Yes these ideals do exist, but no one is forcing adult women to have a boob job or wear high heels. A woman can both support herself financially and get married without either of them. It may be that certain professions and certain men will pressure a woman to look a particular way, but no one is forced to go into them. Furthermore, anyone who broke a child’s feet would be arrested on criminal charges.

And to those who say look what women will do for beauty, from what I understand, the footbinding was not done for beauty per se, but was instituted as a way to control women. It became a benchmark of beauty in that society, but women were forced to undergo it as it was the only way for them to get married, so basically they had no other choice.

My heart goes out to the millions, if not billions of women who have suffered so terribly from this barbaric custom.

To those who say that in the West we are no better than Imperial China. You’re joking right? No woman in the West is forced to have a boob job, wear high heels or engage in any other unhealthy practice. Furthermore, any parent who breaks their own daughter’s feet would be arrested on criminal charges.

And to C Herrington: you need to get a heart. Just reading about this makes me want to vomit. They are human beings suffering in terrible pain for what? For “cultural values”? There comes a point when we just need to feel another human being’s pain and to hell with their culture (which is just an excuse for suppression of women). In any case once they were required to pay a fine for having bound feet those who were able to soon stopped.

I long for the day when all “cultural oppression” of women comes to an end, including female genital mutilation, neck stretching, lip and ear elongation of women, forced feeding of women to fatten them up for marriage, sati, etc, etc etc etc, comes to an end. Again to hell with their culture.

I completely disagree with you.

Little girls in China were not given a choice in the matter. Any practice that does not give the individual the right to decide for themselves is barbaric. Any practice that causes children to suffer in pain and misery is barbaric, especially when you stop to consider that Chinese girls by the age of eight were robbed of the ability to walk or live a normal lifestyle without extreme pain. Putting braces on your child for two or three years does not compare to the pain and suffering that these women endured for the rest of their lives. The same is true for female genital mutilation and for the 12-year-old girls of Thai mountain tribes who wear brass rings around their necks or for any other child that has to suffer these indignities at such an early age. No child deserves that.