Picture of the Day and B'days for Nov.11

Posted November 10, 2008, 8:29 pm


Happy Veterans Day. Today is Tuesday, Nov. 11.

Demi Moore

Today's Birthdays:  Comedian Jonathan Winters is 83. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is 68. Rock singer-musician Vince Martell (Vanilla Fudge) is 63. Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is 57. Pop singer-musician Paul Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 56. Actor Stanley Tucci is 48. Actress Demi Moore is 46. Actress Calista Flockhart is 44. Actor Philip McKeon (Alice) is 44.

Picture of the Day: Chinese Foot-Binding  Note: These are distubing pictures but tell an important story. Millions of elderly women in China are disabled today because of it.  A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health says that 38 percent of Chinese women over 80 and 18 percent of those 70-80 have deformities from foot-binding.

Each culture has its own idea of what constitutes beauty. Early American women would bind their waists with corsets to make their midsections smaller. Ancient China had foot-binding. For more than 1000 years, as many as two billion Chinese women were subjected to what was considered the ultimate symbol of beauty, power, and wealth.

Foot-binding began in the Song dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) during the reign of Li Yu and became more popular in subsequent dynasties.  Soon, it was the ultimate status symbol. The 'ideal' length of a perfect foot, called the "Golden Lotus", was three inches long.  Perfect feet were seen as a type of dowry to sweeten the pot when trying to marry off your daughter.

The barbaric process began when girls were 4-8 years old. Mothers would break their toes and bind them underneath the sole of the foot with bandages. Later they would break the arches so that the foot could fit into the prized 3-inch shoes. The girl would never again be able to stand or play without difficulty and pain.  That was considered insignificant in the quest for tiny feet.



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