SYSK Selects: How Foot Binding Worked

In this episode, Josh and Chuck dive into the thousand-year history of foot binding in China, a bizarre and painful practice that affected roughly three billion women from around 970 AD until the 1950s. They explore how what started as a fashion trend in an emperor's court became an entrenched cultural standard of beauty that required the deliberate deformation of young girls' feet into tiny, arched points, and examine the surprisingly complex reasons why this practice persisted for so long despite the extreme pain and disability it caused. The guys discuss everything from the grueling daily binding process to the unexpected ways foot binding shaped Chinese society, architecture, and culture in ways that might surprise you.