Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality

by Andrea Dworkin

  which equal in sheer horror and sadism the extermination o f Native Americans and Hitler’s massacre o f the Jews. Those two horrendous slaughters have found a

  place, however tenuous, in the “conscience” o f “man. ”

  Acts o f genocide against women have barely been noticed, and they have never evoked rage, or horror, or sorrow. That sexist hatred equals racist hatred in its

  intensity, irrationality, and contempt for the sanctity

  o f human life these two examples clearly demonstrate.

  That women have not been exterminated, and will not

  be (at least until the technology o f creating life in the

  laboratory is perfected) can be attributed to our presumed ability to bear children and, more importantly 93

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  no doubt, to the relative truth that men prefer to fuck

  cunts who are nominally alive. I except here necrophili-

  acs, those pure and unsullied princes, whose story begins where ours ends.

  In addition, in any war, in any violence between

  tribes or nations, a specific war crime is perpetrated

  against women —that of rape. Every woman raped

  during a political nation-state war is the victim of a

  much larger war, planetary in its dimensions —the war,

  more declared than we can bear to know, that men wage

  against women. That war had its most gruesome, grotesque expression when Chinese men bound the feet of Chinese women and when British, Welsh, Irish,

  Scottish, German, Dutch, French, Swiss, Italian, Spanish,

  and Amerikan men had women burned at the stake in

  the name of God the Father and His only Son.

  F O O T B I N D I N G E V E N T

  Instructions Before Reading Chapter

  1. Find a piece o f cloth 10 feet long and 2 inches wide

  2. Find a pair o f children’s shoes

  3. Bend all toes except the big one under and into the

  sole o f the foot. W rap the cloth around these toes

  and then around the heel. Bring the heel and toes as

  close together as possible. W rap the full length o f

  the cloth as tightly as possible

  4. Squeeze foot into children’s shoes

  5. Walk

  6. Imagine that you are 5 years old

  7. Imagine being like this for the rest o f your life

  C H A P T E R 6

  Gynocide: Chinese Footbinding

  T he origins o f Chinese footbinding, as o f Chinese

  thought in general, belong to that amorphous entity

  called antiquity. The 10th century marks the beginning o f the physical, intellectual, and spiritual dehumanization o f women in China through the institution o f footbinding. That institution itself, the implicit belief

  in its necessity and beauty, and the rigor with which it

  was practiced lasted another 10 centuries. T here were

  sporadic attempts at emancipating the foot —some

  artists, intellectuals, and women in positions o f power

  were the proverbial drop in the bucket. Those attempts,

  modest though they were, were doomed to failure:

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  footbinding was a political institution which reflected

  and perpetuated the sociological and psychological inferiority of women; footbinding cemented women to a certain sphere, with a certain function —women were

  sexual objects and breeders. Footbinding was mass

  attitude, mass culture —it was the key reality in a way

  of life lived by real women— 10 centuries times that

  many millions o f them.

  It is generally thought that footbinding originated as

  an innovation among the dancers of the Imperial

  harem. Sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries,

  Emperor Li Yu ordered a favorite ballerina to achieve

  the “pointed look. ” The fairy tale reads like this:

  Li Yu had a favored palace concubine named

  Lovely Maiden who was a slender-waisted beauty and

  a gifted dancer. He had a six-foot high lotus constructed for her out o f gold; it was decorated lavishly with pearls and had a carmine lotus carpet in the

  center. Lovely Maiden was ordered to bind her feet

  with white silk cloth to make the tips look like the

  points o f a moon sickle. She then danced in the center

  of the lotus, whirling about like a rising cloud. 1

  From this original event, the bound foot received the

  euphemism “Golden Lotus, ” though it is clear that

  Lovely Maiden’s feet were bound loosely— she could still

  dance.

  A later essayist, a true foot gourmand, described 58

  varieties of the human lotus, each one graded on a 9-

  point scale. For example:

  T ype: Lotus petal, New moon, Harmonious bow,

  Bamboo shoot, Water chestnut

  Specifications: plumpness, softness, fineness

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  Rank:

  Divine Quality (A-1), perfectly plump, soft and fine

  Wondrous Quality (A-2), weak and slender

  Immortal Quality (A-3), straight-boned, independent

  Precious Article (B-1), peacocklike, too wide, dis-

  proportioned

  Pure Article (B-2), gooselike, too long and thin

  Seductive Article (B-3), fleshy, short, wide, round

  (the disadvantage of this foot was that its owner

  could withstand a blowing wind)

  Excessive Article (C-1), narrow but insufficiently

  pointed

  Ordinary Article (C-2), plump and common

  False Article (C-3), monkeylike large heel (could

  climb)

  T he distinctions only emphasize that footbinding

  was a rather hazardous operation. T o break the bones

  involved or to modify the pressure o f the bindings irregularly had embarrassing consequences — no girl could bear the ridicule involved in being called a “largefooted Demon” and the shame o f being unable to marry.

