Foot binding
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Foot binding, or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls to change their shape and size. Feet altered by foot binding were known as lotus feet and t
A Chinese woman showing her foot, image by Lai Afong, c. 1870s
18th-century illustration showing Yao Niang binding her own feet
Southern Song zaju actresses with a form of footbinding of the period
Small bound feet were once considered beautiful while large unbound feet were judged as crude.
Wasp waist
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Wasp waist is a women's fashion silhouette, produced by a style of corset and girdle, that has experienced various periods of popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its primary feature is the abru
Foot binding
…interpretive models used include fashion (with the Chinese customs somewhat comparable to the more extreme examples of Western women's fashion such as the wasp waist), seclusion (sometimes evaluated as morally superior to the gender mingling in the West), perversion (the practice imposed by men with sexual perversions…
Polaire, a French actress famous for her wasp waist. (photo edited to exaggerate the narrow waist, as was common; note blurring)