The Imperial Chinese practice of cramping the feet of young girls to keep them small died out in the early 20th century, but was it any worse that other nations’ customs such as tattooing, or compression of the waist for the sake of fashion?
“The most unaccountable species of taste is that mutilation of the women’s feet, for which the Chinese are so remarkable. Of the origin of this custom there is no very distinct account, except that it took place about the close of the Tang dynasty, or the end of the ninth century of our era. The Tartare have had the good sense not to adopt this artificial deformity, and their ladies wear a shoe like that of the men, except that is has a white sole of still greater thickness. As it would seem next to impossible to refer to any notions of physical beauty, however arbitrary, such shocking mutilation as that produced by the cramping of the foot in early childhood, it may be partly ascribed to the principle which dictates the fashion of long nails. The idea conveyed by these is exemption from labour; and, as small feet make cripples of women, it is fair to conclude that the idea of gentility which they convey arises from a similar association. That appearance of helplessness which is induced by the mutilation, they admire extremely, notwithstanding its very unusual concomitant of sickliness; and the tottering gait of the poor women, as they hobble along upon the heel of the foot, they compare to the waving of a willow agitated by the breeze. We may add that this odious custom extends lower down in the scale of society than might have been expected from its disabling effect upon those who have to labour for their subsistence. If the custom was first imposed by the tyranny of the men, the women are fully revenged in the diminution of their charms and domestic usefulness. In no instances have the folly and childishness of a large portion of mankind been more strikingly displayed than in those various, and occasionally very opposite, modes in which they have departed from the standard of nature, and sought distinction even in deformity. Thus, while one race of people crushed the feet of its children, another flattens their heads between two boards; and while we in Europe admire the natural whiteness of the teeth, the Malays file off the enamel and dye them black, all for the all-sufficient reason that dogs’ teeth are white! A New Zealand chief has his distinctive cost of arms emblazoned on the skin of his face, as well as his limbs; and an Esquimaux is nothing if he have not bits of stone stuffed through a hole in his cheek. Quite as absurd, and still more mischievous, is the infatuation which, among some Europeans, attached beauty to that modification of the human figure which, resembles the wasp, and compresses the waist until the very ribs have been distorted, and the functions of the vital organs irreparably disordered. – Davis’s Chinese.”
The Stamford Mercury, 28th August, 1840