Foot Binding Unbound
At the AsiaNetwork conference this morning there was an illuminating talk on Chinese foot binding by Dorothy Ko from Barnard College. Now that footbinding is entirely a thing of the past she argues that a more balanced look is due to this now universally dispised practice of crushing women’s feet into a three inch shoe. Ko’s analysis is based on the material culture surrounding the shoes themselves as most of historic commentary that has survived is from the perspective of the male anti-foot binding crusaders who were wholly indifferent to the cultural meanings these shoes had for the women. Ko very quickly established the complexity of the topic by pointing out the variety of styles and functions that these miniscule shoes had as expressions of personal handiwork, regional ethnic identity, social gift exchanges, and religious offerings. Furthermore, there were styles and forms of shoes that seemed especially designed for outdoor wear. So, contrary to the common description of shackled and subserviant women unable to anything outside the domestic sphere, foot binding became a vehicle for self expression and status that women attempted to negotiate in order to exert some modicum of self control in their very bounded lives. The highlight of the talk was when a white male conference attendee agreed to have his foot bound. The shoe was very generously proportioned compared to the miniscule examples she passed about, but the effect seemed evedent as our curageuos volunteer wobbled in the painful constricting position. It was very heroic of him to make the effort for our edification, it must have taken supreme self-control to and self-sacrifice to be on bound feet for life.