  Even the possessor o f an A - 1 Golden Lotus could

  not rest on her laurels —she had to observe scrupulously

  the taboo-ridden etiquette o f bound femininity: (1) do

  not walk with toes pointed upwards; (2) do not stand

  with heels seemingly suspended in midair; (3) do not

  move skirt when sitting; (4) do not move feet when

  lying down. T h e same essayist concludes his treatise

  with this most sensible advice (directed to the gentlemen o f course):

  Do not remove the bindings to look at her bare feet,

  but be satisfied with its external appearance. Enjoy the

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  outward impression, for if you remove the shoes and

  bindings the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed forever. 2

  Indeed. The real feet looked like this:

  (feet: 3 to 4 inches in length)

  The physical process which created this foot is

  described by Howard S. Levy in Chinese Footbinding:

  The History of a Curious Erotic Custom:

  The success or failure of footbinding depended on

  skillful application of a bandage around each foot. The

  bandage, about two inches wide and ten feet long, was

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  wrapped in the following way. One end was placed on

  the inside of the instep, and from there it was carried

  over the small toes so as to force the toes in and towards the sole. The large toe was left unbound. The bandage was then
wrapped around the heel so forcefully that heel and toes were drawn closer together.

  The process was then repeated from the beginning

  until the entire bandage had been applied. The foot of

  the young child was subjected to a coercive and unremitting pressure, for the object was not merely to confine the foot but to make the toes bend under and

  into the sole and bring the heel and sole as close together as physically possible. 3

  A C h ris tia n m is s io n a ry o b s e rve d :

  The flesh often became putrescent during the binding

  and portions sloughed off from the sole; sometimes

  one or more toes dropped off. 4

  A n e ld e rly C h in e s e w o m a n , as late as 1934, re m e m b e re d v iv id ly h e r c h ild h o o d e x p e rie n c e : Born into an old-fashioned family at P’ing-hsi, I was

  inflicted with the pain of footbinding when I was seven

  years old. I was an active child who liked to jump about,

  but from then on my free and optimistic nature vanished. Elder Sister endured the process from six to eight years of age [this means that it took Elder Sister two years to attain the 3-inch foot]. It was in the first lunar month of my seventh year that my ears were

  pierced and fitted with gold earrings. I was told that a

  girl had to suffer twice, through ear piercing and footbinding. Binding started in the second lunar month; mother consulted references in order to select an

  auspicious day for it. I wept and hid in a neighbor’s

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  home, but Mother found me, scolded me, and dragged

  me home. She shut the bedroom door, boiled water,

  and from a box withdrew binding, shoes, knife, needle,

  and thread. I begged for a one-day postponement, but

  Mother refused: “Today is a lucky day, ” she said. “ If

  bound today, your feet will never hurt; if bound tomorrow they will. ” She washed and placed alum on my feet and cut the toenails. She then bent my toes toward

  the plantar with a binding cloth ten feet long and two

  inches wide, doing the right foot first and then the

  left. She finished binding and ordered me to walk,

  but when I did the pain proved unbearable.

  That night, Mother wouldn’t let me remove the

  shoes. My feet felt on fire and I couldn’t sleep; Mother

  struck me for crying. On the following days, I tried

  to hide but was forced to walk on my feet. Mother hit

  me on my hands and feet for resisting. Beatings and

  curses were my lot for covertly loosening the wrappings. The feet were washed and rebound after three or four days, with alum added. After several months,

  all toes but the big one were pressed against the inner

  surface. Whenever I ate f ish or freshly killed meat,

  my feet would swell, and the pus would drip. Mother

  criticized me for placing pressure on the heel in walking, saying that my feet would never assume a pretty shape. Mother would remove the bindings and wipe

  the blood and pus which dripped from my feet. She

  told me that only with the removal o f the flesh could

  my feet become slender. If I mistakenly punctured a

  sore, the blood gushed like a stream. My somewhat

  fleshy big toes were bound with small pieces o f cloth and

  forced upwards, to assume a new moon shape.

