I recently finished a novel ‘Snow Flower
and the Secret Fan’ by Lisa See. The story takes place in 19th
century China, and was completely mind-opening-ly outrageous. The way these
people lived, especially women, was so completely removed from today’s society
that I almost couldn’t believe it. Women accepted themselves as ‘worthless’
from a very young age, and focused heavily on their future marriage prospects,
their intra-family hierarchies, and the hope of bearing sons. Social actions
were completely dictated by rules, and especially controlled by one’s place
within the family (first son vs second son, wife vs concubine).
However the most shocking part of the book
was the ordeal the protagonist, Lily, endured when she had her feet bound.
For those who do not know, foot binding was
a custom practiced in China from approximately the 10th century
until the early 20th century. It involved tightly wrapped the feet
of a young girl (typically 4-7 years old) with cloth to prevent growth and
encourage the feet into a lotus flower shape. The ideal length was 3 inches
long.
Often the bones were broken to encourage
the foot to move into it’s new shape. Having bound feet prohibited women from
being able to walk very far, and was seen as a status symbol, because bound
feet meant one was not labouring in fields.
Why was it done? Asides from being a status
symbol, men apparently found the feet to be highly erotic, and Qing dynasty sex
manuals allegedly incorporated 48 different ways of playing with a woman’s
bound feet. Furthermore, the bound feet produced a particular unsteady way of
walking, which men found appealing.
Of course, foot binding brought a plethora
of health problems, including infection, back problems, falls in later years,
and often death. Because women with bound feet were severely
inhibited from many activities, it was seen as a sign of male ‘ownership’ and
control over their women.
However, despite the fact that it was the
men’s desire driving the practice, it was ultimately the women who were
binding their daughters’ feet, and the women who wanted to have their feet
bound.
This made me wonder about other practices
that women endure in the pursuit of ‘beauty’. It seems that it is predominantly
women who end up altering themselves most significantly for beauty.
Now, we look back on feet binding with
disgust and amazement. How could so many millions of Chinese women endure this
painful and debilitating practice for so many centuries? And for what? To many,
the small feet now look grotesque and disgusting.
And yet, what are we women doing to
ourselves today that might one day be regarded in the same light? In today’s
nip and tuck culture, was are constantly changing ourselves in the pursuit of
beauty, whether it is permanently lasering all our hair off, injecting melanin
into our skin for a tan, or even getting breast augmentation. In smaller, less controversial ways, women still pierce their ears, wear spandex, and get braces.
In parts of
Africa, a shocking majority of women still undergo female genital mutilation,
and in parts of Burma, girls as young as two start wearing neck rings to
lengthen their neck.
The irony is that for just about every
painful procedure women endure, there has been an opposite movement somewhere
at some point. For example, in the Western world, women (and men for that
matter) bake themselves in the sun, risking skin cancer and premature ageing,
in order to get a tan. Meanwhile, in India and other places, women are applying
potentially dangerous bleach and other chemicals to their faces in order to
appear whiter.
Modern society focuses on having a svelte figure, when once a
plumper shape was more desirable. Some women constantly complain about their
large buttocks, whereas other women flock to have silicon butt implants. A
decade ago, thin eyebrows were in style, and now women apply crème to help them
grow into full furry brows. In China, a
small mouth is regarded as cute and beautiful, but in the Western world, a
large mouth with full lips is perceived to be attractive. In the 50s, women
used curlers in their hair, while now they straighten.
You may argue that there is an overarching
perception of beauty that does not change, however clearly, that is not true. I
implore you to find one constant of beauty for women throughout all the world
and time.
I proudly tout my belief that our bodies
are incredible machines that almost always sort themselves out and natural do
what is best. I believe that so long as we treat our bodies with respect, they
will return the favour by always being there for us.
And yet, I myself have undergone hair
removal treatments. Even my parents supported both emotionally and financially
an arguably purely cosmetic procedure: dental braces.
Why do women so often forget the capacity
of their bodies to DO things, rather than just look a particular way? And
furthermore, why does out pursuit of beauty so often end up being so damn
painful?!
Beauty is NOT pain, it should not be pain.
Beauty should be a pleasure, something to enjoy, but not something to kill
ourselves for. But saying that is a lot easier than actually doing it,
especially for those blessed with features that fit into a preconceived idea of
beauty.
I wonder, will people of the future look
back at our painful modern procedures and not believe how we were able to
endure them? Or will women never cease in modifying their bodies to an
unattainable standard of beauty?
“Beauty is unbearable, drives us to
despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should
like to stretch out over the whole of time.” – Albert Camus
the reckless philosopher
