Free Woman Hating by Andrea Dworkin Page A

as an innovation among the dancers of the Imperial harem. Sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries, Emperor Li Yu ordered a favorite ballerina to achieve the “pointed look. ” The fairy tale reads like this:
Li Yu had a favored palace concubine named Lovely Maiden who was a slender-waisted beauty and a gifted dancer. He had a six-foot high lotus constructed for her out of gold; it was decorated lavishly with pearls and had a carmine lotus carpet in the center. Lovely Maiden was ordered to bind her feet with white silk cloth to make the tips look like the points of a moon sickle. She then danced in the center of the lotus, whirling about like a rising cloud. 1
    From this original event, the bound foot received the euphemism “Golden Lotus, ” though it is clear that Lovely Maiden’s feet were bound loosely— she could still dance.
    A later essayist, a true foot gourmand, described 58 varieties of the human lotus, each one graded on a 9-point scale. For example:
Type:  Lotus petal, New moon, Harmonious bow, Bamboo shoot, Water chestnut
Specifications: plumpness, softness, fineness
Rank: 
Divine Quality (A-1), perfectly plump, soft and fine
Wondrous Quality (A-2), weak and slender
Immortal Quality (A-3), straight-boned, independent
Precious Article (B-1), peacocklike, too wide, dis-proportioned
Pure Article (B-2), gooselike, too long and thin
Seductive Article (B-3), fleshy, short, wide, round (the disadvantage of this foot was that its owner could withstand a blowing wind)
Excessive Article (C-1), narrow but insufficiently pointed
Ordinary Article (C-2), plump and common
False Article (C-3), monkeylike large heel (could climb)
    The distinctions only emphasize that footbinding was a rather hazardous operation. To break the bones involved or to modify the pressure of the bindings irregularly had embarrassing consequences — no girl could bear the ridicule involved in being called a “largefooted Demon” and the shame of being unable to marry.
    Even the possessor of an A-1 Golden Lotus could not rest on her laurels —she had to observe scrupulously the taboo-ridden etiquette of bound femininity: (1) do not walk with toes pointed upwards; (2) do not stand with heels seemingly suspended in midair; (3) do not move skirt when sitting; (4) do not move feet when lying down. The same essayist concludes his treatise with this most sensible advice (directed to the gentlemen of course):
Do not remove the bindings to look at her bare feet, but be satisfied with its external appearance. Enjoy the outward impression, for if you remove the shoes and bindings the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed forever. 2
    Indeed. The real feet looked like this:

    (feet: 3 to 4 inches in length)
    The physical process which created this foot is described by Howard S. Levy inChinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom:
The success or failure of footbinding depended on skillful application of a bandage around each foot. The bandage, about two inches wide and ten feet long, was wrapped in the following way. One end was placed on the inside of the instep, and from there it was carried over the small toes so as to force the toes in and towards the sole. The large toe was left unbound. The bandage was then wrapped around the heel so forcefully that heel and toes were drawn closer together. The process was then repeated from the beginning until the entire bandage had been applied. The foot of the young child was subjected to a coercive and unremitting pressure, for the object was not merely to confine the foot but to make the toes bend under and into the sole and bring the heel and sole as close together as physically possible. 3
    A Christian missionary observed:
The flesh often became putrescent during the binding and portions sloughed off from the sole; sometimes one or more toes dropped off. 4
    An elderly Chinese woman, as late as 1934, remembered vividly her childhood experience:
Born into an old-fashioned family at P’ing-hsi,