there isn't a lot of scholarly work on the practice? The practice was obviously debilitating to women and is likely rooted in the male desire to keep women within the confines of their home as much as possible, but at the same time, because women with severely bound feet were more likely to remain at home and needed other women to complete these footbinding practices, it was a significant factor in the development of the inner "women's world" within Chinese homes and imperial courts.

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

oops I got tl;dr sorry ;A;

/same anon you replied to

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/04/photos-the-last-living-women-with-bound-feet/

For example this article on the same subject doesn't seem like "gasp" to me, because it focuses more on what the author of this project is trying to do and why she feels this is a culturally important project

ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Oops, saw this late.

Thanks for the link!

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

Foot binding is really interesting. Although it culturally was a consequence of male desires, it became very much an exclusive part of female culture in Chinese households, something only done through women's work.

And the general stereotype is that footbinding was meant to keep women incapacitated, but as the practice became popular with non aristocratic women, footbinding itself shifted to allow different styles that accommodated women who had to work and walk for a living--there's '
'bound' rain boots, 'bound' work/farm shoes, etc.

Re: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

[(Anonymous)]

I recall reading an article a few years back about how it had become difficult for women with bound feet to find special shoes, as of course that generation was dying off and so were the generation of shoemakers who had created shoes specifically to support that distorted foot shape.