Another, is that it began out of the sympathy for Empress Taki who had club feet (Aero, 112-113). Although it has not been proven how footbinding started, one of the biggest reasons the practice continued for over 1000 years was it's sexual appeal (Kam, D-1).
Humans have shown they will do just about anything- good, evil, or in-between for sex. Footbinding is a very bold issue that many Chinese do not like to talk about. Some men felt troubled because it suggests that men are capable of using their superior social position to coerce women to conform to a grotesque and deformed custom. Women are uncomfortable because it is unsettling to think that their ancestors crippled their own daughters just to meet a social standard behavior. In the past Chinese pornography reflected a preoccupation with feet and the men who adore them called "lotus lovers". It became the signature of the Brothel culture. Prostitutes would expose their feet "in a private chamber" where it was customary for the man to linger over the girl's feet, stroking, sniffing and licking them and even dipping them in tea before drinking it. A favorite delight was to eat almonds from between her crushed toes. Tiny feet were found in the writing of poetry and songs in old China (Vento, 3-4). With the body weight on the heels, the walk caused the muscles of the vagina to tighten, Chinese men claimed that making love to a woman with bound feet was like making love to a virgin. The important part of the foot was the crevice that was created by breaking the arch during the original binding process. This crevice was sometimes treated like a second vagina in lovemaking (Jackson, 108). In western society we also admire the small foot, some women wear their shoes a size too small. In Victorian days the women would bind their waists in 14 inch corsets, cutting off their breathing and damaging their organs (Kam, D-1). Some women today have breast implants knowing they risk getting cancer.
