2-934-387 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Chinese Shoemaker, n.d. Cartoon showing a woman having her bound feet measured. Footbinding was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change their shape and size. The resulting tiny feet were considered a status symbol and a mark of feminine beauty, but footbinding was a painful practice that limited the mobility of women and resulted in lifelong disabilities. By or after John Leech.