Foot Binding the 20th Century Women have been trying to modify their bodies since the beginning of time and this has not changed to the present day. Today women use many types of products to change the way they look to create societies image of perfection. The use of makeup and other topical products is seen to be the norm and if you don’t use them you are usually not seen as put together as other women. Also today women today have many more drastic and permanent option that women in the past could not use. Women today can undergo cosmetic surgery. In fact, the amount of women that get liposuction is 55%, 47% get tummy tucks, 21% get breast enlargements and 24% of women get Botox injections (ChaCha). While the method of body modification had changed, the amount of pain and time that women are willing to put into creating the image that they think is the ideal image has not change over time. Body type and structure has always been important to women. They ideal body type has changed over time. For example, larger women at one point in time were coveted because being larger meant that you could afford to eat in excess. In China specifically the size of women’s feet was thought to be important and the smaller they were the more attractive the women. This is a brutal process that many young women had to endure so that they could be considered attractive and did a lot of damage to their bodies and esteem. Foot binding has occurred in China since the Sung Dynasty which was around 1200, which was to immolate the emperor concubines who was required to dance with her feet bound (Cummings). This continued tradition continued into the twentieth century for many reasons. For example, women in this time and place had very little control of their lives. Families saw marriage as a business arrangement which had no correlation to love or happiness. As a result many women had no say over their bodies, which is why they allowed others to painfully bind their feet and unnaturally mold their bones. Women were molded and shaped into whatever their husbands wanted. Moreover, families would “inflict dreadful pain on growing girls [which] emphasized their role as erotic playthings” (Rhodes 48). Foot binding also enforced the role of women in the household. Most girls were not allowed to have a formal education and had very specific roles. For example, women of lower class were majorly involved in the agricultural aspect of the family income. Also, “[they] were usually the major workers in the cottage industry, producing handicraft goods for sale or for barter” (Rhodes 51). On the other hand women of upper class families were expected to not be seen. In fact foot binding emphasized this because it immobilized women to the house because they could not move without being in major amounts of pain. Moreover, “foot binding is hard for us to understand, but the idea was that a women’s foot, considered a sex object, should be tiny, a so called ‘lily foot’” (Rhodes 155). This was, at first, only common in a few upper class families but then became widespread and common amongst many families. When foot binding was finally out lawed in the late 20th century many people still had to deal with deformities, even though they we less severe, and many families still preformed the practice. Foot binding also had a large impact on the elderly, who had completed the foot binding process. Moreover by the end of the 20th century “bounded feet were found in 38% of women older than age 80 and in 18% of 70- through 79-year-olds; 33 women (17.1%) older than age 70 had had their feet bound but released early” (Cummings). With the lack of proper foot structure most of the women with completely bound feet were prone to fall, which can become a major problem if they injure themselves further when they fall (Cummings). Also elderly women have a hard time rising from a chair or squatting which be very problematic. This creates them to be dependent on other people which can cause a strain for the families, financially and for time. Also while foot binding may seem like a foreign and extreme measure to fit the ideal picture of a women, it can be seen in America today. In fact there is a fairly new treatment called “toe shortening”, which “involves removing a knuckle, then pinning the toe back together to re-fuse the bones” (Gangon). This procedure seems to be unnecessarily painful and because the knuckle is being removed it significantly reduces the function on the toe, which helps with balance and grip. Moreover, like any other surgery there are many risks and complications that could occur. A podiatrist that has performed this surgery for patients that required medical benefit said “Any surgery can have complications, and they can be serious: infection, scarring, numbness, swelling and hypersensitivity are just a few. If the procedure is solely cosmetic, I would strongly suggest that patients seriously consider those risks” (Gangon). While is can be dangerous it is also expensive, costing a couple thousand a toe. This whole process is done so that women feel more comfortable on shoes and so that they have pretty and healthy looking feel.

Works cited
Cummings. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=2&sid=4b4b4eba-9a84-45e8-9e0b-191bfb4b7ba4%40sessionmgr114&hid=109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=buh&AN=94187890>.
Gangon. "Older Women and Foot Binding" . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=4&sid=7a77cf72-90d6-4170-9aeb-f07dd8ad1e92%40sessionmgr4003&hid=4102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=buh&AN=9711170418>.
"What percent of women get plastic surgery?." Questions & Answers. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.chacha.com/question/what-percent-of-women-get-plastic-surgery>.