patriarchy in china
Patriarchy in China
Violence in the family has been happening since the beginning of time. Families have purposely hurt or injured each other in ways that are culturally tolerable in a certain society. Violence in the family has been especially directed towards the women. In the Chinese culture, women in general are treated different from men in their society. The women are treated different, mainly because of the prevalence of patriarchy in the Chinese society. In China, the male figure dominates the culture and society. The women are expected to respect the authority of the male figure. According to the Chinese philosopher Mencius, the women are supposed to be inferior to their fathers in their youth, their husbands in adulthood, and their sons in when they’re old. From foot binding to infanticide to women trafficking, Chinese women have had to endure the effects of patriarchy for thousands of years.
From a very young age the Chinese women are forced to suffer pain just to satisfy the needs of men. Chinese girls are forced to bind their feet together to make their feet smaller. They don’t do this for fun but only to please the male figure. An emperor from the T’ang dynasty had a fetish for extremely small feet. He forced one of his many wives to bind her feet together to break them and make them small and crescent moon shaped. Foot binding is an extremely painful and grueling practice. After walking on the bound foot for a while, the foot would start to break and fracture and the foot would also start to rot. The foot fetish of one man became a prominent tradition in Chinese culture for thousands of years. At first only the most important and rich women would bind their feet. These women did not have to work so their limited mobility was not a problem. Their husbands were able to provide for them so they did not need to work. Soon the practice of foot binding spread through out china and the majority of women were
Violence in the family has been happening since the beginning of time. Families have purposely hurt or injured each other in ways that are culturally tolerable in a certain society. Violence in the family has been especially directed towards the women. In the Chinese culture, women in general are treated different from men in their society. The women are treated different, mainly because of the prevalence of patriarchy in the Chinese society. In China, the male figure dominates the culture and society. The women are expected to respect the authority of the male figure. According to the Chinese philosopher Mencius, the women are supposed to be inferior to their fathers in their youth, their husbands in adulthood, and their sons in when they’re old. From foot binding to infanticide to women trafficking, Chinese women have had to endure the effects of patriarchy for thousands of years.
From a very young age the Chinese women are forced to suffer pain just to satisfy the needs of men. Chinese girls are forced to bind their feet together to make their feet smaller. They don’t do this for fun but only to please the male figure. An emperor from the T’ang dynasty had a fetish for extremely small feet. He forced one of his many wives to bind her feet together to break them and make them small and crescent moon shaped. Foot binding is an extremely painful and grueling practice. After walking on the bound foot for a while, the foot would start to break and fracture and the foot would also start to rot. The foot fetish of one man became a prominent tradition in Chinese culture for thousands of years. At first only the most important and rich women would bind their feet. These women did not have to work so their limited mobility was not a problem. Their husbands were able to provide for them so they did not need to work. Soon the practice of foot binding spread through out china and the majority of women were
Cited: Ko, Dorothy. Cinderella 's Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. Berkley and Los Angeles California: University of California Press, 2005. British Broadcasting Corporation, "Female infanticide." Last modified 2013. Accessed April 1, 2013 Trust Law, "Myanmar 's trafficked brides fill China 's shortage of women." Last modified 2012. Accessed April 1, 2013