The wedding is quickly approaching. With so much to do and so little time left, I’ve been hard-pressed to find time to blog. I’ve been trying to work ahead to get some posts ready for the seven weeks that we are on the road.

Whenever people find out that I have a blog, the first question they usually ask is who reads it and how do people know it’s there. I thought it would be interesting to share some of the search engine terms that bring readers to My Several Worlds. 

My Several Worlds originally started as a personal blog to update family and friends back home, but over the years it has evolved into something more. My interests and passions have always been with culture. Many of the articles I’ve written here are based on my cultural observations. I’m pleased to see that people are responding to these articles the most.

I’ve also linked to the original article so you can see what people are really getting when their search brings them here. This also gives my new readers a chance to re-visit some of My Several Worlds most popular posts.

MY SEVERAL WORLD FAVORITE SEARCH TERMS

1. part man part tree 
2. chinese foot binding pictures
3. lotus foot binding shoe from china
4. women suffering for beauty
5. beauty differences Eastern and Western cultures
6. dim sum chicken feet recipe
7. thai garlic pepper shrimp
8. peeing in public
9. fantasy women
10. chinese version of cinderella
11. old japanese farm house
12. harajuku
13. “temple dolls” and “osaka”
14. english short stories for beginners
15. Vietnam’s Cu Chi Tunnels
16. my several worlds and the globetrotters
17. chinese junk boats
18. cultural observations
19. san-zhi pod village
20. motorcycles/motorcycle trips
21. 20 great esl teaching tips/teaching abroad

Related Suffering for Beauty Posts:

Suffering for Beauty: Photos of Chinese Foot Binding

Shoe lust in Toyko, Japan.

I lust for whimsical creations of skinny heels and minute straps; adorned with bows and glitter. I adore a solid power pump, stacked on a platform heel. Miu Miu gives me shivers. The signature red sole of a Christian Louboutin shoe stops me dead in my tracks. I would happily name my first born after Manolo Blahnik in exchange for a few pairs. Jimmy Choo, I love you!

Love. Lust. Completely, utterly captivated. The sight of a towering, strappy, glittering stiletto has the ability to drive me to distraction.

Just like scores of fashionably-dressed, well-heeled urbanite women around the globe, I waste a good percentage of my monthly paycheck on shoes. We form a Sisterhood, not of the Traveling Pants, but of those who are Cursed by the Beloved High Heeled Shoe.

Cursed, you say? Yes, indeed. No other fashion accessory causes so much pain while simultaneously creating instant curves and a whole lotta va-va-voom. My women friends show no rationality when it comes to buying and wearing shoes. We all have heaps of ‘em.

Despite having to endure hours of walking with pinched toes, tight calves, aching arches and as ass that feels like its on fire, I know my legs look longer and more slender. My shoulders are automatically thrown back. My ass looks great and my hips sway with a fluid movement that just isn’t attainable in flat footwear. A beautiful shoe has the power to make me feel like a sex-goddess.

To all those high heel admirers, do you know exactly how much pressure is under your foot? You would be surprised! Indeed you ladies wear these shoes for fashion’s sake, but with the immense pressure under a high heel, you may as well use it as a weapon.
For comparison’s sake, would you rather your hand be pummeled by a herd of elephants or a group of angry women wearing high heels? The more logical answer in this case, that is you would rather take your chances on the high heels, is the wrong assumption. Don’t be intimidated by the enormous size of an elephant or fooled by the alluring high heel. The high heel can exert more than 15 times the pressure of an elephant’s foot. Pressure Under High Heels

“But, wait,” you say. “Aren’t you the woman who just wrote about the barbaric practice of Chinese foot binding a few months ago?”

And as my readers are so kind to point out what I already know:

Isn’t the modern woman going  down this same path? If the above photo has anything to prove, it’s this: A high heel shoe is torture on your body.

The pursuit of fashionable feet is no stranger to the history books. Women have been enduring torturous footwear for centuries in the name of fashion and beauty.

In China, women’s feet were bound at an early age to have the coveted golden lotus, a delicate three-inch foot sheathed in the most ornate and delicate of slippers.

Today we sheath our tender tootsies in delectably ornamented shoes on a four inch spike.

Both cause foot, leg and back problems, some of which have resulted in permanent condition. The practice in foot-binding in China met its end in the early 1900′s, but the curse of the high heels rages on as women teeter and totter in their quest to be fashionable.

So what exactly is the damaging result of wearing high heels? Multiple problems arise from shortened calf muscles, corns, blisters, bunions, calluses, hammertoes, ingrown toe-nails, ankle damage and knee arthritis to start with.

