Research Practice!

"Together, these novels illustrate a tautology in the sense that in all classes of society women's feet became markers of their prestige, talent, and gender in a culture in which women's economic security depended upon marriage, and a good marriage was determined, in part, by the quality of the bound feet" (Susie 2007).

Susie, L. C. (2007). ". . .The binding altered not only my feet but my whole character":1 footbinding and first-world feminism in chinese american literature. Journal of Asian American Studies, 10(1), 31-II,115.

This source is an academic article that views chinese foot binding through Chinese American literature. In the past, I read a fictional novel that talks about foot binding and became very interested in the way it was portrayed. I'm not entirely sure as to whether the author of this article agrees with the ways foot binding is depicted in the particular novel I read, but I found that Susie (2007) makes many important comments on the types of ideas that I want to write about in my research paper. The specific quote above relates to the idea that foot binding was culturally seen as very prestigious and an important part of a woman in order for her to be married off. 


"Some scholars say footbinding deepened female subjugation by making women more dependent on their men folk, restricting their movements and enforcing their chastity, since women with bound feet were physically incapable of venturing far from their homes"(Lim 2007).

Lim, L. (2007, March 19). Painful memories for china. Retrieved from    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942

This quote comes from and internet website, but I still think it is a primary source (I'll have to make sure). Anyway, it directly relates to the type of information that I am looking for in writing my research paper. The quote says that the binding of women's feet made them more dependent on men which relates directly to the cultural age of foot binding. The idea that women would not be able to run away shows that binding their feet almost created the sense of imprisonment of women. This is the type of research that I find very interesting and will play a big role in my research paper.