The Body As Attire, By Dorothy Ko

According to Mackie (1996: 1001) the practice of foot binding spread from the imperial palace, transmitting down through the classes until it was nearly universally adopted. Thus, foot binding can be seen as symbolising one's status. Foot binding came to symbolise gentility, and it was only the absolute lowest of the lower class who were the exception to the convention. Such destitute individuals could not afford for female family members to be foot-bound when their manual labour was needed (Mackie 1996: 1001). However, to avoid such disgrace, many poor families preferred to “struggle along for a precarious living, bringing up their daughters with small feet” (Doolittle 1865: 201). This is in keeping with Veblen's (1934) view that foot binding is a costly display of a family's wealth (Mackie 1996: 1002). Likewise in Africa, female mutilation reportedly spread partly due to individuals wanting to emulate their higher status neighbours who had already adopted the practice (Mackie 1996: 1004). In addition to symbolising wealth, Mackie suggests that female mutilation symbolises a family's commitment to values of purity and chastity (Mackie 1996: 1000, 1008). Given the costs and risks associated with female mutilation, that a family would choose to commit to the practice shows how willing they are to ensure that males can be confident in terms of paternity. With this intention, female mutilation can be seen as symbolising a female's purity and future fidelity (Mackie 1996:

There is no specific behavior, idea, or emotion that makes for a good marriage, though it is common for people to believe so. They think marriage will be easy, although the reality requires constant work. Good marriages consist of communication, honesty, passion, intimacy and commitment. In the short story, “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses,” by Irwin Shaw, Michael and Frances’s relationship lacks these qualities; therefore, their marriage was not ideal.

The modern world and the last four generations have been dramatically shaped by a diverse range of human activities such as the advancement in social technology, revolving attitudes toward social works ethics, demographic traits, statistical and economic changes etc. People are the basis of each change evident in the current world. Past and progressing events are due to the information from surrounding societies. Nature of the human beings and characteristics has followed the suit of previous human lifestyles. Qualities of individuals are not natural but in most cases developed, experienced from the community, learned, and adapted from the perception of the world. Individuals’ personality has been transformed by colleagues. Actions and

The concept of foot binding was a shocking concept for the role of Chinese women to submit themselves to torture and represented a unique opportunity to gain the respect and recognition of the in-laws in The Joy Luck Club and The Good Earth who would praise the beautiful tiny feet even beyond the woman’s dowry, as an undeniable proof of capacity and obedience. According to Tan, “there are only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!” (142). Foot binding was a significant role for Chinese women and the concept of beauty no matter the consequences of their pain in the body. The concept of obedience was the role of Chinese woman that was focused in The Joy Luck Club, which was how the characters based their views on. The Chinese mother’s desire was for their daughters to follow the obedience concept and act according to the regulations. For example, one of the mothers complained about not being able to teach their daughter about the Chinese character, which would help obey her parents and listen to her mother’s mind. Another mother talked about herself and being obedient as Tan stated, “I was an obedient wife; just as they taught me” (61). The Chinese mothers in the Joy Luck Club grew up with an incredibly restrictive idea of what it meant to be a woman. They realized that there was no good people in this world and only people who wanted to take advantage of their heart and soul. This belief was also true in The Good Earth as O-Lan

What Is Foot Binding? Foot binding is a process used by all women during the Tang Dynasty. Women did this to show their high status and rank. This was a sign of beauty.

Medieval China, as seen in the Stories from a Ming Collection, was characterized by distinct separations between men and women’s abilities, typical old fashioned family structure, and a desire to advance their social status. Throughout all the stories in this book, it dives deep into different aspects of how men and women are treated, how families were structured and how that affects their lives, as well as the values these people held. A very common trend in the stories was how different men and women were treated and the limitations they may or may not had.

The first aim of social historians is to understand people’s views, thoughts, and behaviors at that time. What they will do is to find as many as material as they can and read them thoroughly and carefully, and then creating a context by connecting those materials using ancillary logics. Than they can imagined what is not recorded in the material by using the thoughts and views of people from the past. “Why women must do foot-binding in ancient China?” “Why even those women themselves are willing to accept the endless pain from foot-binding?” those questions are asked by social historians in order to achieve this aim.

In her essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” Susan Bordo manages to recognize an underlying fundamental change in society’s attitude towards advertisements and specifically sees that unfold in the growing shift towards male sexually oriented advertisements with a focus on feministic qualities. Furthermore, since Bordo wrote this essay in the 1990s, the advancements in technology have caused growing ideological differences between generations as their responses to things like social media and advertisements elicit contrasting reactions. The Millennials, also known as Generation Y, have been born into the various outlets of social media and have become accustomed to a greater sense of comfort with the Internet as they share all of their life stories and photos with other human beings. On the other hand, Generation X and the Baby Boomers were born into an era that didn’t depend on technology to perform everyday tasks. As a result, their mindsets make them reluctant to the changes in technology, which inadvertently makes them more uncomfortable to any massive changes in social media. By using sexually oriented advertisements, Kraft Foods and Axe, effectively display differing ideological differences between Generation X and Generation Y. In conjunction, Bordo’s elements of the gaze, objectification, and the rocks and leaners pose allow us to better understand the construction of the advertisements and the role they play on influencing each targeted generation.

