Modern Day Foot Binding?

I was writing reviews for all the books I have read that are listed on my Goodreads profile at http://www.goodreads.com/ when I started writing a short review about Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I gave the book as many stars as possible although it really isn't up to par with the books that I usually give that amount of stars to. I was going to explain that I gave it so many stars because it kind of opened up a new world for me, or should I say obsession with Chinese Literature. It wasn't so much that the book was so great, it was the subject matter that hooked me. The idea of this culture where women are so different than myself and the kind of women I surround myself with, although the are not so different to women we know. Here is how I began the review:

I read this book when I got on an World Lit/International kick that began with The Reluctant Fundamentalist. This book really opened my eyes and gave me a yearning to read fiction about other cultures, and although this book was set in the Middle East, I switched gears and gravited toward literature about Asian cultures. I became a bit obsessed with the foot binding tradition, mostly because I just cannot fathom how anyone could out themselves through such pain as a form of beauty. Americans go through pain during plastic surgery which is, in a sense, similar....but with a couple of bottles of pain pills to relieve the pain. These women had nothing and were forced to endure pain that some people will never get close to. It is disgusting, heart wrenching, and fascinating all at one. I had to stop and Google some images to satisfy my curiosity. It made me not want to walk on my perfectly health feet...I guess I know now how it feels when a man sees another man get kicked in the balls. You just really empathize at once. The craziest thing to me is that, despite the fact that this is illegal, some women are still doing this to either uphold an old world tradition, or (from what I can glean despite my Westernized perspective)just become a sort of novelty for men. I suppose it is no different to the women today who are having these strange vaginal rejuvenation surgeries that are discussed on Dr. 90210. I feel a feminist-perspective critical essay coming on. (that was the end of my review)

I felt like I needed to say more about this. Here is a picture of a foot binding, sorry if this image turns your stomach, but I feel like a visual element is needed:



It would take me too long to describe the process of foot binding, but if you are interested check out this link. It gives a great explanation and a little background history.
http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/China/04/hutchins/hutchins.htm


When you look at that picture it seems insane that anyone would put themselves through such torture for the sake of beauty (although it is hard for us to see that deformed foot as beautiful you need to trust me on this, they did.) but is it really that different from what some women do today? Yeah, the outcome may be more "desirable" in our eyes that what we see as a deformed foot but you can't deny the similarities. These "lily feet" turned men on, some made love to them, they floated their boat. The mother would take great care to ensure that their daughters' feet would be transformed to beautiful "lotuses". They took great care wrapping the feet and making the transformation successful. Read the link if you have the stomach for it.

Well, here is our Western equivalent to these dutiful mothers that ensured their daughters marriageability , wealth, and status:



His website states that one of his top procedures is vaginoplasty, also called vaginal beautification.

So, essentially he can make your vagina look like a fresh lily or lotus flower.

I could go on here, but I think I'm just going to leave it at that.