30 Unimaginable Things Women Did In The Past Just For The Sake Of ‘Beauty’

Can you imagine seeing that crawl out from the water?

Back when hosiery was probably rather expensive, women of more modest means, did they best they could to appear chic.

Your own portable changing room. LOL

My eyes hurt.

This is the craziest type of foot fetish. A golden lotus foot of three inches, was the optimal size for bound feet. It was supposed to be sexually arousing. I don't understand the penchant for deformed feet, but whatever. A four inch foot was acceptable. Women could not walk or even balance themselves. The pain was excruciating. And, mainly, the wealthy were the ones who could afford to partake in this beauty practice because they were the ones who could hire help to prop them up or carry them around. They also did not have to work. Years ago, I went to an exhibit at The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. I saw embroidered silk shoes that were about the length of the palm of my hand. Imagine toddler sized shoes for grown women.

In the book Wild Swans (which I highly recommend) there is a passage that very graphically describes the foot binding process. Literal torture.

*slowly pushes feet through couch cushions*

This was done when to the when they were children, often causing death 😣. When it was finally banned many older women unbound their feet to show the younger women the horror, deformation and pain inflicted to discourage it because to so many it was still perceived as a sign of status.

im chinese and even i find this gross

I'm sure I read somewhere that the joints in the toes had to be broken to achieve this!

I forgot about this. I wish I still didn't remember.

I am the photographer of these photographs - you can see more of my work on my website or FB page

This isn’t even as extreme as I’ve seen. They did this to make women’s feet smaller. In China, a woman having small feet is a symbol of beauty.

These were done to small children, they had no choice! Men would not marry a woman with “big” feet. Barbaric. Crippling.

iT WAS NOT THE GIRLS CHOICE BUT RUTHLESS WEALTHY cHINESE MEN. iT WENT ON FOR 2,000 YEARS.

The laid back smiles somehow make it more painful to look at. ☹️

A more extreme example [Wikimedia Commons] Chinese-Fo...742194.jpg

Only women wealthy families had this done. It was a confirmation of their family being so rich that their women did not have to walk. They were carried everywhere by servants. The binding began at birth. The little feet were folded over and forced into this unnatural position. Then strips of cloth were bound over the little feet. It was quite painful. They had little 'shoes' made that were the size of babies booties. These feet as shown, are not as small as some I've seen. The circulation was blocked and some toes died. The picture on the right has the fourth toe missing. The Chinese thought small feet were more attractive. I believe the name for these disfigured feet was "Lotus Blossoms". This is all from my recollections of living in China so my old brain may not be that good at remembering as it once was.

I’ve always found this to be barbaric & grotesque. It looks so painful.😖

yes chinese did this as little children to make their feet more "petite" and they grew all warped and broken like this for the rest of their life.

Thats just cruelty.

GOD WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS

This was a form of torture that was inflicted on little girls.

Not pretty those lotus feet, it's shocking!

Except this wasn’t her choice. Her parents started crippling their daughters around 5 years old. A females value was based on youth, beauty, & wealth. Sadly this value system hasn’t changed in thousands of years.

brutal

This makes me want to weep for these women

Barbaric

But why?

Barbaric practice 😡

What sadistic idiot dreamt this up?

This is such a cruel and painful custom!

I've read about this online. They stopped doing it now, but they would break their feet at, like, age 4

How and why

this is so gross

The smaller the feet the richer they were.

That looks cruel