Persephone
2nd Level Red Feather
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2008
- Messages
- 1,480
- Points
- 38
So I am a teaching assistant (TA) for a professor at my university and today in class we started talking about post-classical China. The topic got around to foot binding and the professor pulled up a large slide with pictures of women's feet when they have been forced into foot binding. This very unusual, Eastern practice was done up until maybe a century or so ago. Usually only confined for the upper classes it was intended to keep women in doors so they couldn't stray too far because it was a struggle to walk. It also was intended to give the foot a more alluring look, because the foot was believed to look like a lotus flower. Tiny feet were seen as attractive on a noblewoman...while unbound, dirty feet were for the peasant/servant class who had to work in the fields, kitchens, etc.
So as my professor was discussing this a boy raised his hand and said:
"Isn't it true that some of the emperors insisted all their concubines and wives get this done because they had a foot fetish?"
(I was pretty shocked...because I was just checking my email when I heard the words "FOOT FETISH" and I was like O_O! )
I had never heard this before but my professor agreed and said when researching for class today that he had come across one belief that several emperors, all of the same dynasty, had a foot fetish!
So it just goes to show (minus the painful practice of foot binding) that foot fetishes have existed for centuries in all kinds of cultures! 😀
What do you guys think 😀?
So as my professor was discussing this a boy raised his hand and said:
"Isn't it true that some of the emperors insisted all their concubines and wives get this done because they had a foot fetish?"
(I was pretty shocked...because I was just checking my email when I heard the words "FOOT FETISH" and I was like O_O! )
I had never heard this before but my professor agreed and said when researching for class today that he had come across one belief that several emperors, all of the same dynasty, had a foot fetish!

So it just goes to show (minus the painful practice of foot binding) that foot fetishes have existed for centuries in all kinds of cultures! 😀
What do you guys think 😀?