Another reason why this custom survived the vicissitudes of a millennium of history was its profound appeal to the Chinese male. Later chapters present the attitudes of critics and proponents, and from the pros and cons one fact becomes undeniably clear: the sexual appeal of footbinding to the Chinese male was never questioned. Those in favor of abolition condemned the tiny foot as lewd and lascivious, because it led man astray and prevented him from fulfilling his social responsibilities. There were apologists, on the other hand, who explained the persistence of the custom in terms of feminine psychology. Women from time immemorial and throughout the world showed a willingness to maim themselves to achieve male-defined standards of beauty and win love and admiration, and footbinding was therefore no different in its essential nature from the wearing of unnaturally high heels, plucking the eyebrows, or undergoing face-lifting operations.
We find this deformity of the feet ridiculous, but it pleases the Chinese. What would we say in Europe if a society of celestials made a campaign against the corset? Deformity for deformity, which is the more ridiculous: that which consequently produces a certain difficulty in walking, or that which, compressing the stomach, dislocating the kidneys, crushing the liver and constricting the heart, often prevents women from having fine children?
From antiquity to the recent past, the Chinese regarded the beauty of the tiny foot as a mark of gentility and refinement. During the latter part of the Ming dynasty (early 17th century), China suffered from Tartar invasions. To save the day, a scholar named Ch’u Ssu-chiu made the following proposaclass="underline"
The reason these barbarians are able to leave their own territory easily and swiftly and come to invade us from a great distance is that there are no beautiful women in their northern regions. If we want to control these northern barbarians, we should bring it about so that they have many beauties and cause their men to be ensnared and deluded by feminine charm. We should teach them footbinding and persuade them to imitate us in dress. They will prize women with a willow waist and a lotus gait and a weak and alluring attitude. Barbarians who have been deluded by such women will then lose their cruel and harsh natures.
The mystery of the foot enhanced its appeal. It was washed in strictest privacy and bound in the intimacy and inaccessibility of the boudoir. Male curiosity was aroused; stealing a covert glance at one’s beloved with bindings unraveled thrilled the beholder and stirred his passions. The impact must have been greater than that felt by a Westerner who accidentally sees his enamored in the nude, for the feminine figure in China was usually entirely concealed. The flesh revealed by summer dress or bathing suit leaves little to the Western imagination, but the Chinese male let his thoughts dwell on the tiny foot barely revealed beneath the full-cut trousers and then transferred his fancy upwards to the forbidden Jade Gate.
STAGES OF THE FOOTBINDING PROCESS
A. Early results, all toes but the big one bent under the metatarsal. B. and C. Process complete, with toes entirely bent under the metatarsal. D. Resultant change in bone configuration. (Based on a specimen kept by the Natural Foot Society in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1905.) E. The foot which has changed in form tightly bound by a strip of cloth, (from Shina kanzoku no joshi ni okonawaruru tensoku no fu)
The tiny and fragile appearance of the foot aroused in the male a combination of lust and pity. He longed to touch it, and being allowed to do so meant that the woman was his. Golden Lotus was a commonly used euphony for the tiny foot; lovers of the lotus widely believed that the binding process itself had a wondrous effect on the feminine figure. This belief was also held by local medical practitioners such as the Taiwanese doctor who commented:
Footbinding had a physical influence on a woman’s body. Her swaying walk attracted male attention. When the footbound woman went walking, the lower part of her body was in a state of tension. This caused the skin and flesh of her legs and also the skin and flesh of her vagina to become tighter. The woman’s buttocks, as a result of walking, became larger and more attractive sexually to the male. We can thus see that there are definite reasons why men formerly liked to marry women with bound feet.
Nagao Ryuzo, a Japanese scholar long resident in China, once informed me that rich men formerly preferred bound-foot concubines, professedly because they gave one the same sensation of tightness in intercourse as a virgin.
But an even greater attraction was the foot itself. It formed an essential prelude to the sex act, and its manipulation excited and stimulated beyond measure. The eye rejoiced in the tiny footstep and in the undulating motion of the buttocks which it caused; the ear thrilled to the whispered walk, while the nose inhaled a fragrant aroma from the perfumed sole and delighted in smelling the bared flesh at closer range. The ways of grasping the foot in one’s palms were both profuse and varied; ascending the heights of ecstasy, the lover transferred the foot from palm to mouth. Play included kissing, sucking, and inserting the foot in the mouth until it filled both cheeks, either nibbling at it or chewing it vigorously, and adoringly placing it against one’s cheeks, chest, knees, or virile member. The devotee willingly washed his beloved’s feet, trimmed the toenails without hesitation, and even ate watermelon seeds and almonds placed between the toes.
This introductory chapter has touched upon some of the general aspects of footbinding. Subsequent chapters and appendices record history and development, the revolutionary fervor to abolish the practice, critical comments by abolitionists and counter arguments by apologists, sexual implications, relevant social customs and superstitions, details on binding and the areas where it flourished, and interviews with and biographies of the tiny-footed. The subject is as vast and sprawling as China itself and impossible to neatly delineate, for variations on the binding theme were limitless. For example, it was of course considered a feminine monopoly, but there were proven instances of male footbinding. It is generally taken for granted that only the Chinese practiced it, but some Chinese writers assert that towards the close of the nineteenth century, Korean women also compressed their feet.
Pain and binding of the feet were synonymous terms. One apologist explained that women suffered willingly in order to please men and that all of womankind would be eager to purchase a modern medicine which could painlessly reduce the foot. That women generally want their feet to be small is undeniable, but footbinding was a far from easy formula. As a natural-footed female critic once stated:
I don’t know when this custom began;
It must have been started by a despicable man!