Most scholars say feet binding intensified female subjugation by making women more dependent on their husband, restricting their movements and enforcing their chastity, therefore secluding from ------activities because women with bound feet were physically incapable of venturing far from their homes (Lim). For example, women’s’ immobility was kept from interfering in political matters. Instead, women were meant to stay at home, reflecting the power of her husband (Blake, 680). Women were also confined to their bodies just to please men: “This model urges us to begin with the "mindful" nature of our lived bodies-in the case at hand, to comprehend foot-binding as the advent of a "feminine" self- consciousness. From this initial angle, we see foot-binding as a protracted discipline that mothers brought to bear upon their daughters in the name of a mother's love and a daughter's virtue.

In addressing the subject of footbinding, one primary difficulty becomes apparent - that much remains within the realm of the unknowable. Any factual knowledge about the practice may only be drawn from 19th- and 20th-century writings, drawings or photographs. In addition, many of these documents represent a distinctly Western point of view, as they are primarily composed of missionary accounts and the literature of the various anti -footbinding societies.[1] The historical origins of footbinding are frustratingly vague, although brief textual references suggest that small feet for women were preferred as early as the Han dynasty. The first documented reference to the actual binding of a foot is from the court of

One of these forms called “foot binding” involved young girls being forced to bind their feet so they looked more attractive. “At the age of three to 4 years, girls became the victim of the barbarous custom of Foot binding which was supposed to start in the 10th century and have been in fashion since the early 20th century.” (Patel 771) When the girl turns three, or around that age, the mother tucks her toes under the sole of her foot. She does this by using bandages to wrap them under. This would reduce the foot’s length by about three inches. A classic saying states “For every pair of bound feet, a bucket full of tears.” Currently, only nineteen women remain in the world with bound feet. The main character of the book, Wang Lu, supports all of this pain and suffering because of feudalism. The true definition of feudalism involves peasants doing labor and sharing a portion of the produce in exchange for military protection from the government, which may not seem similar to Wang Lu and O-Lan at first, but the simile here makes sense. O-Lan, or any Chinese housewife in this time, would do labor, the chores, bind their feet, and so on in exchange for a roof over their heads and a place to sleep at night. Wang Lu, however, may not be the only one to support this ideals. In chapter 28, his son states, “I desire a maid from a village, of good landed family and without poor relatives, and one who will bring a good dowry with her, neither plain nor fair to look upon, and a good cook, so that even though there are servants in the kitchen she may watch them. And she must be such a one that if she buys rice it will be enough and not a handful over and if she buys cloth the garment will be well cut so that the scraps of cloth left over should lie in the palm of her hand. Such an one I want.” (Buck 290) With young men looking up to their fathers and mothers, it begins a vicious

I chose this topic because I view women as the backbone to the development or a nation, therefore the Chinese woman is paramount in one of the world’s great civilizations. The role of women in Chinese culture has changed over the years. When we consider the position that women held in ancient Chinese society we find that they have come a long way to be where they are today.

Beauty of a woman was very important to men because it often showed wealth. Footbinding was a cruel way to show a woman’s beauty in Ancient China, especially during the Song dynasty. It is thought that foot binding began in around 900 AD during the Tang dynasty and continued until 1911 when it was finally banned. "The practice of binding feet was originally introduced about a thousand years ago, allegedly by a concubine of the emperor. Not only was the sight of women hobbling on tiny feet considered erotic, men would also get excited playing with bound feet, which were always hidden in embroidered silk shoes” (Wild Swans) Footbinding was considered very attractive and was very common. Many times, a girl who did not have bound feet were rejected by

Foot-binding was considered a symbol of beauty. Women in the upper class practiced foot binding for the reason that men found small feet sexually appealing. Generally, women in the upper class practiced foot binding; however, those of lower class also craved it. Women in the lower class would bind their daughter’s feet at a young age with hopes that she would marry into money. Bound feet were not only an indicator of social standing but wealth as well.

“BEFOR I CAN TALK TO YOU, PEOPLE SHOW THEIR SEX, AGE, CALSS, POSITION, WITH WHAT THEY ARE WEARING. ALL THIS IS REGISTERED UNCONCIOSLY“ Those words said by Alison Lurie in the language of clothes (1992), reflect perfectly the main point of my research. The society we are now living is an extremely conscious society regarding body image and the way we are presented to the exterior. We found an obsessive trend on wanting to look like celebrities by having certain items or looks and in relation to that a fear of not being percepted the tight way. This is where we found relation to how clothes are part of a conversation we haven 't started and are a form of expression. As there will be explained further on, we use clothes as a sign of our identity,as a way of representing ourselves and stand out from the crowd and also influence on how we appear in front of others making them (clothes) a huge part of our non verbal communication. This essay will discuss the ideas behind self -expression and the role of clothes has changed in that mater thought time.