Foot-binding

The historical Chinese practice of binding the feet of female children with tight bandages to prevent them from growing, small feet being considered more attractive, and an indication of high class - as women with bound feet were incapable of most physical labour, or even of walking more than a few steps unassisted.

Footbinding was a practice that originated to prevent women from running away from an opressive home-life and give husbands greater control over their wives. Over time, foot-binding developed into a traditional mark of beauty, and the unbound foot became a social stigma--the sign of a peasant woman who was needed to work the fields. However idealized foot-binding has become over the years, the sentiment behind it has remained the same: a nasty symbol towards the repression of women, the mutilation they face as part of traditional beauty regimines, and a subconcious effort to keep them "in their place," at home, with the children.

The practise is said to have originated in the imitation of the small-footed concubine Yao Niang of Sung Dynasty prince Li Yu. Its adoption as a fashion by tens of millions of Chinese women over several centuries, probably represents the most widespread fetish in human history. [CITATION NEEDED]

Following the 1911 revolution of Sun Yat-Sen, the practise died out in all but remote rural areas, and only a small number of women with bound feet survive today.