  Every two weeks, I changed to new shoes. Each

  new pair was one- to two-tenths o f an inch smaller than

  the previous one. The shoes were unyielding, and it

  took pressure to get into them. Though I wanted to

  sit passively by the K’ang, Mother forced me to move

  Gynocide: Chinese Footbinding

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  around. After changing more than ten pairs of shoes,

  my feet were reduced to a little over four inches. I

  had been in binding for a month when my younger

  sister started; when no one was around, we would

  weep together. In summer, my feet smelled offensively because of pus and blood; in winter, my feet felt cold because of lack of circulation and hurt if

  they got too near the K'ang and were struck by warm

  air currents. Four of the toes were curled in like so

  many dead caterpillars; no outsider would ever have

  believed that they belonged to a human being. It took

  two years to achieve the three-inch model. My toenails pressed against the flesh like thin paper. The heavily-creased plantar couldn't be scratched when it

  itched or soothed when it ached. My shanks were thin,

  my feet became humped, ugly, and odiferous; how I

  envied the natural-footed! 5

  Bound feet were crippled and excruciatingly painful. T h e woman was actually “walking” on the outside o f toes which had been bent under into the sole o f the

  foot. T he heel and instep o f the foot resembled the sole

  and heel o f a high-heeled boot. Hard callouses formed;

  toenails grew into the skin; the feet were pus-filled and

  bloody; circulation was virtually stopped. T h e foot-

  bound woman hobbled along, leaning on a cane, against

  a wall, against a servant. T o keep her balance she took

  very short steps. She was actually falling with every

  step and catching herself with the next. Walking required tremendous exertion.

  Footbinding also distorted the natural lines o f the

  female body. It caused the thighs and buttocks, which

  were always in a state o f tension, to become somewhat swollen (which men called “voluptuous”). A cu­

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  rious belief developed among Chinese men that footbinding produced a most useful alteration of the vagina. A Chinese diplomat explained:

  The smaller the woman’s foot, the more wondrous

  become the folds o f the vagina. (There was the saying: the smaller the feet, the more intense the sex urge. ) Therefore marriages in Ta-t’ung (where binding

  is most effective) often take place earlier than elsewhere. Women in other districts can produce these folds artificially, but the only way is by footbinding,

  which concentrates development in this one place.

  There consequendy develop layer after layer (of folds

  within the vagina); those who have personally experienced this (in sexual intercourse) feel a supernatural exaltation. So the system o f footbinding was not really oppressive. 6

  Medical authorities confirm that physiologically footbinding had no effect whatsoever on the vagina, although it did distort the direction of the pelvis. The belief in the wondrous folds of the vagina of footbound

  woman was pure mass delusion, a projection of lust

  onto the feet, buttocks, and vagina of the crippled

  female. Needless to say, the diplomat’s rationale for

  finding footbinding “not really oppressive” confused

  his “supernatural exaltation” with her misery and

  mutilation.

  Bound feet, the same myth continues, “made the

  buttocks more sensual, [and] concentrated life-giving

  vapors on the upper part of the body, making the face

  more attractive. ” 7 If, due to a breakdown in the flow

  o f these “life-giving vapors, ” an ugly woman was foot-

  bound and still ugly, she need not despair, for an A -1

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  Golden Lotus could compensate for a C-3 face and

  figure.

  But to return to herstory, how did our Chinese

  ballerina become the millions o f women stretched over

  10 ce
nturies? T h e transition from palace dancer to population at large can be seen as part o f a class dynamic.

  T h e emperor sets the style, the nobility copies it, and

  the lower classes climbing ever upward do their best

  to emulate it. T he upper class bound the feet o f their

  ladies with the utmost severity. T h e Lady, unable to

  walk, remained properly invisible in her boudoir, an

  ornament, weak and small, a testimony to the wealth

  and privilege o f the man who could afford to keep h e r—

  to keep her idle. Doing no manual labor, she did not need

  her feet either. Only on the rarest o f occasions was she

  allowed outside o f the incarcerating walls o f her home,

  and then only in a sedan chair behind heavy curtains.

  T he lower a woman’s class, the less could such idleness

  be supported: the larger the feet. T h e women who had

  to work for the economic survival o f the family still

  had bound feet, but the bindings were looser, the feet

  bigger—after all, she had to be able to walk, even if

  slowly and with little balance.

  Footbinding was a visible brand. Footbinding did

  not emphasize the differences between men and women —it

  created them, and they were then perpetuated in the

  name o f morality. Footbinding functioned as the C erberus o f morality and ensured female chastity in a nation o f women who literally could not “run around. ”

  Fidelity, and the legitimacy o f children, could be reckoned on.

  T he minds o f footbound women were as contracted

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  as their feet. Daughters were taught to cook, supervise

  the household, and embroider shoes for the Golden

  Lotus. Intellectual and physical restriction had the usual

  male justification. Women were perverse and sinful,

  lewd and lascivious, if left to develop naturally. The

  Chinese believed that being bom a woman was payment

  for evils committed in a previous life. Footbinding was

  designed to spare a woman the disaster of another such

  incarnation.

  Marriage and the family are the twin pillars of all

  patriarchal cultures. Bound feet, in China, were the