Crushing Your Feet (in the Name of Beauty)

When first looking at foot binding, I couldn't help but think how gruesome and almost barbaric the practice seemed. To someone as oblivious to Asian culture as I am the permanent and painful reforming of one's feet for beauty was very shocking. After all, if you have working feet, why would you want to damage them in a way that could permanently impair the way you walk?

Pretty shocking the first time around

Then high heels were introduced into the discussion, and everything got more confusing. These are shoes worn everyday by people all around me, and these do permanent damage to your feet as well! Then why exactly do I feel so staunchly against foot binding and but not against high heels?

After all, if they all do the damage then what's the difference? Is it simply my Western upbringing that makes me shy from foot binding? Perhaps it isn't even as weird or bad as it seems, simply different from the culture that I was raised in, in the same way that eating bugs seems disgusting, despite it being an environmentally-friendly and relatively healthy source of protein? But no, it's not quite that: eating bugs is a sort of choice, while foot binding often isn't. "Many of the women Farrell met were forced to bind their feet against their will. One woman told Farrell that her mother would cut slices of skin off her toes as punishment for unbinding their feet." (Source) Objectively, then, one can say that the modification was forcefully inflicted upon the girls, which is quite different from deciding to wear heels to work.

But then, there is still pressure on modern women to maintain that perfect (if unrealistic) beauty standard. While there are no threats of bodily harm, women (and men) often feel the need to dress a certain way to fit with our current cultural norms. For example, a business woman might feel the need to wear high heels to the office, but this doesn't necessarily mean she would feel out of place if she didn't. On the contrary, people enjoy wearing heels, which can make them feel empowered. Which begs the question, did any of the women with bound feet feel similarly?

Perhaps some foot-bound women stepped into these shoes and felt graceful and beautiful just like a Western woman in heels and a complimenting dress.

Then there are similar culture clashes in the modern era. In particular, I recall when I first lived in France and was shocked to see a woman on a motorcycle wearing high heels (probably four or five inch ones, at that). She was well put-together, a businesswoman I'd guess, casually sitting on her motorcycle, waiting to make a turn at a light.

Casually Wearing High Heels on a Motorcycle

How uncomfortable that must be, I thought, how dangerous. What if she got into an accident? She must be crazy to wear those! I pointed it out to my host dad, who was driving the car, and he mentioned his similar reaction when he came to America and saw women on motorcycles or women walking around the streets in sneakers. Why would they wear such a nice outfit, one fit for a business meeting, then finish it off with such ugly shoes? Do they not want to look good? If not, why get dressed up at all?

I suppose the takeaway message of the story is that we should be careful in making our judgements of other cultures. After all, our habits and practices might look just as weird to them as theirs do to us.