Chinese Foot Binding

a pair of shoes for bound feet

Foot binding was the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice probably originated among court dancers in the early Song dynasty but spread to upper class families and eventually became common among all classes. The tiny narrow feet were considered beautiful and to make a woman's movements more feminine and dainty. Although reformers challenged the practice, it was not until the early twentieth century that foot binding generally died out, partly from changing social conditions and partly as a result of anti-foot binding campaigns.  Foot binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its subjects. In the 1990s and early 2000s, some elderly (born until the mid-1940s) Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet.  Some of the earliest versions of the story of Cinderella come from Song dynasty China. In these versions, the point of the story is that the Prince loves Cinderella because she has the smallest feet of any girl in the kingdom, so the slipper will only fit her.

an X-ray of bound feet

a women displaying the results of years of binding her feet

bound feet and healthy feet side by side

It was very painful to walk on bound feet and many women ended up disabled. 

Foot binding was a tradition passed on from mother to daughter.