“The redistribution of weight, and the inherent posture and foot problems associated, affect women’s ability to perform everyday activities. With their feet squeezed and compressed into fashionable shoes, women are unable to walk long distances or for extended periods of time without experiencing discomfort.” (Pretty Shoes,” 2003)

Despite these warnings, there has been no change in the fashion trends in footwear coming down the catwalk. Shoes are still a multi-million dollar industry and will continue to be adored and coveted by women around the world. Despite being more prone to injury while wearing heels, and facing lifelong ramifications, we lovingly curse our footwear as we strut our stuff every time we leave the sanctity of our homes. Why, you ask? You tell me. Don’t we look good?

Due to an overwhelming number of hits and comments on this post, I have decided to keep updating it every few months. You can learn more about the ancient practice of footbinding from some of our other posts here on My Several Worlds.

Chinese Footbinding: Photos of Women with Bound Feet

Suffering for Beauty: The Curse of the Beloved High-Heeled Shoe

“The pain, of course, teaches an important lesson: no price is too great, no process too repulsive, no operation too painful for the women who would be beautiful. The tolerance of pain and the romanticization of that tolerance begins…in preadolescence, in socialization, and serves to prepare the women for lives of childbearing, self-abnegation, and husband pleasing.” (Andrea Dworkin)

Portrait of a Chinese lady with bound feet.

A few weeks ago, I posted an article on the ancient practice of Chinese footbinding. I’ve had an overwhelming response to this article. One cannot help but feel shock and curiosity at such a thing. In response to this article, I’ve posted some examples of footwear worn by women throughout those centuries. The making of these shoes was intricate and at times, time-consuming, as all of the following examples were hand-made and hand-embroidered.

Hand-embroidered silk lotus shoes from China.

Ladder lotus.

Purple Lotus

A pair of hand-embroidered boots.

Related Suffering for Beauty Posts:

Suffering for Beauty: The Beloved Curse of the High-Heeled Shoe

The barbaric practice of foot binding in China began in the 10th century sometime during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and ended over a thousand years later. Foot binding was practiced on young girls usually six years of age and younger. Feet were wrapped in tight bandages and broken so they couldn’t grow. Foot binding was generally practiced by wealthy families, as only wealthy families could afford to have the women of the house not at work. It was a sign of prestige, beauty and wealth.

Eventually, foot binding moved from wealthy city families to women in the countryside, where women realized they could marry into money by having these prized three inch feet. For centuries, women suffered terrible pain in the hopes of having a better future.

Zhou Guizhen, who is 86-years-old, shows one of her bound feet where the bones in the four small toes were broken and forced underneath the foot over a period of time, at her home in Liuyi village in China’s southern Yunnan Province, February 2007. Villages in China where women with bound feet survive are increasingly rare but the millennium-old practice nevertheless took almost four decades to eradicate after it was initially banned in 1911. Full story at Wired.

To bind feet, feet were first soaked in a warm bowl of herbs and animal blood, which caused the dead flesh to fall off. Toe nails were cut back as far as possible to prevent ingrown toenails and infection. Silk and cotton bandages were dipped in the solution and were wrapped tightly around the feet after the toes were broken. Four toes on each foot were broken and folded under. The big toe was left intact. Feet were often bound so tightly that even short distances were unable to be walked.

The bandages became tighter after drying. While drying, the toes were forced down and inward. Sometimes cuts were made in the sole of the feet to make the binding process easier. Most footbinding was done during the winter months, when it was thought the cold would numb the pain. The wrapping process was repeated every couple of days with fresh bandages. Each time, the bandages were pulled even tighter, causing excrutiating and long lasting pain.

In 1912, the Chinese government ordered the cessation of footbinding. Women were ordered to unwrap their feet. Failure to do so resulted in heavy fines and in some cases, death. When the Communists came into power in 1949, they too ordered a nation wide ban on footbinding. This was especially devastating to women with bound feet because most of them were forced to perform hard physical labor in the 1950′s.

According to the American author William Rossi, who wrote The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe, 40 percent to 50 percent of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century. For the upper classes, the figure was almost 100 percent.

The ideal foot was three inches in length. Three inch feet were called golden lotuses. Feet that were between three and four inches in length were called silver lotuses.

For more information, read this story about a Chinese Girl With Bound Feet.

These pictures were emailed to me. I had to do an Internet search to find the photographer. I believe the professional photographer who took these photos is Michael Yamashita.