Hong Kong based documentary photographer Jo Farrell launched and landed a successful Kickstarter campaign to create a book showing some of the last remaining women in China with bound feet.
In the early 1900s, having bound feet was a mark of beauty and status for some women in China. Developing pre-teen girls would have their toes pressed and squeezed into the bottom of the foot until they broke. Their arches were also broken, then the feet were wrapped tightly with bandages, and cultivated by soaking and rewrapping tighter and tighter as they developed into women who would be considered good, subservient wives.
Check out more pictures on Jo Farrell’s site
Footbinding was phased out around 75 years ago, but are westernized women doing a milder version of it by wearing impractical decorative footwear that may lead to deformed toes and sore knees over time? What about the mainstreaming of so-called Cinderella procedures, where elective surgeries are done so women can better slide into “sexy” shoes?
