It took me a second to realize what I was looking at:
And then I realized the horror of what I was seeing: those are toes under the foot.
It’s hard to even conceive how painful this might be—especially as you age and develop arthritis —which is common in women.
It is from foot-binding, which was a popular cultural practice in China. It was eventually outlawed in the early 20th century but still practiced by some women. It was initially done to get the favor of the emperor, in order to become one of his concubines.
Women were forced to wear the same size shoe, starting when they were between 4 and 9 years old. But the start of the process involved breaking the toes and tightly folding them under a girl’s foot.
It was extremely painful and there was a saying, “Every bound foot is soaked in a tub full of tears.”
Women with bound feet had severe mobility problems and suffered greatly as a result. They had to walk on their heels mainly and risked rebreaking their toes if they didn’t.
Eventually, people campaigned to put an end to the practice, and it wasn’t formally stopped until 1912.
It’s estimated that, at one point, as many as 50% of Chinese women had bound feet.
The sad twist in this story is that the act of campaigning against the bound feet made them less socially desirable. And women who had done so were often abandoned by their husbands.
The entire history of foot binding is utterly sad.