Chinese foot binding was a particularly barbaric technique which existed mainly in rural China until recently. This was primarily a cultural practice. The technique involved the very restricted binding of the feet of girls and the keeping of them bound to prevent the foot from growing. This was a painful process and led to significant deformity and incapacity. Children who were being afflicted by this process had to wear specifically created and manufactured shoes. There was quite an art to this and the footwear that these children were forced to use were adorned very purposely and exotically. The main reason for the technique of Chinese foot binding is that smaller sized feet were considered much more attractive in women. A much better price can be demanded by the family of the bride for the dowry.
The practice was very common in rural China for several centuries and only recently began to die out about 100 years ago due to social pressures that were brought to bear on the practice a result of the pain and impairment it has been creating. You can still find some older Chinese woman alive today with these deformed feet from the foot binding in their youth. The tragedy is caused by what happened when they were young children they do need to keep their feet bound since it is more at ease than not having them bound because the deformity has become so great. There's been a great deal of cultural and psychological analysis of the practice particularly in the perspective of this being done too please the men as opposed to being of any advantage to the female. Of the latest attention is the present practice of females using tight fitting high heel shoes has drawn commonalities between Chinese foot binding. Some of the cultural and psychological evaluation of this have actually pointed out the analogy among the two practices and who actually benefits from the practice. Both are painful, both create foot deformity, and both are for the benefit of the male gender.
