# More on Chinese Foot Binding **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 3, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-chinese-foot-binding/71038 "2001-07-03T02:26:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-chinese-foot-binding/71038/1 "2001-07-03T02:26:09Z")
[What’s the story on the ancient Chinese custom of binding women’s feet?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a981023.html) In case anyone is curious, there is a picture of bound and unbound feet (oo-la-la!) on this site: [http://starbulletin.com/98/03/10/features/story1.html](http://starbulletin.com/98/03/10/features/story1.html) ---
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-chinese-foot-binding/71038/2 "2001-07-03T03:04:34Z")
I knew a woman who had bound feet. It sounds utterly horrible. Perhaps worse than a clitorectomy in terms of long term pain? I won’t suggest an opinion on that one, not being a woman myself. Apparently they had to be cleaned weekly and new bandages had to be applied otherwise the foot would rot. (Yikes) This was, I was told, the worse part of the whole ordeal, for while the stuffed foot was uncomfortable, ungainly, and painful to walk on, it paled in comparison to the pain that occured when the blood that had been so assiduously reduced to a trickle GUSHED back into the foot. Severe pain always ensued. (Imagine having a foot asleep for one week. Talk about pins-and-needles) ---
**Author:** ![Sultan\_Kinkari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-chinese-foot-binding/71038/3 "2001-07-03T03:38:44Z")
Barf. Thank you for the fascinating visuals. Toe job?..ummm no thanks. ---
**Author:** ![The\_White\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85e7bf/32.png) [@The\_White\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_White_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-chinese-foot-binding/71038/4 "2001-07-03T07:30:20Z")
Footbinding, man that’s some nasty icky stuff. Now if you’ll excuse me, i have to go drop off a friend for a nosejob and liposuction… oh wait. Hm. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-chinese-foot-binding/71038/5 "2001-07-04T11:27:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JS Princeton \* > I knew a woman who had bound feet. It sounds utterly horrible. Perhaps worse than a clitorectomy in terms of long term pain? I won’t suggest an opinion on that one, not being a woman myself. I find it hard to venture an opinion on that one and I am a woman. Depending on how it’s done and the result, there’s a wide variation in the residual pain of clitorectomy. Back when Western docs were performing such on women in the late 19th and early 20th century it was relatively clean surgery that, although destroying most of a woman’s capacity for sexual pleasure as well as orgasm ability, usually did not result in chronic pain or disability (beyond the sex life). When performed with a broken bottle or rusty implement by “tribal elders” in unsantiary conditions the complication rate is quite high and can result in urinary blockages, nerve damage, infection, muscle and/or tendon damage, and so forth, all of which can result in long term pain. Imagine if every time you went to pee you felt like it was burning acid trickling over your flesh, and because of your screwed up anatomy, you have a reduced urine flow so taking a leak takes you up to ten minutes. Some of these women are in pain every time they take a step. Anyhow, I’m not sure footbinding and female castration are something that should be compared and rated for pain - both are just really awful things to do to a human being. While the ideal “lotus foot” was 3 inches, there was always some variation in how far bound a woman’s foot actually was. Peasent women who actually had to perform work in the fields were not so tightly bound as an aristocrat, and at certain times and places only “bound” their feet for special occasions, wearing high heeled shoes designed to minimize the length of their feet and make them appear smaller than they actually were. I read a book on footbinding last year (can’t remember the title off hand) and there was a very sad story about a woman with bound feet who had somehow been caught in a storm. Her feet, with their poor circulation, had frozen, dried out, and eventually _dropped off_. She saved them, took them to an English doctor, and asked him to _glue them back on_ because with no feet she was no longer beautiful.